Sunday 1st June 2008 saw it rain, like wet, wet, wet. Quite unusual for our rides, but you have to take the rough with the smooth sometimes. Turning up for punishment were Steve D, only been out on one Thursday nighter before now; Paul C arriving on his bike from South Gosforth with a 4 mile lead over the rest of us; Steve B, our Wild Boar Hero with 2 miles clocked from Longbenton and Chris D, these being the only ones mad enough to give up their cosy homes to join the Gollum. Expected out was Jason, but he was running late so we left here about 9:05 to collect him from his place on the way.

Space - the Final Front Ear >

 

 

 

 

After making our way down to Howdon Jason joined us for the run south through the Tyne Tunnel. We were fairly wet by the time we got that far, but conditions were to worsen as we headed into unknown territory through South Tyneside. Golly's target area was St Peter's Marina at Sunderland to pick up the Coast to Coast route west to Durham. After a good bit of ducking and diving through bits of newly discovered grass strips through housing estates and a couple of bridleways and the newish ST Waggonways we found ourselves approaching Cleadon Village.

By now there were a few muscles tightening and most of the groups' waterproof socks were leaking in or flooded out. That forced an impromptu stop in the middle of Cleadon's poshest part for a few minutes. Time to take a breather and a lunch stop near midday, so Golly led the others out onto the Sunderland Road where we found a nice big bus shelter to huddle in, hoping to see the rain ease off a bit. Unfortunately the rain started hitting us from ground level aswell, as there was a dirty great puddle across the front of the shelter which was hit by every passing car. In think Chris got the biggest dousing as we tried to stuff our nosh down our throats.

that's the pix, here's the vid, best action of the day! (7MB .wmv vid)

Morale wasn't the highest it's ever been thanks mainly to the prevailing weather conditions, and with the rest of the proposed route seeming an unreachable target, we took a Committee vote to turn back for home. We retraced our steps fairly closely on the way back, and luckily no-one suffered any mechanicals or punctures, which would have turned it into a proper ride to forget. Not one to remember with any relish anyway, unfortunately. At least we got a bit of exercise out of it, and the Gollum got to christen his latest acquisition, a Trek Fuel EX8 obtained under his work's Bike2Work scheme after three years of waiting.

We dropped Jason at the north end of the tunnel as we emerged and the rest of us headed north on the Silverlink Waggonways. We got back to the Cave at Holystone around 1.15pm (I'm guessing that) and set about hoosing down the bikes before Paul and Steve continued to pedal home adding a few more miles to their drudgery, although the weather had improved considerably by then. I haven't sussed the mileage yet, maybe Paul will let me know, but it must have been nearing 26 miles or so.

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