Cycling commute (includes rhinos and baby goats)

I’ve been exercising, honest. It’s even involved some running (4 miles on 3 March to be exact. I have GPS proof if you don’t believe me), but yesterday I decided as it was such a beautiful bright day, I’d cycle into uni, 16.5 miles away.

The first ten miles were down quiet country lanes, past the usual fields of sheep, sheep and more sheep, but then I got to a field of chickens and lo! there were some cute furry brown things with four legs skipping about amongst their feathery clucking friends.

Although I’m a townie (although I read recently that ‘townie’ means ‘chav’ and I wouldn’t describe myself as a chav (others might, but hey ho) and I use the word townie to mean I come from a town and know fuck all about the countryside), I knew these brown things weren’t lambs but didn’t know what they were so I decided they were baby goats. They weren’t these ones (I couldn’t be arsed to get off my bike and take a photo) but they looked like them, so yes, I think they were baby goats.

Further along on my commute, I cycled past a field of rhinos. YES! FUCKING RHINOS! (No, I don’t mean the rhinos were fucking, I added the fucking for emphasis but now I’ve explained it, I just look like a dick).

The rhinos were supposed to be there – they hadn’t got the ferry over from Africa or anything – they were in the Port Lympne Wildlife Park (N.B. Lympne is pronounced ‘limm’ and not ‘limp-knee’ as I pronounced it for the first year of living in Kent) and, although I, once again, couldn’t be arsed to get off my bike and take a photo, here’s a photo of a rhino in the wildlife park from when we went there a couple of years ago.

After ten miles, I reached the beginning of Hythe, and therefore a rather long hill. Luckily, it’s a downward hill but I’m not keen on downhills on bike (although I prefer them to uphills) and so I gripped the handlebars and gritted my teeth and kept the brake on (just the brake on the right hand side – the left hand one squeaks like fuck) until I got to the bottom, a mile later. Phew.

I rode through the town centre until I got to the sea and cycled along the seafront for the final four miles until I reached uni.

A fab bike ride that I will do again when a) it’s a nice day; and b) it’s not an early seminar (am I bollocks leaving the house at 7am to get to uni).

(p.s. If you want to know what I’ve been getting up to at uni, sometimes I blog about it at my general writing blog.)

Stats
Distance: 16.56 miles
Time: 1:43:15
Speed: 9.6mph
Calories: 514
Fields of chickens and baby goats: 1
Fields of rhinos: 1
Mile-long downhills: 1
Miles along seafronts: 4