Midaircrisis Geordie Mountain Bikers update September 2006

Thanks to Jason, we started our midweek rideouts early this year, again starting at John's place at Cramlington at 7.15pm. It had been a fine day with a cool breeze, but when we climbed out of the car to unload the bikes it was very cool, and Gollum gladly accepted the offer of a spare fleece from John and off we trolled.

We headed south on the cycle paths crossing the main road at the Bay Horse pub through the dramatically colourful underpass (see pic at end of ride) and into the fields past Middle Farm to Seghill. From the northern edge of the village we turned east crossing the railway line and heading up the side of Proctor & Gamble's factory at Seaton Delaval. That put us on the north side of Holywell Dene, where we dived down to the Seaton Burn and followed the trail along the stream to its end, back up into Holywell village. A couple of hundred metres on the main road saw us dropping under the bridge and back onto the south side bridleway through the Dene, then it was a blast along it as far as the old railway line. Back down to the Burn again and a couple of chances for John and Jason to resume their regular flat out races, a feature of our rides these days. I just watch from a safe distance behind (no choice, really).

We continued past Crow Hall Farm and onto the wider trail past Hartley West Farm, finally emerging at the mouth of Seaton Burn in Seaton Sluice. We stopped here so that Terry could re-oxygenate the old leg muscles with a rest on a convenient park bench. The shots here look foggy but the evening was crystal clear, bit of a mystery -

After a short stop it suddenly became quite dark - we were a month early, after all, but luckily we didn't need to be on public roads for more than a minute.

We crossed the main Coast Road road bridge at the Melton Constable pub, which Jason managed to ride past without salivating, and dropped to the waters edge again to retrace our steps but on the other side of the Burn. A mile upstream we had to cross the new metal footbridge and were back on the outbound route again but heading home. Back at Middle Farm Golly got the lads to stop and pose as Moonies -

We moved on across the fields enjoying a few moments of blacked out madness on the approach to the A189 underpass which looked eery in the distance with its' weird, colourful glow -

Ten minutes later we'd navigated the cycle path between Southfield Lea and Collingwood Grange back to Johns around 10.00pm with 15 miles on the clock. Tired legs after midweek ride number one, but they made a big difference to our overall fitness in 2005.

Here's a little vid approaching Hartley and this arriving back at John's.

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Keep watching and if you fancy a ride out with us, drop us a line here: bailout@midaircrisis.org.uk