As noted in a previous post we have dreams of becoming hardy mountain bikers, going out on exciting rides with our loyal and well behaved little Beagles. Until today, two main obstacles stood in the way of those dreams becoming a reality:

• We don’t have any mountain bikes
• I have never, ever ridden a bike of any kind. That expression “it’s just like riding a bike” means nothing to me

This morning the first obstacle was removed as our prebuilt bikes arrived in unfeasibly large cardboard boxes. We went out tonight to fix obstacle #2. The session didn’t quite go as planned, as this photo of my wounded shin attests:

It’s surprisingly difficult to take a picture of your own shin. Try it and see!

It’s only the fact that I am such a hardy mountain biker that enabled me to take the pain of such a grievous injury without losing consciousness. The worst of it is that this mishap didn’t occur on a mountain as such; it was more a smooth bit of tarmac really (though I swear it had a treacherous camber to it).

The pain and blood loss will be worth it when I can cruise through woodland tracks with my little boy running at my side. I still can’t ride yet, but I’m getting there. I think it may be quite some time before my first with-Beagle ride though. Susan of course is way ahead of me – after a couple of false starts she was cycling away quite happily, proving the adage about never forgetting that particular skill.