Bedford binge

I went up to Bedford today, to see how many of the "Two birthdays" circuit I could do.

In the morning, I did 23 plus a church micro, which got me back to the car. I had lunch, swapped a used battery for a fresh one, and set off again.

On the way to the first afternoon cache, I encountered a field full of kids and parents, throwing balls around and generally having fun. So I slowed right down as I went through, about 3 mph. As I proceeded, a woman addressed me.

"This is a footpath, you have to walk your bike."

But my map shows it as a bridleway, and the sign that I passed when I turned off the road said it was a bridleway. So I enlightened her. "No, it's a bridleway." She looked a bit shocked at being contradicted. "Well anyway," she said, "as you can see, we're having an event here, so could you walk your bike?" ""That's why I'm going so slowly," I explained. "So could you walk your bike?" "It's a bridleway," I repeated.

I think if she'd started off with a polite request, rather than a demand accompanied by a lie, I might have been more cooperative. As it was, at the speed I was going (a bit less than walking speed) I felt it was perfectly safe even with the kids running around. So I continued on my bike. As I left, she apologised for lying about it being a footpath, and I graciously accepted her apology. And stayed on my bike.

I did a couple of puzzles that I'd solved, even though they took me a couple of miiles out of my way, but the terrain was good for biking, so it wasn't much of a burden.

Altogether, I did 81 caches today, and one DNF.