Mountain Biking? Sure!

Today I learned a very valuable lesson, that is that you shouldn’t say you want to go mountain biking when what you actually mean is you want to go cycling. Turns out there is a difference. A big one.
Not really knowing what I was letting myself in for I agreed to cycle the twin passes of Hamner Springs. The bike hire shop offers a deal where they drive you to the top of the first hill and then you cycle the easy bits. Simon reckoned he was too much of an experienced cyclist to be getting lifts up hills and in the end we thought we would be cheap, load the bikes in our campervan and get them up the hill ourselves.
Now we expected the road up the hill to not be of the best quality and probably a little bumpy and gravelly but we were not prepared for quite the steep, muddy and pot holed affair that greeted us. So the plan changed, we would leave the van at the bottom and cycle up (or Si would and I’d push mine!). Finally after much huffing and puffing we got the bikes to the top of the hill and were looking forward to the prospect of freewheeling downhill. And it started ok, a little steep, narrow and bumpy for my liking but I was doing it. Then came the stream. Then came the uphill. What? Already? This was not what we were expecting! Maybe it’s only for a little bit. Half an hour later we were still pushing / carrying (Si) our bikes up. I began to realise that this was not just me, even the most serious mountain biker would not be able to cycle up this path. So that’s when I consulted the map and yes we had gone the wrong way! We could see the nice gentle gravel road across the valley that we were supposed to be on. The thought of going back the way we had come was not an appealing one so we carried on up and up and up. Si was an absolute star and my hero as he carried his bike up and then came back for mine, I struggled just walking up the hill (it was very steep!).
At last we made it to the top of the hill, which luckily joined up with the road we were actually meant to be on. However we were so exhausted that the thought of getting on the bikes we had pushed/ pulled/ heaved and carried (thanks Si) up the hill was more than we could bear.
After our sandwiches and a much deserved half muffin each we were feeling like we might be able to face a bit of downhill action. After all we were now at the top of the hill (the bit we could have been driven to if we were so tight with our cash!) and had been promised that the rest of the bike ride would be easy and mostly downhill. And at first it was. A bit bumpy but I would actually go as far as to say I was having fun. There was a little more uphill but that was ok, I managed to stay on my bike for most of that. And then came the extreme downhill. The very bumpy, very steep downhill that had me squeezing the brakes so hard I thought my hands would be forever stuck in the same position. We were belting down the hill so fast that there was only one thing that would stop us. The sight of two HUGE bulls in the middle of the road! One of them was staring at us in a very menacing manner and looking like he might charge at any second (I was pretty glad I wasn’t wearing red!). In the end we braved cycling past them (with no squeaking of the brakes so that we would be too fast for them to catch us!). Several hours later two weary cyclists returned their bikes with one of them swearing they might never get back on one again (no that wasn’t Si, although even he may be aching tomorrow!)