Quarantine for me was really tough. My addiction to France, its trails, food and camping meant a two week stay at home with no outdoors fun what so ever. The light at the end of the tunnel was the bike and a chance to meet customers again. So I decided to merge the two and start pedalling for business!

Our Local Authority, Eastleigh Borough Council, as part of their Covid business recovery are running a series of “Village Centre” markets.

Their second was a worthwhile bike ride away, so, yesterday, I marked my first day of freedom and took the long trails to Hedge End and the short way back. Ian and I converged to set out our stall.

And what an amazing bunch of people we met! Mountaineers, Rally drivers, dog walkers, Ordnance Survey faces from the past. Mostly masked, all with time to share! We learnt the prices people liked, the designs they preferred and, as well as making sales, we gained lots of ideas and dozens of new people keen to be a part of our community of outdoor lovers!