Monday 13 December 2010

Head East...


Which i did for a beachride on Sunday....down to John Muir Bay at Belhaven on the west side of Dunbar...a 7 mile tarmac roadride-something i dont usually do on the pugsley but the trails through the local "as the crow flys" woods are mostly frozen footprints in frozen snow,kind of hard to explain but not much fun to cycle.
So down to Belhaven Bay and to the "Bridge to nowhere" over the Biel Burn which was in spate with the thaw...

But i wasnt heading across the sands yet as was going to meet with my friend Ped in dunbar who was taking his collie dog Fly for a walk.
First i headed over the rocks below Winterfield Golf course...here you can see WW2 Coastal Defence anti-tank blocks used to stop coastal erosion...

The rocks here are covered in barnacles and great to ride over on the pugsley in a low gear..the noise of the turning tide (it was just past low tide) was unreal,and there was some big surf...



Heres a wee film of the surf...

Around the point and the coastline is full of WW2 anti tank blocks.looks like there losing the fight against the Sea...

You can see the base here of what must of been a Look-out post or a machine gun pill box...

The round concrete castings in the sea wall are base`s from WW2 Coastal Invasion Anti Glider Poles which would have covered all the wide flat sand beaches of the County in 1940 as the Country braced themselves for a likely Invasion...dark days...


You can see how storms have slowly pulled the man made sea wall apart, only thing to stop mother nature is mother nature itself,as the Cliffs here have done so for thousands of years, The original Town and Castle of Dunbar is built on this rock...
Whilst sandstone the surrounding fields inland are often a heavy clay of the same terracotta colour...



I havent seen Ped for a while and it was good to catch up.
Like me he moved here around 11 years ago due to the house prices,i moved 4 years ago from here and have to admit i miss the sea views esp the summer sunrises but Ped has made full use of the Towns Harbour and got himself a wee yacht,out of the Harbour for the winter so we went down for a look.On the way he pointed out these gate hinges on the way-have a close look, yep its a grease nipple!...

As Ped pointed out who ever made them you want to see in his workshop!....
The Harbour was quiet..



Ped has agreed to take me sailing in the spring east of the county and with the dingy in tow we will land on some beaches unreachable by land-oh and i will have the pugsley with me,
1st person to cycle them?...
Heading for home it was back around the clifftop trail to Belhaven and over the bridge onto the sands, Wasnt long to sunset now and it was an amazing evening...
just a few folk on the beach and some surfers enjoying the waves...

Film or pics never quite capture it...

Along the flat sands and i short cutted the point and through the dunes where the sand was still frozen,it was cold esp now the sun was setting...

onto the beach on the west side of John Muir Park known as Hedderwick Sands which is the river Tyne Estuary and there out in the Bay was a round straw bale!,
washed down the river during the recent thaw i wonder where it came from...

I rode home all offroad via the John Muir Way and trails as the sun set, there was still alot of ice and frozen snow to keep things interesting...

Todays ride showed that with a fatbike theres alot of stuff to see and do whatever the weather conditions and it opens up a different kind of scenery to look at than just established trails...Happy days...

5 comments:

  1. Wow, one blog post later and I understand exactly what fatbikes are all about!

    How do they cope with bogs?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great stuff bro - the pavements, paths and park here are also a frozen footprint hell. Can't ride safely or even run properly - getting blobby!

    ReplyDelete
  3. ian: There ok for a spot of bog hopping!,less impact on soft ground makes them ideal for sensative areas like the Cheviots or the Pentlands this now in winter, slowly i reckon these bikes will catch on here in the UK!

    Hey big bro!, where folk had walked was the place to ride when the snow was deep but now with the thaw the iced footprints remain and are awful to ride over!

    ReplyDelete
  4. limom; yeah frozen sand!
    its wierd to ride over as you expect the bike to sink but its like concrete!

    ReplyDelete