Autumn Day on the coast at its best...

Sunday was supposed to be a Salsa Fargo ride with a bit of Autumn colour but the thing is that Autumn really has not happened here in East Lothian yet. A lot of trees have just shrivelled leaves and dropped them after all the rain of recent weeks. Don`t know why Radio Scotland keep banging on about a great Autumn after the wet summer because it is not here!, might happen yet in a few weeks but not going to be anything special...

One life live it...
Today i did a ride not for myself but for my dad. When he gets out of hospital he will not walk again on the beaches and coastline he spent his life on from 1970 to 1990 as East Lothians first and Senior Countryside Ranger for Scotland's first Countryside Ranger service...
He will get to see the coast from the car but not walk the secluded areas of coastline away from the public.
That's where i come in as my blog pictures have become a way to show dad our coastline today and how it is changing with on going  coastal erosion and regeneration like i posted on at Aberlady Bay last week.

Sunday was a lovely clear Autumn day. It was supposed to be only 9 degrees Celsius, but was warmer than that, maybe the last warm Sunday of this year on the coast...
So i rode the Moonlander from North Berwick out to Aberlady Bay and instead of bike riding pics tried to capture the views and wildlife as viewed from the saddle...

It`s a hard job but someone has to do it... -:)

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...