no fun at all

In March last year, I posted a description of a short path that illustrated perfectly my contention that a typical country path, if it offers any difficulty, will present a different challenge depending on the direction of travel. You will probably not be surprised to hear that I called this account Two-Way Fun. The path is only 50–60 metres in length, but it has been an integral part of the final frontier, my regular Sunday bike ride, in both directions, merely to do a single manœuvre that is awkward in a radically different way depending on whether it is tackled from north to south or from south to north.

However, when I arrived at the start of the path on Sunday, I sensed immediately that something was wrong:

The path seemed wider, but it became obvious that it had been completely rebuilt only when I approached the crucial move:

If you compare this photo with the one that I took to illustrate the original problem, you will see that all intrinsic difficulty has been removed:

The difference is even more stark between the then and now photos of the manœuvre as it is approached from the opposite direction:

The start of the path from the northern end also betrays how things have changed:

So why would this apparently inconsequential path have been upgraded? If you look closely at the first photo above, you will see that someone has started to clear the land. Presumably this will be for building purposes, and it seems to me that this apparent upgrade of the path is in fact an upgrade of the storm drain that can be seen in some of the older photographs. Presumably, this is connected to the likely construction of new village houses.

One thing is certain though: it is no longer worth the short detour to take in this path—it is no fun at all—and the bike ride that I’ve been calling the final frontier is diminished as a result.