Never a Dull Moment

Today we decided to do a route I did once before, way back in November with MC.

I wasn’t 100% sure of the way, but I had the Everytrail Map I recorded that day, and as it turned out, the trail was clearly marked all the way – funny I never noticed that last time! The oak trees are finally dropping their leaves and the forest is starting to look pretty bare. Soon after turning off from our familiar trail, we were walking for a bit because the trees were too close together and we came across SOMETHING. Aero was fascinated. I didn’t know he was so ghoulish… Not sure what it was – a sheep? A sanglier? Suggestions welcome! The trail was mostly pretty straightforward, apart from one slightly hairy bit where we had to dismount and lead the horses because it was really steep and a bit crumbly. The views were stupendous all the way. Flurry admiring the scenery is nothing new… …but Aero is finally so relaxed in his new environment that he’s stopping to take it in, too. It’s a fairly long route, and we took turns to lead… sometimes Aero… …sometimes Flurry… Aero was in super-great form, striding out boldly, yet so relaxed that I was happy to drop the reins and snap photos… of the beautiful scenery… or of the weird little cairns we kept passing. His super-great form got even more super and more great once we got within half an hour of home, though. He knew damn well where he was and he wanted to get home ASAP. No more photos from that point on! Although he behaved (mostly – there was a bit of donkey-induced excitement along the way) I decided to keep a steady grip on the reins just in case he over-reacted to something… like Flurry breaking a branch behind him, or the LSH giving out to Flurry, or Flurry having a little go at bucking on the final ascent. Yes, dear saintly Flurry threw a couple of bucks. It’s a while since the LSH had to cope with anything like that, but he stayed on board, thankfully.

Just after we arrived back, we heard very load engine noises approaching on the road. I assumed it was a bunch of motor-bikers or quad-bikers, but when I looked up, this is what I saw. Yup. Army manoeuvres taking place in OUR woods. Just as well we didn’t meet these guys when Aero was starting to get excited. These lads may have learned the true meaning of the phrase “Tanking Off.”