I was back at that same site today and the lady who’d had a relative injured on a bike spoke to me about it. She began with “I know you ride bikes. My son’s just crashed his” and my heart sank.

Until she added “Silly bugger. He’d never been off-road before. Bought a crosser from a friend. Didn’t know what he was doing. Smacked himself into the mud within 20 minutes of getting it out for the first time. Broke his collarbone. Idiot. Should have stuck to tarmac or got some training. My husband and I have a GoldWing and we go all over Europe on it.”

I think my jaw dented the table, it dropped so fast.

After that we had a good chat about offspring who ride and those who don’t (I have one of each; I think it’s a more important distinction than what gender your children are), about my bikes, where they’ve been on their tours, my heading up to Scotland in a few weeks.

Dex