Anyway, on this particular Sunday we'd had a promise from the Weatherman that it would be a nice day. Because neither John nor Terry had ridden much in four or five weeks we decided to take it easy, keep it local and keep it flat and slow. So we left from John's at Cramlington and headed straight for the coast - the nearest being South Beach at Blyth. It started raining just as we were preparing to leave and got progressively heavier for the first hour.

We rode along the dunes, stopping to take a few snaps of some idiots in boats - suppose they couldn't get any wetter whereas we were REALLY stupid as we could get a lot wetter. What's this, a patch of blue sky over Whitley Bay?

Big birds on the rocks   Here are our three bikes!

We managed to avoid the idiot do owners and their mainly loose pooches up the links to St Mary's Island where we switched over to the coastal path and descended to the beach at the causeway. Note the bunch of flowers tied to the fence in this photo, a sure indicator that someone probably knew the tides less well than they thought. Apologies if that wasn't the case.

We continued up the coastal path to Whitley Bay and it's rare that you see the Bay as flat calm as this on such a crappy day! After much needed relief just opposite the sad, derelict site of Spanish City, we cruised through the streets of Whitley Bay westwards and on to the bridleways leading north to Seaton Sluice. From there we cut through New Hartley to avoid facing the by now quite strong wind from the north west, and then through East Cramlington. It was here that the Gollum's little limbs cried "enough!" and John had to backtrack half a mile to find the poor old soul sheltering behind a wall, his spindly limbs now completely shot with still two miles to go. With no choice but to get on with it, and encouraged by John, the pair set off again to find the most sheltered cycle path through Cramlington village and finally back to John's.

This ride was just what we both needed, but it remains to be seen whether or not it'll be enough to stay with the Reivers next weekend. It was only 18.5 miles and a very leisurely 3 hours but with midweek rides now out for the year we're going to have to get the legs pumping harder soon!

Have you Killed A BIKE THIEF TODAY?