Crawley

What is it about forests? I love being in the forest, surrounded by the trees, watching the ants and hearing the animals, far from civilisation. I must be some kind of hippy.

Grebe on the lake in Tilgate Park

So, I was out biking in Tilgate Forest – the only good thing about Kråli – on Sunday, and I was coming down one of the slopes on this trail. I've called it the “Deer Loops” trail because I saw a deer in the area not long ago, and because the trail loops around several times. I saw a biker ahead of me, and it's a pretty narrow trail so of course I stopped to say 'hey'. His friend was just a few moments behind him, and we got talking. I mentioned that I was out in the forest by myself, and sometimes got a bit concerned that I'd hit a tree at speed, and end up unconscious and alone. A fair point, I think. If I could choose where I will die then it would probably be in a forest, but not just yet....

The trail goes into this. I love that you can only see a metre ahead

Actually, I'm not keen on the idea of dying in Kråli either, not even Tilgate Forest. Of all the places to spend the last of my days.

Trees in the Cherry Plantation, in Tilgate Forest

“What a strange place to meet other mountain-bikers” I said to Karen and Jim, my new friends. Then we realised that actually it's the best place to meet bikers. After all, you just don't know how seriously into off-roading people cyclists in other places are, do you? So I guess on the trail is the obvious place you'd meet other crossers.

Anyway, we swapped numbers with and headed off into the green. It was a sunny day and there were a few other people about, mostly on the larger trails. There were a few people on horses, a lot of pedestrians, and a couple of brave (or foolish) women out on road bikes without skid-lids on.

I feel sad for Tilgate Forest. It's a small forest, and it has a motorway and a railway going through it, along with two chains of pylons. But it's the only forest I've got.