An outdoor activity you enjoyed

I'd like to describe a cycling trip I did last November along the countryside roads outside Dhaka, from Savar to a village near the Bangshi river.

I did it with a cycling group I'd found on Facebook, about fifteen people of different ages, from university students to a retired engineer who was easily the fittest of all of us. We met at six in the morning, when it was still a bit misty, and rode about forty kilometres in total, with stops along the way.

What made it enjoyable was the variety. For the first hour we were on busy roads, but then we turned onto narrow village paths between rice fields that had just been harvested, so they were golden and smelled of straw. Children ran out of houses and raced alongside us, and at one village an old man invited the whole group to sit in his yard and drink fresh date juice, which is only available in winter.

I enjoyed it for a few reasons. Physically, it was challenging but not exhausting, and I felt amazing afterwards. Socially, it was a great way to meet people I'd never meet otherwise. And mentally, it showed me a side of my country I'd almost forgotten, living in a city. We're so used to seeing traffic and concrete that it's easy to forget how peaceful and beautiful the countryside is, just an hour away. I've joined the group on four more rides since then.