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Jason and Terry met Derek of the Reivers this sunny(ish) Sunday morning, 20th May 2007 at 9:45 just outside Mitford, Morpeth. We started the ride at about 9:55 heading west to seek out as many bridleways, railway tracks (disused!) and singletracks as possible. About five minutes in, silly old Gollum remembered his camera, but it was a few miles back (well, one mile?) as he'd left it in the car. Bummer. However, that means this page is suddenly much easier to construct without spending a couple of hours trimming and resizing photographs. Sods Law, however, dictated that this was a great ride for some camera work, and sure enough, Sod was right.

Derek hauled us off road pretty smartish at Lightwater House and down to East Edington. We should have turned right there, but good old Jason had forgotten his water supply, so Derek took us back east where he led us in and back out of Gubeon Plantation Golf Course for some bottled H2O before backtracking to West Edington where we got off-road again as we continued the search for tree lined heaven. We found some of that on the old railway under Molesden, where Golly offered to swap bikes with Jason, who was riding Golly's Barracuda but finding it a bit weighty after a week of illness. Poor soul. Sticking him on Golly's new Mutha perked him up a bit but also opened the floodgates to a whole new series of moans from our prospective Trans Scotland Champion (next weekend). First was "the handlebars are twisted" followed by "the shocker is too soft" then "the gears are jumping" and a few others, culminating in "the seat clamp's the wrong colour".

A short stretch of tarmac followed taking us below Meldon before hitting the fields again at Meldon Lane House. Just north of there we rejoined the railway line after Derek hid behind a hedge to stop us seeing what he was up to, but I spied on him and saw him reading a MAP! Well, this ride was a joint MidAirCrisis/Reivers Deserter ride so I suppose there had to be a map-reader about somewhere. Back on the railway we went west to Mill Greens then onto the road again as we fiddled our way round to Bolam Country Park where we had a smashing lunch in the sun, Derek treating us to hot drinkies as he stuffed his face with calories. Jason fell foul of the coffee shop manageress when he tried to offload his banana skin and pork pie packets into her posh shop. She chased him outside and told him to use the bin out there. We couldn't find it so the crap got jammed under her windscreen wipers.

We retraced our steps again then added a short in-and-out at Highlaws before returning to Green Mills by road this time before another field crossing led us north to High Angerton before joining the B6343 into Hartburn. That's where, in Hartburn Glebe, Derek showed us the amazing Holy Wells little Churchy-type dwelling carved into a cave and hewn from rocks on the riverside. Where the hell is the GollyCam® when you need it? You can't see the cave here but this is what the rest of the cliff looks like. I've since discovered that the "church" was built by a vicar in the 18th century to preserve the modesty of female bathers. They were obviously being spied on by passing mountain bikers...

Further investigation into the darkest recesses of the cave by Jason, who said he was checking out the wiring to see if it needed updating, produced this fantastic discovery of what may have been the world's first cctv camera - dirty old vicar?

More cross country enjoyment and a river crossing up to Wittonstone, then east onto the Devil's Causeway old Roman road before veering off it to Netherwitton. Heading south from there put us on a fast downhill dual bridleway to Nunriding Hall, after a pause to finish whatever nosh we were carrying, and we got some more as far as Throphill before hitting tar again. From Newton Red House there's a lush little stretch of singletrack with elbow and head-banging trees to avoid before a climb that just about saw the Gollum's energy run out. North for the stepping stones over the River Wansbeck once again before returning to the cars at 3.20 pm.

Golly GPS said 30 miles/5hrs 25 mins/5.47mph average/28mph max.

What the GPS doesn't tell you is that this was a fantastic ride. Admittedly, the unexpectedly great weather helped, but here was a ride that didn't burst anyone's' lungs, didn't leave anyone behind simply by moving at the pace of the slowest rider, included enough decent rests even for an ageing Gollum and had enough super little off-road treats to satisfy any genuine cross country mountain biker.

 Cheers, Derek.

 

Coming out for a ride? E-mail us bailout@midaircrisis.org.uk