And now for something completely different 🚴‍♀️ – ON YER BIKE!

Wot no walking!

Join me for a different experience – a journey through Dorset on two wheels rather than two feet! This bike ride, the first I have ever filmed, took place on another beautiful day in April. It takes in my ancestral village of Lytchett Matravers, Sturminster Marshall, the delightful White Mill, with its ancient bridge, and neighbouring hamlet of Cowgrove. Following country lanes, and the River Stour, we take in the UPS 😟 and the DOWNS 😀 of our ‘rolling English roads’ as we ride through our lovely county. I hope you are going to join me 😀

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Be blessed
The Dorset Rambler

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and now for something completely different [Music] Yes we are out on a bike ride My first ever filmed bike ride And in fact it’s only my second bike ride of 2025 And I didn’t do any in 2024 So I have no idea how this is going to go Uh I’ve not filmed on the bike before so that’s an unknown My fitness is definitely unknown cuz although I walk a lot surprisingly when you come to get on the bike you actually find you’re not very fit at all And that applies especially on the uphill sections And I’ve already ridden up three hills already Um I didn’t film the earlier part because it’s kind of towny and on main roads but I’m on the country lanes now So I’m going to start filming now And whatever happens it’ll be an awesome ride anyway And I hope you’re going to join me for the film Uh we’ll see how it turns out I’ll catch up with you in a minute Right Let’s go [Music] So I’ll probably film the downhill sections I think It’ll look like I’m going really fast Then if I film the uphill sections you’ll realize how slow I am And you’ll also hear an awful lot of heavy breathing But it’s a glorious day Clear sunshine again This is nearly a week’s worth of sunshine we’ve had It’s been such a good week So we just arrived in Lich Matravers which is a village I think although it’s probably more a town now I think cuz it’s expanded quite a lot over recent years And there’s more traffic already So if you follow me and you’ve been watching my previous videos you’ll know that my ancestors for many many gener generations came from lichet matravers So part of me belongs here Uh my mom’s maiden name was Dolman So uh her dad was a dolman and so therefore 25% of me is Dolman and Lichit Matraversbased So yes the dolmans lived here for many many generations to the extent even that they had a road named after them And the road is Dolman’s Hill And that was named after the Dolman family because this is where they lived [Music] So this is Dolman’s Hill I could cycle down it and see the cottage where the dolmans fact there’s a couple of cottages I think the dolmans used to live which I showed in my previous video But um if I go down there I’ve just got to come back up again And that’ll be one more hill I can do without So that was just a little detour to visit the the homes or home area of my ancestors Now we’ll get back on the main route Sorry about the noise Have no idea what’s going on but there’s a either a huge bumblebee over there or somebody’s doing some [Music] work Right Quick stop for some refreshments before we head down what is probably my favorite part I think And this is a hill that’s in front of me A steep hill that I’ve got to go down and not up So it should be fun And it’s a hill that’s well known to me from my teenage cycling days Heat Heat Of course the downside to it is what goes down must come up Now I’ve got to go up a hill But back in my younger days when I was a racing cyclist that was one of the hills we used to use for our hill climbs So that’s when you start at the bottom of the hill go off one at a time and see who can get to the top of the hill the quickest And it involves some precision timing that cuz obviously it predates any kind of mobile connection So the timekeeper at the top and the timekeeper at the bottom had to synchronize their watches carefully let everybody go at precise times in order to get the accurate accurate time record So it was quite a logistical exercise with a load of bike riders but it’s good fun Second part of the race was even more fun because you used to start at the top of the hill and then you used to just without pedaling roll down the hill and see who could get the farthest before they ran out of motion and had to put their feet down That was easier Yeah good fun Good days they were I used to enjoy my cycling Trouble is you have to be very dedicated and go in week in week out at least three times a week training in order to keep yourself at the fitness level where you could race So the racing was fun Sometimes hard work to get there and keep yourself at that level Ah part of my past Always good to revisit it by coming to Lich Travers So the upward climb spreads out in front of me So I’m going to switch the camera off and I’ll see you at the top Oh we made it to the [Music] top Heat [Music] [Music] Heat [Music] Heat Heat [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat Heat [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hi Well that was Sturminster Marshall the next little village on this cycle ride At a short distance from Sturminster Marshall is another of Dorset’s old mills and an even older bridge So we’re heading towards White Mill which despite its name is not white It’s red brick But the bridge beside the mill over the ster dates back centuries So this is the bridge Can’t get a very good look at it really because I don’t want to leave the bike I need to go onto the river bank to get a proper view But yeah dates back centuries this bridge or the foundations at least And white mill is the red brick building across the other side on the riverbank So that’s the river stauer and white mill is another of those mills like all Dorset mills it seems that date from the 18th century but actually go back to doomsday in terms of mills on this site and it’s not really known why it was called White Mill It is thought that a previous version of it was maybe wooden and was lime washed as was often the case in those days and that’s why they called it white mill But yeah as I say