Got chickenpox as a bairn like most of us. Then in my early 20s got shingles, caused by the same chickenpox virus. Feck me that was painful.
Fast forward to my late 30s, had splitting headache, very stiff neck, didn't sleep for 3 days/nights. Kinda guessed it was meningitis, ended up in same hospital that my wife then girl-friend works in. It was viral meningitis, again caused by the chickenpox virus. Headache ended instantly as soon as doctor did a lumbar puncture of my spinal fluid to get sample to check out whether it was viral or bacterial meningitis. Was in an isolation ward on my tod for a week, jeez I was feckin' bored. Took weeks to get any strength/stamina back. A bit like how it feels now being feckin' auld. :mrgreen:
I've had a bit of a lay off since the 'Puffer when I unwisely rode when I shouldn't. It got to the stage I was wondering if my legs still worked, so the obvious thing was to grab the shopping/audax bike and go for a gentle pootle on quiet roads.
I thought I'd recce a route for a retro road ride with a wee bit of gravel thrown in for interest.
However Jamie knows how my road rides go...
Oh look, that path looks interesting!
Mmm, it's getting more interesting
Getting too interesting .
A wee hike a bike and a nice gravel track, not interesting enough to stop on, and ended up here.
A monument to bad driving in 1823
Then it was climb a fence on to the main road. Nah, too boring, so into the woods...
Lots of nice forestry roads but a stiff climb followed by a nice descent on rutted gravel
The lads have been busy...
Buggered if I was going to climb back up the hill and with a bit of luck some of the track would still be there
It was there in spirit but a wee bit tricky to ride on this bike
And it got worse
And it got better
And betterer...
But when it gets better, somehow it's not interesting enough to take pics.
The route (in yellow). Only did about 18 miles, but about 1,000 feet of climb in there, so at least my legs are still working.