Sunday 30 May 2010

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...

11 comments:

  1. Ace ride out, cheers Bruce

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  2. thanks tom...a few stinging shins tonight i bet!,next ride i will do a recce first!

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  3. What's a curling house Bruce? You got me with that one.

    Great ride and pics as usual!

    Cheers

    Clive

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  4. Nice post and a great rant in the middle - you've spent too much time on my blog perhaps???

    cheers....Al.

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  5. Group salute...looks like "Monty Python and the Holy trail"!! LOL

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  6. clive; curling house..used to keep curling stones from when in colder times ie victorian they did curling on the ponds when frozen...only happened once when i grew up in either 1977/78...

    Al; always said i would never rant or get political with my blog but this guy took the biscuit!...

    tommy; its the purple helmets motorcycle display team salute!..check them out on youtube!. the hand on helmet salute! lol...

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  7. Great stuff! Curling house... Now I know what I have missed all my life! ;)

    That (fat) bloke in the golf cart look like he could have some use from some biking himself, perhaps some of his canned anger would be cured too! =)

    Do you get endoresement from Surly for all the Puglsey that will be sold around your area? ;)

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  8. Haha, nice work on the security! Beautiful pictures as always! Do you or any of your riders keep gps coordinates of your rides? I'd love to see where these places are!

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  9. //harri; a surly t shirt for thanks would be nice!

    stout; i am going to buy a garmin soon so will be putting up our routes...

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  10. Gosford hides behind a loophole in the law. They charge for "permits" and as such can claim that they were a paid attraction prior to the law's enactment. Dalkeith do the same. I was over their wall today (on foot).
    Keep up the good work, and pressure on.

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  11. I was stopped by probably the same bloke. Told me my bike had caused his dog to bark and therefore my presence was 'unreasonable', then claimed that he had a licence for dangerous wild animals on the section I had cycled across. I said it wasn't fenced off and he said he didn't have any dangerous animals yet! I cycled away laughing.

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