Yesterday, I had a tree job 11 miles away in the countryside – a 22-mile round trip and the biggest outing yet for my trusted cargo bike (Babs!).
I was very excited for this small adventure and testing out the bike’s actual range – my heavy load (tools!) means I can’t rely on the manufacturer’s specs. My clients are off-grid and dependent on solar power, so I was not guaranteed to be able to recharge my battery when I got there. It was also bucketing it down with rain in the morning. Oh and did I mention the hills??

So I’m cycling around the Chew Valley at half seven in the morning, soaked to the bone within minutes, on roads and lanes that have turned into rivers, navigating two fords, detouring, tackling unexpected hills, gladly relying on the kindness of strangers to help me manoeuvre my bike through a private garden (with permission)… all the while trying to be frugal with my power assist in order to preserve my battery’s life.

I should say that it’s hard work going up hills on Beast Babs even on full power assist! And that it’s near impossible to do so when I’ve run out of juice. Therefore, that morning I had one mantra which was: “Right now I can still do this on low power assist – I won’t be able to do it on the way back when I’m knackered and will have lost the will AND most of my battery life!”

So I stayed calm and carried on grinding it out while water was running down my back and into my ears and into my boots… you know the kind…

But I’m glad to report it was all worth it! I was greeted with a coffee & pancake breakfast, got to ponder some interesting tree conundrums, and naturally it also stopped raining as soon as I got there!

No epic pictures of the fords and flash floods I’m afraid, as I was rather busy evading them (and conserving my phone’s battery life, too). Not many pictures of actual trees, as we were busy getting on with it while the sun shone!

But here’s a happy pic of me most of the way home (spoiler alert: I made it!), an idyllic farm scene, and some very handsome ducks!