Midweek Cycling; Sunset cycle...

Forecast for the weekend is rain, Summer officially finishes on Sept 22nd - The Autumn Equinox, so be loads more fantastic evening cycling to sunsets, then on with the lights as the days grow shorter.
Tonight i rode a loop from home through harvested stubble fields before the harrows and ploughs move in. Some fields are still to be harvested and combines were out again making the most of the dry weather...

I do rides like this every harvest, no one else seems that interested in fatbike riding on stubble fields, but i love it, you see different views from crossing fields and as happened this evening you can get that magic hour of bright light and long shadows before sunset.
I took the KramPug to try it on the stubble and being bone dry it was better than the 4" tyre Pugsley as it is lighter and yet still has enough cush (koosh?) for crunching through stubble and absorbing bumps and ruts. Fatbikes work on terrain like this also because of the slacker steering angle which helps them track better...

I rode south then west through fields to Drem....

Then down into the former WW2 RAF Drem Airfield...

Then around 7pm we got it, that magic light before sunset...

A now and then pic from this corner on the old air fields perimeter track... today it is peacefull and quiet...

73 years ago in September 1940... Spitfire's at the ready to be scrambled to defend our little island,

73 years ago our country was fighting for survival and for the airspace above.
If it fell Britain would have been invaded and the D Day landings would have been near impossible to launch, and Europe would have fallen to an evil uprising that had flattened all resistance across Europe in only 6 weeks and now sat looking at the south of England's coast through binoculars in France. Only around 3000 young and for many inexperienced RAF fighter pilots were all that was in their way...

Imagine the awesome roar of 12 Rolls Royce Merlin supercharged V12  engines on full song as those young pilots, many who had just left school and were still teenagers, and by September most only had 8 hours flying experience in bi planes before getting to fly into battle in 1000+ bhp fighters,  ran from their dispersal huts to the Spitfire or Hurricane`s sitting being warmed up, and were scrambled and took off to fly out over the Firth of Forth estuary to meet incoming enemy bombers trying to reach this airfield, others and the Navy Fleet and Rosyth docks at Edinburgh, must have been something to witness...

I have posted several pages on this former airfield and since earlier posts i have collected loads of pictures of RAF Drem during WW2 and will do a new updated post this winter and try to get it all in one post, in one place.
If your new to reading my blog or just interested in an insight to here at Drem during WW2 here is film i made a while back. It was brought to life when i got audio of former RAF Battle of Britain fighter pilots who flew from here. Other audio is from the BBC series `Spitfire Pilot`.

I have now uploaded 333 films to youtube that have had nearly half a million views in 5 years, but this is my favourite film i have made. I  think that is because no one else has (or since this film) told the story of RAF Drem on youtube and of the young men and their important part played in dark times of our country, and local history is often overlooked. yet the Battle of Britain was not just over the skies of southern England but all along the east coast of the UK...

Oh the Hurricane fly by over the hangers at 6mins 38 secs is the only flying film footage i have found of RAF Drem...





Back to more peacefull times... amazing clouds and light...

From West Fenton i rode east with the sun on my back, crossed the main road and managed to ride all the way to Kingston after a zig zag short road ride to get under the North Berwick railway line..

Long shadows...

See the young Roe deer right in front of me?, while the mum legged it across the field...

Sunsetting...

Last light of the day on the Law...

Amazing evening...