jan 1st beachride

as last year i didnt go out partying on hogmany and woke up feeling glad for it on new years day...and ready for a ride along the beach,
the south of the county and hills still have snow while from my house to the coast it is disappearing but there was a light fall on hogmany which froze then another covering which gave a grippy surface riding to north berwick along the john muir way,first tracks of the day too..

i saw no-one or even heard any cars until i rode into north berwick and loads of folk were all heading to the beach..i had forgot it was the annual new years day swim..in the sea!,it was at least -3C with the damp windchill...

i filmed the loonys going for the quick swim...



further along the coast it was a bit quieter with just a few couples out walking,a strong N-NW wind made it quite hard work as well as the incoming high tide softening up the sand in places...

1st rugby ball ive seen washed up!...

with the high tide i headed up through and along the dunes after gullane...



stopping in a sheltered dune i had a hot cup of tea with a dash of whisky and some toblerone chocolate..
then it was time to ride home using that strong tailwind and back onto thin snow and taking advantage of the hard frost used alot of field boundrys and horse trails usually a bit soft-near unrideable on a normal bike and avoided tarmac nearly the whole 6 miles...a great day out...