I don’t think I shall ever tire of all the wildlife I encounter on my bike, always excepting the flies. Today, besides a red squirrel crossing, and the usual quota of buzzards, I found myself following a tiny little rabbit scampering along the road. After a while, realising it wasn’t going to get away, it bounded into the grass on the verge* and hunched down pretending it wasn’t there, even as I stopped to have a closer look. Too cute, and naturally I had no camera with me so you’ll just have to take my word for it.
And coming back the other day I came across one of its bigger, faster cousins. I don’t often see hares on the road, but when I do I always like to race them even though I never win. This time, even going downhill, whenever I got close the hare just picked it up a gear and raced away until I sat up and let it have the victory, not wanting to chase it full pelt around a corner and under the wheels of a tractor. One of these days I’ll have my GPS on the bike during one of these encounters and I’ll let you know just how fast a hare can go. Or at least, given I never catch them, just how fast a hare can go minus a bit, when it’s not really trying. For the absolute top speed, I’m going to have to get into some serious training.
* making it some kind of bunny genius
November 13, 2009 at 7:02 pm |
Lucky you seeing such wildlife but you really must carry a camera with you! xx
November 13, 2009 at 7:22 pm |
yeah, but then I never see anything at all
November 13, 2009 at 10:51 pm |
I envy you! Not much wildlife in East London, however, I did see two squirrels perching on my saddle the other day (i park my bike up overnight under a huge Plane tree at night) They definately looked like they were up to something, too…
November 14, 2009 at 11:24 am |
hehe – I remember London squirrels, I hope you checked your brake cables …
November 14, 2009 at 3:34 pm |
Reporting from my side of the world, I had a possum at my front door. I was just about to let my smaller than the possum dog out when I spotted him. As the possum lingered I decided it would be best to take the dog out another exit.
November 14, 2009 at 6:45 pm |
wise move…
November 14, 2009 at 9:10 pm |
According to my research the speed of a tortoise is somewhere in the region of 0.21 to 0.48 km (0.13 to 0.30 miles) per hour. As we all know a tortoise is faster than a hare (c.f. Aesop’s Fables) thus a hare can’t be that fast at all
November 14, 2009 at 9:29 pm |
That makes me a very slow cyclist indeed
November 15, 2009 at 8:15 pm |
Are you sure it wasn’t a haggis?
BTW I’ve got a copy of your book, and its damn good.
November 15, 2009 at 9:06 pm |
Oh, thanks, glad you’re enjoying it. And no, because it was going in a straight line