May 27 - Day 62 - 'We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.' Bill Vaughan
The introduction to Sponsor a Spin on the main page concludes with ‘Ruth will provide updates throughout the 30 weeks and hopefully some pictures of things she captures on the way (other than flies).’ Little did I know that Helen’s joke about flies would actually be a reality.
What I also hadn’t realised is that there are several forums all discussing the perils of insects while cycling and asking for solutions to swallowing flies. You might guess that the most frequent solution offered is - keep your mouth shut! This is clearly something I am failing at. Last week a fly managed to hit the back of my throat, and made me choke and cough for much of the remaining journey. Yesterday, I swallowed another but the greatest dilemma which nobody gives the answer to is, while aiming to continue to cycle without wobbling, do you try and swallow the said fly or try and cough it up? I opted on the second approach yesterday and couldn’t believe that such a tiny beast had caused great annoyance. You see - it’s not just snow and gales I have to contend with to complete this challenge!
The question has now to be - How many flies am I likely to consume over my 4500 miles? I could have asked for additional sponsorship here! Now if anyone at this point starts to announce that the average person swallows between 4 and 8 spiders while sleeping each year, please stop them. This has to be one of the most common urban or internet myths or pieces of misinformation and yet it has spread so widely that many people believe it to be fact. In reality it is highly unlikely that anyone would swallow even one spider during their lifetime. So, rather than find a solution to spiders daft enough to be eaten by us, I’ll continue to explore the best way to deal with a fly (not a frog) in your throat. And before you say it - yes I do just need to keep my mouth shut!
I couldn’t resist another picture this morning of a different bluebell wood