An acceptable activity

The Colne Valley Cycle Trail

A friend who lives nearby, messages me;
- I’m planning to cycle across Europe with a friend next summer. I need some advice. Can we meet?

Next morning after a short train journey from Shepherd’s Bush we arrive in Watford to ride London’s Westernmost boundary. It was still quite early and little was said on the train.

Out of town, we ride on a disused railway line known as the Ebury Line. The path is high and dry above the river, which has spilled over its banks and is flooding reed-filled water meadows. The surface is smooth, wide and free of dogs. We spin along lost in our thoughts. A robin sings from a bough. The willows are turning, their leaves green-gold.
- I told you that we are thinking of riding across Europe, didn’t I?
- You did. It’s a brilliant idea. We? Who are we?
She outlines how a friend at University rode across France this summer and loved it.
- She’s wants to ride from West to East, across France and Germany and all the rest, next summer and asked me if I’d come. Of course I said yes. I mean cycling is an acceptable activity isn’t it?
- Did she know that you’ve turned down all cycling opportunities over the years when our families rode together? Does she know that you don’t even own a bike?
- I do have a bike! I bought it last month. It’s at least 4th hand, probably more and it’s very heavy. Heavier than a car I would say. It only cost €80. It’s gears barely work, its tyres are tired and worn. And it has a man’s saddle.
- And do you ride it?
- Sometimes. When it’s not raining. But only from my Residence to Lectures and back.
We continue to ride and fall back into a silence while we digest the dream.

We stop awhile at the Cafe in the Park at Rickmansworth, and she shows me the proposed route, on her phone. It runs over mountains and across plains. It’s a route for experienced bikepackers.
-You’ve got to start sometime, she says, if you’re going to do these things. It’ll be fine. No worse than today. At least there won’t be all this mud and rain.
We fill up on Lime and Courgette cake and good coffee, before pedalling on through the watery landscape of river, nature re-claimed gravel pits and canal. Crack willows shake in the breeze, leaves spiral to the ground. Squirrels parabola across the path and coal smoke leans out of the canal boats’ thin metal chimneys.

For where the earlier parts of the ride were beauteous and serene, the last sectors are wild and thrilling. We ride under the M25 and into the auditory assault of London’s edgelands, intially on a bridleway across Staines Moor, an expanse of grass where not a building can be seen. It is grazed by semi-wild horses, their manes and tails full of burrs. Pylons stride across the landscape and their cables fizz above our heads. In quick succession, we ride through a tip where lorries disgorge skips of ripped up plasterboards and window frames, then onto a long section of West London singletrack, avenued by goat willow, brambles and nettles. We squeeze through several very narrow gateways designed to prevent joy-riders from expressing themselves on stolen mopeds and wonder how one such motor was squeezed onto this section of path, before being set alight. A short way on, there is more superlative single-track riding between a field and the eight lane M25. Heathrow Airport is less than a mile away and above us planes struggle into the air , their wheels all but touching our heads.
- I’m loving this. This is wild, shouts the student above the din. Everything is here; wild horses, planes, plants, fields, even a burnt out motorbike. It’s super cool.

We arrive in Staines-on-Thames and we eat toasted sandwiches from a kiosk.
- Tired after your ride? We’ve done about 60 kilometres. That’s pretty good for a first time out, especially with a route that is largely off-road.
- Not really. I mean I could do it again. The canal bits were lovely, but I loved the mixed up bits, with the planes, and M25 mixed into countryside - it was kinda cool. But kinda muddy too. My sister will be mad at me for returning her bike like this.
-Did you ask her if you could ride it?
- Well kind of. Sort of. You know she never rides it. I mean she does not even like riding her bike. So I’m sure she won’t mind. I think I must do more of this sort of thing, don’t you? I mean its been amazing, I never knew it was so amazing. Perhaps I really will do the ride next summer, but first I might have to get another bike. What do you think?

Watford