Busy Doing Nothing - Day 4

First a brief follow up to yesterday’s post. I’d just opened a beer after doing the washing up when the neighbours to one side asked if I’d like to join them; we had a pleasant chat for a while until it started to get chilly and time to move back inside our respective vans. 

Today turned out to be harder cycling than I expected. Usually reservoir paths are fairly flat as they follow the edges of the water but the one round Carsington Water has some steep hills as it goes over various headlands. I’ll confess to struggling a bit and ending up pushing up a couple of them. It didn’t help that there were sharp bends at the start of these which meant I had no momentum. By further round I got better at juggling gears and assistance levels* so found this easier. We’ll have to see how we go tomorrow! I stopped at the visitor centre for a coffee, had I been a bit later I’d have had lunch as the menu looked quite appetising, overall 8.9 miles in 1:04 according to the cycle computer, a bit slow but that includes the walking up hills. 

I think I’ve got the bike setup about right now. The phone holder works well, I just need to remember that if I’m going to track a route on the OS app I have to press Start! The new bar top bag for the camera does slip a bit (a bit of non-slip mat may sort that) but works in that I can take photos without ever getting out of the saddle. The rack bag is a bit big for general use but it does mean there’s some room for shopping if I ever need it. 

One thing that is annoying is I’ve got the intermittent front brake squeal back again. This happened last year at Grafham Water so maybe it’s only occurring at reservoirs? If it was a car I’d reckon to slip the pads out and smear a bit of copper slip on the backs but I’m not sure of the process on bike disc brakes! 

After that it’s just been another afternoon of relaxing and reading which ultimately was the primary aim this trip. No pressure, no rushing around. 

*The power assistance has four levels, Eco, Tour, Sport and Turbo. 1-4 would have been just as easy. 

A typical length of the trail, mostly standard gravel track (and a lot smoother than yesterday’s tarmac!)

There were a few wooden sculptures around the trail related to the partnership between Severn Trent and Derbyshire Wildlife Trust Education Partnership:

Finally a shot from the dam back towards the visitor centre with the bike in the foreground just to prove it really exists and I’m not making this all up!