24 February - Day 3 - Three Sheep and a Bus

Having already recognised that punctures, potholes and pedestrians are all hazards to be avoided during my rides, I now have to add pen-escaping sheep to the list. There was me cycling uphill towards a bend, listening to Raynor Winn’s, ‘The Salt Path’ (I’ll explain more in a future blog) when three sheep decided to run onto the other side of the road. At the same time, a bus appeared around the corner. Being the thoughtful cyclist I try to be, I moved my arm up and down to suggest the driver might like to slow down and then pointed at the sheep. After putting on his hazard warning lights and applying his brakes rather sharply, the driver came to a sudden stop just in front of the sheep. For a few moments they appeared to gather around the door, as if hoping for a lift to pastures new, before changing their minds, running across the road in front of me and jumping over a wall, that looked far too high for the average sheep, and disappeared. The bus driver wound his window down and said he thought they were going to come up his steps. Before we both set off in our opposite directions, I wish I’d been quick enough to reply, ‘You do take all sheep and sizes, ‘they were just after sheep thrills’ or ‘whatever wool be, wool be’. Unfortunately, or fortunately, as you are probably now saying, I just cycled on thinking of today’s sponsorsheep.