Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Sheppey Bliss, for a moment

The hotel where I am staying is so tranquil that last night I sat on the deck, alone, drinking a bottle of water that had been left in my room before heading to bed to sleep with the window wide open.  Partly to exhaust some of the heat from the room and partly because I could.

At 5:30am I was duly woken by a dawn chorus of sandpipers, oyster catchers and a mischievous blackbird who sits in the clematis oustide, singing for a mate.

Far from being tired, I'd had such a good sleep I got up and dressed and headed out on the bike to explore the local lanes, tracks and Leysdown-on-Sea village.

The tracks and lanes were amazing, winding through the pink, blue and purple skies of the rising sun.  I saw Curlews, merganser ducks, tawny owls, a peregrine falcon and kestrels.  The whole ensemble was topped off with a moorhen on a narrow footbridge facing off a herd of intrigued cow calfs.

I slid into the carpark, packed my bike away again and slid into my seat dead on time for breakfast.

At the other end of the scale, having finally - for once - finished work here at 5:30 (everyone else leaves at 4), I set out again to take up where I left of in Leysdown-on-Sea.  So far i've been unimpressed by this town and when a lady tried to kill me by passing me with plenty of room then swinging left across the front of me I was really pissed off.  I was more pissed off by the moped rider who suggested I'd be better off with my ligths on... like that would in any way affect the stupidity of the woman who had already seen me, just chose not to think about me.

I did a loop and set off back down the main road to find some other villages to ride through.  To much success I had a lovely ride through Eastchurch and into Minster where I have already explored.  I left Minster by the main road and headed back into Eastchurch, tacking the dodgy estate in Leysdown again - this time without daft murdering bitches who give women drivers a bad name and thick as pig shit moped riders who preach lighting to other people but don't see fit to use it themselves.  Sorry, rant over. (Like, I was wearing every clashing colour in the book)... Over, to bed.

A short byway through the campsite park led to a stony trail full of potholes which stuck me back in Leysdown.  This time my only interaction was with a boy-racer with too-low spoilers on the front of his car, ginerly easing his way over all the speed bumps.  He flashed his lights to let me turn at a roundabout as he indicated to turn left.  Bless.  At least some people in Leysdown know how to drive, even if they chose the wrong car for *that* estate.

I rode back along the tranquil road to the hotel full of the joys.  More kestrels, more owls.  The lambs being cute in the setting sun - snuggling up for the night time.

I did the wonderwoman impression and showed up for dinner 10 minutes later, picked up a packed lunch for tomorrow and paid my bill so I can leave at 7. Tomorrow isn't going to be nearly as nice but so long as I can stay calm on the motorway, it's going to be the closest you can get to a perfect rest day for me.


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