17/06/2022 I Must Put On My Mudguards

Back when the wet winter weather started I had a thought.  I thought it would be a very good idea if I took my bicycle mudguards, which had been rattling around in a box for 7 months and at least 7000 km, and put them on my bicycle.

Having had my thought, I promptly forgot about it. 

Yesterday the weather was, if not nice, at least not raining so I went for a bicycle ride in Mount Barker.  It wasn't an adventurous ride and I didn't go anywhere I hadn't already been.  I rode up to the Laratinga Wetlands.

The wetlands had lots of water in them, which was not a surprise, given the recent rain.

 

There were lots of puddles on the path.  I rode around the puddles, because I didn't have mudguards and if you ride through puddles on a bicycle without mudguards, you get splashed and splattered.

I saw a Welcome Swallow at the wetlands.

After avoiding all the puddles on the Wetlands paths I turned onto the path beside the disused railway line, and started avoiding all the puddles there.

Which as it turned out, wasn't that hard.  There weren't many puddles on the railway path.

This worked well until I ran out of path, and couldn't really cycle properly on the disused railway line,

Too bumpy.

so I rode up through the new suburbs, which were still under construction. This was all good until I had to take a little paddle through the construction site to get to Fidler Lane because goodness me, I couldn't possibly just turn around and go back the way I'd come.

Very inconsiderate to end the footpath just there.

Around this time I started thinking that I really should have put those mudguards on when I thought about it.  It was too late for regrets however, so on I ploughed.

When the wheel turns this mud will fly off and splatter in my face.  Mudguards would stop that happening.

Thankfully Fidler Lane was made of slightly firmer mud than the construction sites.  There were no puddles though and now I was looking for puddles. I wanted to ride through them to get rid of some of the mud.

No puddles, and even a little bit of sunlight.

The strawberry farm briefly distracted me with its promise of next year's strawberries in neatly cultivated rows.

At the end of Fidler Lane I decided to take my mudguard-less self home, so off I went back down the creek, on a concrete path this time.

No puddles on this path either.  Why can't I have puddles when I want them?

Now that I wanted puddles of course I couldn't find them so the mud situation was not improved by the time I got home.  I had to leave all my muddy bits outside, and be careful taking off my jacket due to the splatter which happens to those who are silly enough to ride in the wet without their mudguards.

The sensible thing to do that afternoon would have been to put mudguards on my bike, but of course the mudguard-holding box was safely stored in a garage elsewhere so I did the next best thing and went out for a country drive with Roger.

We drove up to the top of Mount Barker the hill, not the town.  We looked at the view,  

admired the grass trees,

and spotted Lake Alexandrina far away in the distance.

And then we went home. I thought about cleaning the mud off my shoes or collecting my mudguards from their box in someone else's garage and putting them on my bicycle.  Then I made myself a cup of hot chocolate, put on my pyjamas, and relegated my bicycle mudguards to the list of things which I will do later. 

 I suspect I will regret my procrastination the next time I go for a ride.