22 and 95.1

Why the numbers?

Well, it's still two weeks before the first day of spring, but it certainly felt like a May rather than mid-March. This afternoon we started to clear the garden, it felt so warm I just had to get a temperature gauge out - 22 celcius - can you believe that?

9th March.....fabulous!

It being Spring an' all, Maisy's in the local caravan repair place having all the niggly little faults we've found over the last nine months sorted out. So we decided to test out the new Thule car bike rack we bought yesterday. When we bought the electric bikes we had not anticipated that their longer wheelbase (48") and weight (26kg) would rule out using our existing tow-bar bike rack. Since the van is stored at a local farm, we can't fetch it every time we want to go cycling, no choice - we needed a new bike rack strong enough to take the two bikes. There's not a lot of choice for e-bike strength racks - either a Thule or a Westfalia - both £300+ .... ouch!  In the end we went for the Thule - seems it will do the trick, it's pretty heavy though.

Anyway, although I've been out and about on the e-bike since Christmas, Gill has not. Time to get a bit of practice, firstly on the Tissington trail, then testing the bikes on some of the country lanes around Hartington. I was glad to get off the trail -, firstly, there was a really annoying headwind - there always IS an annoying headwind on the trail. Secondly, it's really busy on a Sundays. On the whole pedestrians and cyclists share the trail pretty well, except for said pedestrian's furry four-legged friends who seem to be fatally attracted to throwing themselves in front of  any passing cyclist. I suppose it did give us an inkling of just how good the disc brakes were. 

Hartington was pleasant, if busy. We stopped-off at the Charles Cotton Hotel for a coffee. Illy sign outside, nicely balanced Macchiata with yummy biscuit. We sat at the picnic tables at the front admiring the bikes....

Where next?

Summer in March

Warm enough to sit outside without a jacket

We headed out of Hartington by Hide Lane which climbs sharply out of the village then tracks along the ridge above Longdale. You get a nice view towards the head of the Dove valley, which, since the electric motor is taking a bit of the strain, you actually get to enjoy. There is no doubt about it, given the slightly rickety state of our almost sixty year old knees, the electric bikes were a good purchase. I'm looking forward to using them in Southern France, in the Languedoc and the hills of the Southern Rhone valley. In hilly country co-ordinating the electric power with the derailleur is a bit of a knack, but we'll soon get the hang of it.

We'd just been discussing cooking omelet for lunch when we came across a table outside of a farm with boxes of eggs and an honesty box. Lunch solved. In the pens beside the road sheep were being dipped - all very pastoral.

Which brings me to the 95.1 figure. It's a percentage. I'm working on an essay at the moment - well actually that's not quite true, I'm writing this blog-post as a way of avoiding working on the essay - anyway, the piece concerns the development of the Picturesque, and in particular Wordsworth's view of this. I got sidetracked into looking at how many of us live in 'built-up' areas as opposed to more rural places. Well, the Office of National Statistics (as it would) have a strict definition of what constitutes a 'built-up area': 

The definition follows a ‘bricks and mortar’ approach, with areas defined as built-up land with a minimum area of 20 hectares (200,000 m2), while settlements within 200 metres of each other are linked.

So, now you know; but hang in there, I am getting to the point really.... Just a shade under 50% of English people live in 'built-up' areas as defined above. So, guess what percentage of the land these built-up areas occupy? Just 4.9% . That means the other half of us are distributed over the remaining 95.1%. Not really so densely populated as you'd think. So why does England feel so busy and overcrowded? 

Here's my theory - because we mostly live, work, shop, drive, within the built-up areas and the roads that connect them,  we perceive that the country is much more crowded than it actually is. 

The way tourism is organised re-inforces this. The Peak District is the UK's most visited National Park. Nearby, on the well organised, signposted, much advertised Tissington Trail it was packed. However, the road by the farm, less than a mile from the trail, was empty. In five miles, cycling back to the car-park, we passed three other cyclists and a couple of cars. The landscape was peaceful, empty and felt timeless. Here's to the 95.1%, long may it remain. Don't tell anyone, it's just our little secret....