Sunday Morning, On One Fatty.

There are a couple of simple rules for taking photos for a blog. (1) Have a fully charged battery. (2) Have a formatted memory card. Well yet again I failed on no.2 when I went for a Saturday morning spin on the LHT with no memory in the camera. 

So instead, here are a few photos from a Sunday morning play through John Muir Country Park on the Fatty.

Half tide and many miles of open estuary to explore.

Just the occasional dog walker, but mostly it was me, Fly, and the distant call of wading birds.

Fly was happy to run alongside, but insisted on having a drink from the pond, and naturally got covered in mud. 

A few minutes later I totally misjudged a rut and went over the bars. So that was the two of us going home filthy.

World War 2 buildings, sort of industrial landscape, fatbike thing.

An hour and a half of pedaling on a sunny Sunday morning then home for breakfast. Simple.

Autumn Ramble

I've acquired a new camera. Well it's new to me; it's a very little used Canon that was at a price I couldn't refuse. It may be two year old technology to the enthusiast but it's cutting edge for me. 

Saturday morning was a bit cold with a blustery westerly wind, but it kept the clouds moving and there were welcome periods of sunshine. I set off on the LHT with a flask of coffee and vague plan to go wherever looked sunny.

I also planned to stop for anything interesting, like this Grey Heron.

Or just to appreciate the colours on an autumn day.

Tantallon Castle, The Bass Rock and the Isle of May on the horizon, I don't know how many times I have seen this view but it's always worth another photo.

I carried on towards North Berwick where I cycled down to the harbour to see a boat that Coastkid had posted a picture of last week. It is indeed a Nordic Folkboat. I think it would have been built post 1966 as it has a carvel hull and it's obviously not one of the modern GRP ones.

The places where the paint had been ground back showed nice tight caulking but the rudder gudgeons look like they need immediate attention.

If it was mine, I would also be wondering about the keel bolts as there was a lot of filler around the keel hull joint and that is a worrying dent in the leading edge.

If you want to read more about these classic little boats, search for Lt Col Blondie Hassler and his adventures on his Folkboat 'Jester'.

Then it was back on the bike and past a cold looking east beach.

Then off to the glen where I stopped for a break in the shelter and had a good brew of coffee from my flask (and a fudge doughnut).

On by Becky's Strip and then to the John Muir Way.

Whose tyre prints could these be?

I cut back onto the road and could have headed back by Whitekirk, but as I was enjoying myself I went along by Janesfield and up the climb over to East Linton.

And after every climb comes the descent.

Over the bridge at the Linn and then back to Dunbar.

I had only headed out with the vaguest of notions where I was going but ended up being out for far longer than planned. I may have also passed a couple of fellow bloggers running along the beach and cycling along the road near Leuchie? A great pedal and all the better for not being planned.

Beach riding on the Fatty

I'm still missing my camera but hopefully a new one should be delivered next week. In the meantime I tried using my phone but didn't bother to post as the pictures were so poor. These pictures are taken on the little Vivitar camera which has an awfully small lens and aperture.

The weather forecast was quite poor on Saturday morning, so I took the Fatty out for a blast along the coast. I went east to Whitesands with clouds gathering and spots of rain in the freshening easterly wind.

I had plenty of empty beach, just the birds for company, and Fly of course.

There's not much chance of getting Fly to stay still for a photo.

On one Floater tyre print. If you read Fat Bike forums, you may be surprised to see this as these tyres are apparently no use for sand? eh?

It always amazes me how a bit of cold and damp drives people indoors. If you are prepared to put up with a bit of discomfort from the weather, then there are miles of empty coastline to be explored. Not the longest of rides but a fine way to spend a Saturday morning.

A Borders Cycle and a lot of rain

Firstly, my apologies for the images on this post. My Pentax Optio has charging issues. I eventually found an old 3mp Vivitar 'camera shaped object' at the bottom of a cupboard. On reflection, I could have used my phone to make an equally insipid record of the ride.

But lets concentrate on the cycling; My boss has been twisting my arm to take some time off so I booked Friday and a train ticket to Berwick upon Tweed. That's in England, so this post has a cross border, international traveller type theme!    Aye...

I caught the 09:28 from a very wet Dunbar station. The journey south was mostly a glimpse of flooded fields and miserable looking sheep as the train clattered it's way along the coast and cliffs. At Berwick I unhooked the trucker from it's storage compartment and struggled onto the platform.
The above photo is a cast iron support from the station canopy. The London North Eastern Railways date back to Victorian times (although LNER was a conglomeration in the 1920s) when steam ruled and Britain had an infrastructure to be proud of. As the doors closed behind me there was a hiss of brakes and the electric warmth and light of the train continued south. I stood on a very wet and windswept platform and wondered what I was doing.

There was nothing else to do but put on the waterproofs, get on the trucker and start into the 30mph gusting wind, driving rain and interminable hills.

Thing is, half an hour in and I was in my own little cocoon of damp, spinning away, watching the countryside pass by and feeling so relaxed with the world.

After a pedal along the Tweed, then the Kelso road, I turned off to Paxton, then cut back and started the steady two mile climb to Lamberton Moor.

To add to the torrential rain, I was now climbing into the clouds.

This was the best attempt at a smile I could manage.

Eventually I descended through Ayton and on into the fishing town of Eyemouth. The easterly winds will build a sea over the next 24 hours so most of the fishing boats were tied up.

A very big prawn and the fish market in the background.

Stopping to take a photo reminded me how wet and cold I was so I found a cafe that would accept a dripping cyclist and dried out beside a radiator with coffee and cake. Half an hour and the cake was long gone but I was still nurturing the dregs of coffee. The waitress had given up mopping the floor around me and I knew I had to drag myself back out into the rain.

The next ten miles were actually quite pleasant. I thought I would be climbing up from the coast to Coldingham on a road I know well, but instead the signs pointed me onto little used lanes across the moor. I still had to climb, but there were no traffic worries.

No I didn't see any Red Squirrels, but the colour of the trees was amazing. Unfortunately the rain got the better of the camera and that's the last of the photos. The rest of the cycle was mostly in the mist until the descent from the moor to Pease Bay. I set a new best on the trucker with the computer showing 37mph with me tucked in and grimacing at the needle like rain. Not surprisingly I couldn't stop for the turning down to the bay, so shot on to Pease Dean and the over to Cockburnspath. The rest of the route home was pretty familiar and quite uneventful. As I entered Dunbar the rain stopped, and as I turned onto the last few yards to home, the sun came out.
I think my cycling shoes might be ruined, I am without a camera, the cycle computer is telling me I am averaging 70mph whilst standing still, but it was a great trip.