Reduced to riding on the road again this weekend by blanket trail closures, we thought we’d cheer ourselves up by stopping at the tea and bun shack at National Trust site Brimham rocks.
However, despite being open and crawling with visitors last weekend and bank holiday Monday, the site was completely shut. As we sat and chewed energy bars on the verge (probably a treasonous offence in itself) our fury wasn’t exactly soothed by the large amount of farm traffic we watched shuttling between different farms either on social or muck spreading duties. Obviously those patchs of dry straw render such visits totally safe, while riding through a non livestock area will be lethal to the local economy.

We might have missed something but surely – with no new cases announced – if a site is safe to open one weekend then it will be the next, or does the disease take a well earned rest on bank holidays too?

I suppose we should be thankful that the hot weather will have reduced survival rates for the disease, but we’d like to inform the government that the countryside is still as shut down as it could be, despite the honeyed, vote hunting lies of Mr Blair.

Anyway let’s get some wry smiles out of this appaling situation by comparing notes on just how stupid your local access restrictions are, despite assurances that everything is being done to open them. There might even be a bucket of disinfectant for the best entry*.

*Probably not though.