Summer Solstice.. a bivi cycle to Lindesfarne...

Solstice...the longest day...mid summer... and it`s a day earlier this year on Monday the 20th!...
It`s to do with the lunar stuff they say on TV, and it`s a new Full Moon this evening...
first full moon on a Solstice since 1967...
So will this be another summer of love?, guess it depends on what you `love` doing...
If hobbies then it`s business as usual... riding and blogging...
If work then it`s chomping grass like there`s a war going on!...
If it`s real love then for me that seems like a long forgotten thing these days...
8 months of no closure and then with this spring and returning to work and solo working up on the hill myself and the amount of work to do alone, then sitting at home in the evenings alone i have just felt the walls closing in... and although i feel inside i have a strong mental attitude to things i think i have come close to throwing the towel in and putting the house on the market/packing a bike and splitting and going looking for that big question mark above me i seem to see when i wonder where things are going, that seem`s to hang over me these days...

When your mowing grass all day you switch off and go into a zone... you don`t need to concentrate as you done this (i have) over 27 years, so you have time to think...maybe too much time!,
I have worked out that with no overtime now i am the worst off i have ever been with the cost of living vs wages... yep! i moved out alone when i was 25 and i had a car, motorbikes (two) and mountainbikes, and still had money to have nights out, taxi`s home and saved for car garage repairs and holidays...

The Solstice is such a positive time of year to celebrate... This year i hope will be a lot better by the next solstice..

I don`t want to come across sounding negative-and i hate negativity in things-and people...
I just feel like soon things must/will come to a dramatic change and a new line of life soon for myself/with someone else will soon come along one way or the other...
Must be the summer solstice to be thinking about where life is going...i dunno!

Never been so exhausted in Springtime and with the never ending cold onshore winds for over two months now,and been really needing a holiday and once again the magic of a wee island to escape to as always seems to work it`s magical wonders....
And The Holy Island of Lindesfarne is somewhere where you can lose yourself and find yourself in only a 24 hour visit...
I met Mike at the causeway car park around 2pm on Saturday and by Sunday at 2pm we had rode to and from the island and along the Bamburgh coast and it felt like we had been out riding and exploring for days on end...
I was tired... still, but i was recharged mentally and felt a lot more fresh today back at work...

Told you Holy Island is a magical place to visit and explore on a fatbike...

People still turn up and ignore the tidal warning signs.. check out this arse...

Mike had got in touch mid week and wanted to fire up to the island for the weekend and parked up we packed the bikes and rode west along the coast to Beachcomber and the dunes then onto the coast and what would be a 5-6 mile loop and wet feet but took us to the island side of the causeway-it had opened by then but we had a hoot riding in the meantime!...

Down onto the beach and around the Tern nesting site we rode out onto the wide flat of exposed sands towards the causeway estuary...

Detour in around a wet area inland near the small island...

Thinks this is a WW2 `Flame Fougasse ` site, part of the WW2 coastal crust anti invasion defences built in 1940...

As Mike shouted `check out the space!`...

Out there...

The Estuary crossing...

Next bit was hub and BB deep...

Made it and soon reached the causeway road...

LOL...

Crown and Anchor Inn for food and refreshments...

Midnight and as dark as it will get...

Mike brought some Rum...

Up at 5am and some breakfast...

Packed up and around the village for pics while the island was visitor free...

We rode around the island from the Lime Kilns and meetig some campers also up early we had a chat ad they could not resist a ride on the fatbikes...

Grins all round!...

We continued and enjoyed the varity of riding terrain from sand and dunes...

To the rocks of differant grip...

Soon we were back ont that golden 6 mile strip of sand that exposed at low tide runs west all the way to Scremerston...

Causeway estuary was shallow today-big differance to the day before...

Back to the cars via the salt marsh and the Route 1 cycle route network...

Breakfast at Biel Cafe...

Then a short drive to Bamburgh and a ride to Seahouses for a ice cream...

Cool beach art!!!  new Rubick Cube  paintings  on WW2 defences along side the red dice painting that have been here a number of years...

Ice cream at Seahouses, the back home...

Happy cyclists...

Here is some film shot with the old Go Pro HERO 2
Songs are `Cold Earth` and `Sick Times` by  Boards of Canada....

Summer Solstice Fatbike beachride  2016; Lindesfarne from coastkid71 on Vimeo.


More soon...