This is an hour's drive south of Newcastle and is the finest that Durham has to offer. Although not yet developed in the same way as Wales and Scotland, it's getting there and is a great day out. It's big enough to get lost in and you can really enjoy yourself there, even on fire roads. Here we are with David Bellamy at the end of the 2003 Great Milk (Stout) Ride.   Doing our bit to make him famous!

There's a squad of locally-based riders here who run their own pay-to-ride Downhill course - looks mighty scary to us old codgers. They are Descend Hamsterley and you can see them here.

The odd ones we've talked to seemed a great set of lads, but we were there a few weeks ago and they let us breeze past after we'd stopped to admire some of their members gapping the fire road outside their hut, and they never mentioned the fact that the Red Trail we were approaching had been devastated by the wind and was largely inaccessible.    Never mind, good exercise climbing trees with a Kona haversack.