Mtb ride, Gosford and Luffness estates...

Sunday dawned terrible weather-sideways rain...which i was out in for 2 hours at work real early as i had an arranged trailride organised with friends around gosford and luffness estates where i grew up...
thankfully the rain was offf by 9am and 6 of us rode out at 11am from longniddry...unfortuantly the nettles were alot bigger than 3 weeks ago when i was last down ferny ness woods and i could feel the heat on the back of my neck from everyone like they could on there shins..sorry guys!...eh, i had trousers on!...past the old WW2 pow camp to gosford house..


Now this made me laugh..some warden type bloke pulled up and said we werent allowed to cycle in the estate!...here he is...

we all explained we know the open access code etc...and he tried to faff us of with some cock and bull about the estate being excempt to the access law...so theres signs everywhere that ask walkers to control dogs and stick to paths but no cycling?
he said there is signs...heres one of the signs...

these were made before the open access law was introduced and i informed him his signs werent worth the wood there written on...now i was wanting to ask him if he would like to call the police which of course he hadnt mentioned yet as he knew fine his scare tatics wernt working but suddenly he burst out `suit yourselfs` and sped off...what an arse!...
unfortuantly someone like a lady with 2 children will cycle down here,meet this idiot and believe what he says...we have a right to roam freely and with respect to the landowners but clowns like these in there employment? i love it when i meet folk like this!!,next time he will be on film...and it will be sent to the council access officer...
well done to all the guys for staying cool and keeping the language clean and not telling him what a sad tosser he was!...so on with the tour...
enclosed wild boar in the north wood...



an alice in wonderland cottage...

the old Mausoleum...

around the manmade ponds...the ice house...

curling house...

and boat house...

then it was along past hungry house-the old gamekeepers house which has had a planning application in march..looks like gosford may have another gamekeeper as the young laird is wanting to return the estate to its former glory of a top shooting estate...a short road ride around aberlady and into luffness estate, and down to bickertons tomb...



then along the old railway into gullane and up gullane hill to the great views from the millenium cairn...
group salute...

bikes...

then the only decent descent of the day down to gullane cliffs...



and the coast where the guys had a shot of the pugsley on the beach...
look at the big grins!...



over the nature reserve to aberlady and back into the estate woods at green craigs via the john muir way...



so fast i struggled to catch them on camera!...



then along the coast again on the john muir way around gosford bay...


to do the trail up seaton dean and returned to the coast down longniddry dean..then a cycle through the village for a cuppa tea and cake at my parents...thanks mum!...
another nice day out on the trails...

Their Breeding...

First there was one.....
now there is another....
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gary from mid lothian finished his pugsley around a month ago and has been fine tuning his spec and i think it looks very purposefull...

note the mudgaurds fat freaks!...

we rode out across aberlady nature reserve to the WW2 sub wrecks...


we then rode east...along gullane beach towards north berwick




and at north berwick some ice cream!...

we rode back towards gullane...


the tide already on the turn when at the WW2 subs was coming in fast today...

we stopped for a look at the caves at archiefield,there around 20feet above the coast...gary pointed out that at one time these would be near sea level and possibly occupied...


heading back inland from freshwaterhaven and alot of wild flowers including
thrift...



we rode the sandy trail behind muirfield golf course then up above gullane carpark avoiding the busy beaches narrowed by the high tide...

oh, look at the difference in chains...see how clean my chain is with using squirt lube



then from gullane cliffs it was down around the reserve...



where we parked up for a bike pic...same place i took a pic with tommy`s bike back in febuary!...

a great ride along the coast...more biking tomorrow as im taking some friends around the local trails and woods of the estates where i grew up...