Another off road ride for me. Up a bit late and taking it easy to start. Rode up behind three others in time to catch them discussing the rate of pay for naked housework. I introduced myself with "I might be a bit tired for housework later". Down the hill from Blackcap and up again on the south downs way. A big group of cows were crowded round the gate and I'd just passed a farmer. So I loitered a moment to take some pictures. Some other riders came through and decided to go through the middle of the cows with a mix of fear and bravado. I didn't join them, but they did mix them up enough to get round without alarm once I'd sorted myself out. Then through Castle Hill on tracks I'd not ridden on for a couple of years, it was warming up, no one else much about, a dragonfly flew beside me for a while. Rejoined the South Downs Way, chatted for a minute to some sponsored hikers. Over the river and railway and up Firle beacon, the festival seen but not heard and then south for a loop on quiet tracks.
This is where the fun become more type 2. On the way back I found myself on a steady uphill, through a field of wheat brushing my legs, long straight lines, humid, not much breeze, getting tired. Off the downs, lumpy then grassy and onto lanes. Looping round Arlington reservoir but not by the water. An ice cream helped, but then more slow grass and humid woodland. Someone resting / taking in the view leaning against a gate. Riding behind the tractor mowing the long grass. Then through a corn field. I think they may have been told to sort the rights of way out recently as there was a line cut through the corn, just off the ground. The path perpendicular to the ploughing ridges, which was slow and tiring, with no view through the corn. At the end the gate was so overgrown it wouldn't open. I found another, but at that point my sense of humour had failed. Rather than taking the route I'd planned, which involved more fields and woodland on a hot and humid afternoon, I took the easier and marginally shorter lanes home.
