When folks are at work and the kids all in school

Two or three times we will bike, as a rule

From Christchurch to Bournemouth, then Sandbanks and Poole.

 

For most of the way it’s a ride by the sea

And easy and flattish for Our Gert and me;

We stop at the Chineside for cups of black tea.

 

Sometimes we have started from Hengistbury Head

Watching as tides between Mudeford sped

Or browsing the Visitor Centre instead.

 

It’s said that it won’t change much anytime soon

A trip though to Bournemouth now might change your tune;

You’d quickly have noticed the town’s lost its balloon.

 

And if we felt lazy the bikes we might ditch

At Sandbanks, the gated retreat of the rich;

I don’t think our lifestyle though we’d want to switch.

 

Some roadwork and then round the harbour to Poole

The breeze off of Brownsea refreshingly cool,

One of the several Dorset coast jewels.

 

And come five o’clock it’s the time of day when

We peddle our bicycles homeward; and then,

Arrive back in Christchurch again.