Just to put flesh onto why I thought I could have died. Pitch black , pouring with rain and blowing a hooly .. 3 of us together .. but the other two were stronger .. they waited at the top of the climbs .. and in those conditions that was absolutely a fantastic thing for them to do. Getting close to Eskdale .. they had gone ahead.. could not see their tail lights .. soaking wet , very cold .. having difficulty controlling bike. Pitch black outside the light from my bike .. pissing with rain, cross a cattle grid .. lose control .. bike kicks left .. freezing cold hands.. manage to apply brakes, go off the road at right angles onto the grass verge .. stay upright.
BUT .. then realise that about 3 to 5 feet in front of me there is a big drop .. dont know how deep .. from the noise of the rushing torrent below .. maybe 10 feet down.. this torrent is bouncing over rocks .. I can hear the uneven pattern of a Scottish torrent in full stream. IF I had gone over that drop .. unless I was able to recover back to the road myself .. no one would have known where I was .. or been able to find me .. even if they had back tracked very very slowly. Injured in any way on the fall.. freezing cold water for maybe another 6 hours at least .. I might well have died.
