Story 5: Saved by a SAGA cycling crew

I'm not long back home from the first proper cycle on the new road bike (the trip from the bike shop doesn't really count!) and had another awesome time. I keep expecting the novelty to kind of wear off but, so far so good! I bought this wee book last week (see, I'm totally hooked! Buying books and everything!):

and today we decided to follow one of the suggested routes from Balloch to Bowling then back again. True to the book, it was a 'good and easy ride' and it really did feel like a pretty effortless 20 mile round trip! There wasn't one hill the whole way, we were mostly cycling along a 'path' (a disused rail line and a trail along the riverside), the sun was shining, lunch was good and the beer stop at the end was glorious! Oh, and I got my first cycling injury! It was just a wee cut to my hand from a spikey bit of sharp metal on one of the gates we had to open on the cycling path but Jeeso, did it bleed! Alex carries bits and bobs in his rucksack while we're out on our jaunts, but unfortunately hadn't packed any plasters. An old napkin from one of the lunch stops on a previous trip was all we could find to mop up the mess. However, a little bunch of seriously wrinkly Sunday cyclists came to the rescue! This little SAGA cycling crew just happened to be cycling towards us and as soon as they spotted my dripping hand the two lovely ladies at the front of the group sprang into action, both reaching into their wee bum bags and both pulling out a plaster for this not-so-seriously injured but seriously ill-prepared novice! 

Needless to say, next time we set out we'll make sure there's a pack of plasters in the back pack. After all, we might just bump into some seriously unprepared new cyclist on our travels...

The offending gate, the skanky napkin and the seriously unprepared cyclist...