It seems that the weather here in East Anglia is unseasonably cold - overnight temperatures have been falling to -5C quite a few degrees lower than to be expected apparently. The BBC News website has reported skating in the Fens although it is not yet cold enough for competitions, the ice is only 1 inch (2.54cm) thick.
I can keep warm enough when out on my bicycle, with the exception of my feet, after around two and a half hours my feet start getting quite numb. Even if I shake them to encourage blood flow into them I cannot keep them warm enough. This limits the length of my rides to a maximum of three hours.
I was planning on popping the bike into my car and cycling around Thetford for a change of scenery, however although it is less than 18 months old I have had to call out the manufacturer's "Assistance service" this morning I got an "Engine System Fault" - although it cleared when I restarted the car. It is my third Land Rover Discovery and I have completely lost faith in it. I have not had to call out Land Rover Assistance (LRA) before this one, it has already been hauled away twice after having broken down. After being repaired there seems to be a condition of secrecy and I barely get told what might have been fixed. I am not convinced that the UK Government should provide cash to prop up car manufacturers - where is Darwin when you need him.
It took ages to get through to LRA this morning -presumably they were very busy dealing with lots of breakdowns? It might have been the cold, -5C this morning. Anyway I now get to drive around and see if it does it again - not reassuring huh. A good job my bikes which have done more mileage are more reliable. Mind you when I cycled to the local shop to fetch a newspaper I discovered that the front brake had frozen solid. Quite a lot of mud has accumulated on my Marin bicycle and I have neglected to clean it when returning from rides recently because of the cold (and lack of feeling in my feet).
In the end I cycled around a local route but headed along farm tracks to see where they went. One of the advantages of the freezing weather is that the tracks are pretty solid and easy to cycle along. Here are pictures of one of the tracks. It might not look it but the mud was solid and so were the puddles on the tracks.
Once again I had not got my helmet on, but these tracks were not much worse than some of the muddy country lanes I have cycled along recently.
I also came across a "bridge" that would not have looked out of place in Cambodia (see earlier Blogs for that reference). It was two poles across the drainage ditch, I did not try it out though, too cold and slippery.
The day before when out cycling the fog was freezing, ice accumulated on my gloves, jacket and bike. When I return at the end of the ride the temperature has typically fallen to around -2C. If I did this more often, cycled in the freezing weather that is, I would definitely try to find some way of keeping my feet warmer, it is great cycling on such crisp days. I hope we get some snow this year - cycling on snow is also good fun. The wheels make a crunching noise as they pass through the snow, but you have to keep your wits about you as they have limited grip on the snow!
The pictures are of Swaffham Bulbeck Lode in the freezing fog, the water moves and so less prone to freezing up.
The picture shows a Lode in Wicken Fen, it was frozen over, probably not safe to skate on though.
And finally a bridge that gets it picture taken quite a lot (by me), I had to rest the camera on a wall to take this picture, it was getting dark, I liked the blueness!
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