coastrider: Wee cycle east out of town...

With my second Surly Pugsley 2.0 built and rolling 29+ I went a cycle east out of town a short ride to stretch the legs, G was working day shift so after some time in the Man cave it was good to get a wee cycle in...

Always a pleasure to visit the Dunbear and have the place to yourself,

Got a load of pictures of the newly built bike...

As you will see the build is everything that was on the first build of the other Pugsley 2.0 bike!

I followed the cycle path down to Dunglass bridges beside the A1 on the county border with Berwickshire to go have a look again at a WW2 artefact still visible today...

Rewind to June 1940, The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had been evacuated off France at Dunkirk and things did not look good for the future of the UK as we knew it, We were on our knees with most military equipment wrecked and abandonded on the beach at Dunkirk, shipping being sunk at an alarming rate by U boats in the Atlantic we were an island and very much now on our own...

The likely hood of An invasion by an Army that had swept through Europe in 6 weeks was very real indeed...

Remaining Army which was now also made up of French and Polish troops that escaped were put to work helping building coastal defences that would try to slow any landings, And your always seeing many of these defences still visible today on our beach cycling rides, along with Anti tank traps and blocks , machine gun pill boxes, barbed wire, landmines etc...

The home guard were tasked with preparing to try slow any landing that made it ashore by blowing up railway and road bridges on major routes, it was believed The wide East Lothian beaches were a prime landing area in German plans for forces to then move to capture Lieth docks in Edinburgh, then with the Royal Navy taken care of by U Boats the door would have been open for occupation of Scotland...

The bridge beside the present A1 bridge over the Dean was in June 1940 along with everywhere else prepped for demolition...

Take a walk underneath and you can see the sandbag walls still there where the explosives would have been placed, the sand has kind of turned more into a hard fine gravel in over 80 years...

Returning home I followed the John Muir Way (JMW) coastal trail towards Torness and reflected on just how close things were in 1940 to changing forever. It puts into real content just how amazing people were back then in their resilience and resourcefulness and helping each other during dark times. That summer of 1940 must have felt like an eternity as a handful of RAF fighter planes and young pilots fought and for many died and were horrifically burned and scarred for life battling for Air superiority, and Londoners then endured the Blitz bombing but did not give in, but got stronger, as did the RAF...

Were an amazing country with an amazing history though most folk nowadays don't give a moments thought as they walk past war memorials.

Most of the Men and Woman that survived WW2 are now no longer with us but they will always be remembered...

Humans are still having wars when you see Ukraine today, I guess humans are destined to destroy the planet and each other, were definitely having a good go at it...