Once again cracking cycling weather for todays 23 mile ride. So warm today that both your intrepid explorers have plumped for the shorts option in the sartorial elegance stakes.
The ride is mostly canal paths through really beautiful countryside.
It turns out to be wildlife bonanza day as we spot a glorious red kite (which is kind enough to circle directly above us for several minutes, thus securing it's place as my favourite bird), reed warblers, sedge warblers, willow warblers, skylarks, common terns, herons, cettis warblers, lapwings, great spotted woodpeckers with babies, grey wagtails, a family of rats, a water vole and two damsel flies making 'the beast with two backs'.
Actually, damsel flies do it in a very odd way with the male depositing his sperm in a special sack on the back of the females neck (our so it would seem, I must look it up), anyway it looked like fun - one can learn so much from even the simplest of creatures!
The evening is spent in a very comfortable 'Comfort Hotel', with the biggest bed I've ever seen (apart from the IRA waterbed in Manchester, but that's a whole other story!)
Advice from a caterpillar: should you ever find yourself staying in a Comfort Hotel, don't eat there!
Another early night in preparation for the last 20 miles or so tomorrow where we are promised a boat trip down the Thames with the Henley-on-Thames allotment society. Too much fun? We'll see.
Toodle-pip.
Current Pain Rating: 4
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