this one is 18th century replacement building and it’s still got all its old wooden equipment and machinery inside Albeit it doesn’t operate at all It’s actually owned by the National Trust now So you can go in it And as you can see this bridge is way busier taking way more traffic than it was ever intended to take And it is of course a single lane bridge Interestingly this bridge has got cutwaters on both sides which is quite convenient when you come to stop and film because we have these little sanctuaries we can escape into to film But often bridges had cutwaters That’s these pointed pointed bits which go down to where that be go down to the water The idea being they were on the upstream side and that would cut the water while the river was running to kind of deflect some of the pressure from against the parapets Anyway so that’s White Mill and it’s well known bridge Looks like somebody’s doing something in the field over there It’s a lot of dust being kicked up So we get a fuller view from here was originally water powered uh most of its life but I think towards the end the later Miller I think closed down half the mill and turned it into an engine room and I believe it was motor driven but yes in the uh hands of the National Trust now along probably with the whole of the Kingston Lacy estate So we’ve left White Mill behind and we’re on another little country lane Now heading towards a little hamlet called Cow Grove And if I take this road right to the end it will lead us into Wimbornne in East Dorset And that actually I probably won’t do that but this is a lovely road to cycle It is difficult on the bike because there seem to be limited numbers of country lanes that you can string together to do a day’s riding without going on main roads The government seems to spend a lot of money on cycleways in town which they build beside busy main roads which are no fun to ride with uh anyway But unfortunately we don’t have that many cycle routes really I mean even routes like this This is a lovely country lane but even this it’s getting busier I suppose people are avoiding the main roads and doing these rat runs down the country lanes instead but it’s a lovely route to ride And I haven’t quite timed this one to perfection today Normally before I go on a bike ride I’ll check out the weather forecast Not to see if it’s going to rain but to see which direction the wind is in because I always like to have the wind against me on the way out and have the wind with me on the way back I haven’t quite succeeded in doing that I think it’s partially in front still headwind My thinking is that when I’m getting a bit tired I can have the benefit of a wind behind me I think what I really need is when I get a bit tired to have a bit of electric power behind me So maybe I’m coming up to that age when an ebike might be good but I’m kind of resisting it Being a purist at heart and an ex cyclist as well by ex-racing cyclist Um I’m kind of resisting that for as long as possible And it is great to be out on the bike on a beautiful day like this even if there is a fair bit of breeze about So we’re approaching Cow Grove now Just a cluster of a few cottages that’s all Little hamlet Not far from the tower And with its own little duck pond And heat So I remember this yellow colored cottage being restored I think it goes back to the time when the National Trust took over the whole Kingston Lacy estate which included all sorts of cottages Pamp Hill uh probably White Mill I assume as well Uh and obviously um Kof Castle Studland and uh yeah so this place was extremely rundown and almost derelictked I think the yellow cottage tuda cottage which they did up So it’s uh yeah very old cottage that was saved I think And so we’ve reached I bridge which is a very old crossing over the river tower Now got a wooden foot bridge which has been here as long as I can remember But it goes back older than that because there’s also a Ford come out onto the bridge There’s a we don’t know if it’ll come out on the video There’s a weir uh crossing the river down there And just beside that is a uh Ford You wouldn’t drive a car through it but tractors the farm tractors go through there from bank to bank because the farm goes both sides of the river But it’s a very popular spot in the summer Oh some uh three little egrets down there as well Yeah very popular spot but it’s one where swimming and going in the water is not actually recommended um because of the state of the water really and people have been known to get ill but uh people still do it That’s looking upstream There’s a wonderful sunlight flickering off the river tower Well I think I’m going to sign the video off now I’ve kind of only filming the country lane part of this ride We’re going to be back on main roads again uh for a while in a bit So there’s no point in filming those I don’t think I have no idea how this video is going to work out Uh like I said at the beginning it’s the first time ever I’ve filmed a bike ride Uh if you follow me you’ll know that um my videos are actually walking videos Um but I wanted to film a bike ride Whether I do any more or not I don’t know If you’re watching this then presumably I have decided that it’s worth putting out on my YouTube channel Uh and if you are watching it and I’ve done that then uh please do put a comment up and let me know what you think Does this work uh as a video to watch i’d be interested to know what your thoughts are Anyway it’s been a great ride It’ll be around 20 miles in the end which is not bad for the second ride of the year Takes quite a long time to acclimatize uh to cycling Firstly the muscles because uh you don’t use the same muscles for riding as you do for walking So they need to acclimatize The second thing is that certain part of my anatomy has to acclimatize to sitting on that solid leather saddle and it always takes me a few rides to get back into that Anyway I’ve enjoyed my ride I’ve enjoyed filming it I hope if it goes out that you’ll enjoy watching it So thanks so much for coming with me Uh I hope you’ve enjoyed it I’ve loved it as always But for now this is me the Dorset Rambler saying until next [Music] time Heat Hey Heat [Music] [Music] [Music] Heat [Music] Heat Heat Heat [Music]