The plan was to cycle this evening but when I got home it was just too blustery to be enjoyable. I find it hard enough to get motivated to go out in the dark so it needs good weather conditions as a minimum.

It was the kind of work day where I was able to sort all my emails during the day so when I got home at 5:30pm I decided to make the most of the last of the daylight, took a sneaky half hour and headed to the forest for a walk.

The last time I was here was just after Storm Éowyn so there were loads of fallen trees across the tracks including one track that I decided to avoid altogether as it looked bad and I’d already navigated around a few falls. As it was still fairly clear I decided to go see how bad it was in daylight.

Altogether I’d say there were approximately 15 trees down in 4 different locations but I was able to divert around, through and under them to get to the junction with the main loop. This had been cleared but as the other one wasn’t I guess it was the farmers that use the main tracks to access fields rather than an organised forestry job.

I didn’t need the headtorch until approximately 6:10pm but by the time I stumbled upon a small herd of deer just before the 3km it was fully dark and all I could see were eyes glowing in the light of my headtorch as they scattered in all directions. It was cool though being able to see their eyes back in the trees as they kept a wary eye as I passed on by.

Shortly after I realised that I should have charged my headtorch last night and it was in power saving mode, on one of the dimmer settings. I decided that trying to negotiate back through the fallen trees without good light wasn’t the greatest of ideas so headed back to the car via a rough little road section.

A more eventful walk than I expected and definitely more enjoyable than fighting a blustery wind on the bike…

Back home to dinner while watching the superb American Primeval that I discovered after a recommendation from Rootchopper. He’s worth a follow for many great reasons, not least among them, his book, film and TV choices.