Once more only three of us participated, so we started at Cramlington again. Heading west over towards the A1, it was a pleasant ride on a lovely evening. The wind was quite strong but the minor roads and lanes leading to the Holiday Inn at Seaton Burn were well sheltered by trees.

We rode past the Brenkley landfill site where we hopped onto a bridleway. This got pretty rough over a cow field as the ground was surprisingly dry and hard considering the wet weather we've had lately. The bridleway spat us out just north of Dinnington Village. We continued west along the edge of the Army Firing Range at Prestwick Carr. If you have to ride tarmac, this is the best kind with hardly a motor in site. At Prestwick Mill Farm we were on bridleway again which took us into the top end of Ponteland, emerging at The Diamond pub.

Crossing over the main A696 we caught another bridleway heading back east between the Leisure Centre and the school. This is a disused railway line (no sign of the lines now). It then loops around Black Callerton and back to the A696 crossing the end of the runways at Newcastle Airport. From here you're on the old road through Wolsington and straight on to Kenton Bank Foot, turning left past Newcastle Falcon's rugby ground at Kingston Park and onto the Dinnington road. We turned right onto a tiny minor road past Brunton Bridge Farm and offroad again into the Prestwick Nature Park which took us to Hazlerigg. Another bridleway let Jason and John race each other for half a mile with me chugging along at the back until we landed at Brunswick village. It was back on the road to Wideopen, then into the fields again emerging south of Dudley High School.

Here's where John led us around a square field full of tallish plant life, and also led Golly into a trap laid by a large piece of broken tree. Thinking he'd missed it (couldn't see for the greenery) Golly's front wheel stood the thing up like a mousetrap, and it proceeded to bite his left arm, hard. Crikey - lovely night, flat ride, NO ARMOUR. How familiar is that? Had to shrug it off but as I write this the next day it sort of hurts a bit. Don't tell anyone (esp wife person). From Dudley we picked up the A189 back to John's place. The whole of the return from Ponteland was superb with the stiff breeze at our backs - it makes a real difference at the end of a ride. This one clocked up 21.5 miles, including the unnecessary square dance round that field.