As I write this brief note, I’m thinking that this is going to end up being more of a To Do list than and interesting read for you. Sorry about that, I hope that it will keep me accountable, and you can track my progress (and comment) as the year goes on.

Sat here with my hands lit by the glow of the laptop screen in a dark room (by my own choosing of course) I have an ever growing list of places that look quite interesting for various different reasons. I briefly stop typing now and again, as I spend a few moments visualising myself cycling along the edge of the coast in blistering heat, or stopping for water on top of a lush green hill looking out over miles and miles of Dorset below. I can almost feel the sweat on my forehead and smell the grass and foliage around me. The list of routes rides and areas appeal to me at the moment, but will they when the time comes to get there and get on with it?

I have spent a while this evening trawling the ViewRanger site, and then the idea of the New Forest in Hampshire popped into my head. Looking more closely at it on the map there are hundreds of routes, and hundred more when you know the area no doubt, so that entire are has to go on my list. The canal route from Bradford-on-Avon to Bath is also well up there, and the recently discovered Canal Visitor centre with it’s car park mid-way will be a useful point to start from I think. I seem to have a picture in my mind’s eye, of a lovely warm sunny day, on the side of a canal lock, with a pub right there, its on my right with the lock right in front of me. There is a tithe barn nearby and a cold shandy on a picnic bench waiting for me. Lots of people are busy eating, drinking and tinkering narrow boats. I’m not sure if this is a real place that I have been to in the past, or just an image that comes into my head that I expect it to be when I get there .. where ever there is!

So that’s 2 areas (with many routes), to go on the list, if as and when I get around to these, I will take some photos and write a little about the experience. Adding to the list, will also be Bournemouth sea front, all the way along to Poole and Sandbanks, and maybe around to Holes bay. I like to think that as I become more familiar with some of these routes, and more able as a cyclist, I’ll start putting in more challenging routes, and better times etc. That is just a personal challenge of course, as most of the time I will be aiming to take the family for enjoyable days with tasty treats along the way.

Well that’s it for now. Take care all, and I hope you come back and see if I manage to keep this typing and pedalling up.