Monday 17 March 2014

Drop Bar Surly Karate Monkey Update Pt4; Midweek cycle- rewind to last week.:

Rewind to last week and what an amazing weeks weather it was.
Clear skies at night and no wind, air frosts at dawn. then lovely big blue skies and no wind!, this is a rare thing- a pic from Whitekirk Hill with not a breath of wind!...

I finished one evening and cycled to my mums at Longniddry as the sun slowly set, the evenings are starting to grow slowly longer as Spring becomes more evident in the County of East Lothian...

Cycling some of the John Muir Way i then took to some field boundaries to Kingston and onto some Bridleways around Fenton Barnes...




Big sky day...


Near East Fenton Farm is an old unmaintained road leading south, then west  to  cross the present Drem to Dirleton road and into the former RAF Drem Airfield...

Here is the track shown on the 1928 OS inch to mile map...

Looking north at the right angle...

View East...

And West towards the present road...

Across the busy road of commuter traffic and i left the noise behind as i rode around the Peri track (Peri-Perimeter) of the former RAF Airfield...


Spring time allows you to see things before they disappear under tree leaf canopy's and undergrowth...



The only remaining Dispersal pen is now going to be home to Horses instead of Supermarine Spitfires...


Photos of here at RAF Drem from the summer of 1940 when these young pilots fought to control air space over our island and doing so prevented an expected invasion ...




Leaving the airfield, peace full today and along Drem ride and then another track to Luffness....

Is this `Gravel Grinding`?  :)


That's a lot of chips... or for readers who live abroad that is `Frites` or `Fries` ... :)


Down the Postmans Walk passing Bickertons Tomb and along to Aberlady Village...






Rejoin the John Muir Way, then cut off and cycle through an Estate that since the Open Access Code still has signs saying no cycling...

The `No Cycling` signs at the entrances of this Estate should not discourage you from cycling through the Estate on the hard surface tracks and paths- as long as you do not infringe near to any houses or gardens, or farm steadings. If you do cycle around the Ponds where the grass paths are soft then it is up to the landowners to maintain them and it is not a reason to try and ban one type of access. There is no mention on the signs of prams or wheel chairs being excluded from entry...

On my high horse a bit about this as someone said to my family about me posting pics and films cycling through here and said i was not allowed to-that is rubbish as members of the public have access to pass through responsibly and with a mutual respect (of both parties) while doing so...
Basically the signs that have been up since before the Open Access Code of  are not worth the wood they are written on, and if contacted with a complaint then the local Council should and can issue notice for the signs to be removed.
Anyways the sun was setting quickly  as i rode through...







Last trail before sunset...


And along to mums for dinner, Returning home on the Longniddry to Haddington Railway walk with the lights on i though about how much fun the Drop Bar 29er format is, and despite fitting mudguards and stuff for commuting i decided to remove the hybrid guards and semi slick tyres and make more use of this bike over the summer.
More of that in the next post...




1 comment:

  1. Excellent bit of exploration off the beaten track. I will need to get my OS map out and have a look at your route!!

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