"This is what I am here for so this is what I will do" - cycling holiday in Somerset / Devon / Dorset

Cycling past Stourhead
Gardens, Wiltshire
in May

Two or three times a year I like to hire a cottage, throw my bike in the back of the car and head off to the West Country: to Somerset, Devon or Dorset - or all three. I find it therapeutic - to truly 'get away from it all', cycling around little country lanes miles from anywhere - 'Far from the madding crowd', literally. Or far from the cat's cradle that my brain has been tangled into over the past few years, resulting in Chronic or Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (which you can find out more about here, on my other blog).

It's not easy to do this. One of the characteristics of my C-PTSD (with a comorbidity of Depression), is that I find it hard to concentrate on anything for too long. For example I used to be an avid reader, devouring books as if they were going out of fashion. Nowadays it's hard to keep me focused from the first few sentences.

Planning a week's cycling in North Yorkshire? Here are my Top 6 bike rides in North Yorkshire! (With a bit of East Yorkshire thrown in.)

I love nothing better than slinging my bike in the back of the car and taking off for a week's cycling, usually somewhere in the South West as a change from North and East Yorkshire. But I imagine there are cyclists who do the reverse - bung their bikes in the car and head off for a week's cycling in North Yorkshire. So, over the Autumn, I am putting together a list of my 6 favourite North Yorkshire cycle rides and you can check out the first three North Yorkshire cycle routes below along with my intro vlog - all on my YouTube channel.

Intro vlog: https://youtu.be/r45c5ZfTIFs
North Yorkshire cycle route #1 - circular bike ride from Thirsk, North Yorkshire, skirting the north side of Northallerton
North Yorkshire cycle route #2 - circular cycle ride through Thixendale and Kirkham Priory, North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire cycle route #3 - the Easingwold Loop cycle route, North Yorkshire, extended to start off from Alne (off the  A19, north of York)

Cycling along the idyllic Bovey Valley between Bovey Tracey and Lustleigh, east of Dartmoor, Devon

Another place that helps to heal the soul is the beautiful Bovey Valley between  Bovey Tracey (east of Dartmoor, Devon) and Moretonhampstead, via the picture-postcard village of Lustleigh. Last summer my husband, son and I hiked around the area and the other week, as part of a challenging cycle ride on Dartmoor, I cycled along the Bovey Valley and you can see a video of the bike ride from just outside Bovey Tracey to Lustleigh here:

One of those days when C-PTSD brings everything to a halt. Well, most things at any rate.

I've had one of those days where I haven't achieved very much except to produce a string of reviews for my YouTube playlist Batty Matty's bike rides, UK (so I guess that in a way I have achieved something). I meant to do some cycling on my indoor trainer (I love the playlist from those lovely young guys at Global Cycling Network - GCN - which you can follow here). But (more frequently these days, unfortunately), I have bad days when I kind of grind to a halt and can't do much - like on Saturday. So that's two days out of three. Not good. But I did manage to take myself off cycling yesterday - cycling on the beautiful Howardian Hills around Easingwold, North Yorkshire.

Great cycling blog for you to follow

I came across this blog today which is exactly the kind of blog I had in mind on the zillion occasions I attempted to begin this blog (as opposed to my other blog about eating disorders which I managed to write for 6 or so years before the PTSD took over). Great cycling blog: http://theresherides.blogspot.com/

Cycling through woodland

There's a beautiful place called Spreyton Woods in the heart of Devon not far from Crediton. It's reached by a narrow lane - the kind that isn't used often and where the grass has grown in the middle of the (rough!) tarmac surface. I cycled through Spreyton Woods in June, during the heatwave, and then again in August when the weather wasn't so good, but at least the sun was out.

The fine line that is so easy to cross if you're not careful

One of the major problems with my son when he was suffering from his eating disorder was exercise addiction. You can find out more about this on my other blog... I prefer not to go into detail here because I've already done that on countless occasions and it isn't helpful to my peace of mind...

On top of the (Yorkshire) Wolds

There's something about cycling in the Yorkshire Wolds that makes you feel on top of the world. Literally. Of course you have to climb to reach the top but these bike climbs worth it for the wide vistas and the feeling that you are way, way above the world. In some places there isn't much in the way of buildings; just the odd farm plus arable fields or fields of sheep stretching almost as far as the eye can see. In between these chalk hills are dry dales, like mini Cheddar Gorges but without the stone and with gentler sides which are spectacular fun to cycle down. And, as on this warm sunny Saturday in early September, the roads were relatively free of traffic. You wouldn't get that at Cheddar!

Tough but awesome cycle ride on the North York Moors in glorious sunshine

Last weekend the weather was fantastic, so on the Saturday I headed for the Yorkshire Wolds (which was surprisingly quiet considering it was the final weekend of the school summer holidays) and on Sunday I headed for Osmotherley (which is just off the A19 between Thirsk and Middlesbrough) for a very energetic bike ride to say the least! But that's what you would expect of the North York Moors (which many people incorrectly call the North Yorkshire Moors).

"And that's OK..."

I learned a new phrase yesterday from a friend (who also struggles with her mental health). It's this phrase: "And that's OK." In other words, you add that to any seemingly negative stuff that's going on inside your head. Take the last few minutes, for example. I've been sitting here, wanting to plough ahead with this new blog after failing to write anything on my eating disorders blog for several months. I just couldn't write (ha - and this from someone who WRITES for a living!).

For me, cycling is more of a distraction than a 'cure'

Ah, I wish cycling WERE a cure for PTSD - or, rather, C-PTSD (Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) which is what I am battling. (The result of prolonged exposure to trauma, as opposed to trauma as a one-off event e.g. a car crash.) I've been searching for a cure for years.

Which is why cycling is a distraction, especially hill cycling. In other words, cycling that exhausts me so much that I can't think about anything else except getting up that hill followed by the sense of achievement when I do reach the summit, hopefully without getting off my bicycle and pushing it up a section of the hill!

As I said at the start of this blog, my initial posts may be very short and sweet so I don't overwhelm myself.

In the meantime, please check out my YouTube Channel: Batty Matty's bike rides, UK where I've uploaded over 100 bike ride videos from the past few years.

About this blog - cycling to reduce anxiety and heal the mind

This blog is a kind of sideways extension of the eating disorder blog I wrote for around 7 years: https://anorexiaboyrecovery.blogspot.com/ which is about my, then, teenage son's recovery from anorexia nervosa which he developed during 2009.