Friday 16 August 2013

Clouds and signs - and a bit of roughstuff cycling...



Been an amazing week of big fluffy clouds and isolated showers drifting down the coast and over our Lammermuir Hills. Been real busy at work, but always time to stop for some pics of the amazing views from Whitekirk Hill. Here are some taken with my work mobile, an i phone...






Been riding local trails most early afternoons after work, dodging the odd rain showers that have hardly dampened the bone dry trails around the county.
I did a couple of hours ride up into the Hill foots country roads and rode some easy tracks and trails on the old Peugeot the other evening and took the camera..



East Lothian`s quiet country roads are great for cycling, many still have the old cast iron road signs, distance often given to a quarter of a mile...


Lets go up there...




And enjoy harvest views over the county...






Time for some roughstuff on the old Peugeot!...


End of that trail is now fenced off, the other side down a field plough in and crop, so bailed out down a stubble field...








Lovely old road, sunken and lined with ancient oak trees...


And a descent on a great wee trail past the three bridges...


Three bridges?, the name of this wood, here's the first one...


I love woods like this with a tumbling stream, here is a 30 secs Flickr Film - maybe not viewable on a phone




And along to the second bridge of the meandering stream...






And after a wee ride around in a loop the third bridge and a climb up the old track to Garvald village...




18th Century church, the NW corner dates from the 12th Century...


I love these!, the ancient Jugs, or `Joogs`,  where once wrong doers were chained too, then no doubt rotten veg and stones was thrown at them by bystanders, bring them back to punish the Ned's!...


Sun dial dated 1633, real old eh?...


More on the amazing wee village of Garvald in another post soon, off road again and up the hill through Sled wood...




And a wee look in on somewhere i have not been to for a while...


Royal Observer Corps Cold War monitoring bunker...



The hand operated sump pump has stopped working  a couple of years ago so there is  inches of water in the bunker now...

And the Ned's discovered this ROC Post last year and have trashed what was left inside, and tagged the walls - scum...


I never revealed the location of this ROC, someone else did though on a photo set on Flickr and this is the result...

And why i will not reveal the location of another ROC post i know which is in perfect condition...
Here is what this Post looked like 4 years ago and its purpose...




Back on the bike and down hill off road...



Lovely early evening sky...



Well happy, all evening to cycling, no particular route to go, and no rush...




Another cross roads, think we will ride east...


And around Traprain Law...





I could hear the drone of a combine Harvesting earlier cycling on the south side of Traprain. New Holland combines have a distinctive noise.


Most of the Barley has been harvested now, Oil seed Rape and Oats probably next, a few weeks until Wheat is ripe, so loads more evenings of golden views across East Lothian...


What a long summer it has been, and still a a lot more endless days of big skies to come...


6 comments:

  1. Hi Bruce. Great read and photos as ever. I haven't been out running the coast of late as I picked a small injury which is hopefully on the way out now... Maybe tomorrow I will get out there. I mentioned to a couple of your fat bike pals that I am interested in doing a paid fat bike experience with a group of journalists in the September. Is this something you would like to be involved with?

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  2. nice post, are you losing weight ?

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  3. Thanks for that lovely ride. The variety, the terrain, the history...

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  4. What a beautiful afternoon ride. Thanks.

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  5. Hi Mandy, drop me an email and i will get the ball rolling and see how many fatbikes i an get a loan of,

    Hi Steve, yep!, nearly 2 stone in 3 months!, just riding all the time, all my old bike gear fits from 5 years ago, like having a new wardrobe!,

    Thanks for looking in Pondero, more to come...

    Thanks for looking in Michael -:)

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  6. Hi
    I currently have been suffering from a bad back. When I get off the bike I look like the guy second in line on your tee shirt. Nice pictures.
    Robin

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