I went on a fairly local expedition with a buddy yesterday. We covered a decent mileage at a decent speed and we did some new tracks in the process. Highlights included a newish bridleway North of Girton which took us to the guided busway (they're making good progress with that, looks like this in both directions: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8947936@N07/2934605215/sizes/o/in/set-72157607967786251/ )

Later on, we biked and hiked around Stow cum Quy fen for a while and found some new tracks there, although one poorly signposted one eluded us - we found ourselves in a dead end corner of a field, surrounded by stinging nettles.

To finish up, we decided to try to traverse a public byway that we've previously always been scared off by the sound of many barking dogs in the night. We had just crossed the bridge over the A14 when we came across a burning motorbike: the rear tyre had come off and flames were coming out of the petrol tank. The tank cap had been removed, so it looked like a deliberate act of vandalism rather than an accident. Shouted out and looked around a bit to verify that there was no injured rider out of sight somewhere, then called the police to notify them. The police ran a search for the registration plate and meanwhile called the fire service to "turn the fire off or you know what I mean" (those were roughly the dispatchers words!).

Since we were asked to wait there in case the fire truck needed directions, we stood around and watched the (not-very-impressive) flames for a while. Eventually, silhouetted against the setting sun, a lone firefighter appeared over the line of the bridge. It looked awesome but I felt that taking photographs before we'd introduced would have appeared suspicious. Once we'd had a chat with him, a load more firefighters showed up, which still looked quite awesome:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8947936@N07/2934636567/sizes/o/in/set-72157607967786251/

They brought a handheld fire extinguisher with them and squirted it on the bike and into the fuel tank, releasing clouds of grey mist:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8947936@N07/2935495914/sizes/o/in/set-72157607967786251/

After that they stood near the bike in a group and talked for a bit. I suspect that the whole experience of walking way down a track to use a tiny hand extinguisher to put out a tiddly little flame is a bit anticlimactic after you've driven across town in a supercharged fire engine full of hi-tech equipment. Feeling a bit sorry for them, perhaps one of us should have got ourselves stuck up a tree to give them a bit more to do whilst they were there.

Finally, we headed home into the sunset, mapping some pylons as we went:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8947936@N07/2934642001/sizes/o/in/set-72157607967786251/