At last we managed to get this crucial fixture out of the way! And we had help.

Meeting at the Cave for our latest ever ride start were Steve Wa, Mark, Paul, Tim, Chris D, Peter and Terry. That help I mentioned came first from Steve, whose idea this insanity was in the first place. He arrived at the start with a car load of meaty stuff, boozy stuff, cheesy stuff, and saucy stuff, together with stuff to construct a barbie from.

Next, help from long-not-seen Northern NMBC Trail Scout Derek, who met us an hour into the ride at Camperdown and proceeded to unearth some more new stuff around his home town Cramlington for us to enjoy, while still leaving some new tasters for future rides in the area. Good way to work up an appetite but nothing too strenuous.

After tackling a good chunk of Gosforth Park East Side with the usual Terry-inspired dead ends and bleeding, prickled arms and legs from thorn damage, we emerged on Sandy Lane to cross into Weetslade. Time for Mark to demo his latest trail discovery doing the field edges around to Seaton Burn, but that run was interrupted for a short time by a tyre deflation for Paul. Luckily after a few moments when he discovered Slime showing through a thorn hole in his tyre, he decided to risk blowing it up and continuing, and that worked no problem.

Derek took the reins at Arcot where we had a little more jungle trekking before Terry led out the other side past the pond, and it took a bit of fiddling for us to find the bridleway again by one or two somewhat scenic routes. Next stop Cramlington Village and a nice surprise waiting in the trees alongside the Spine Road with a fast, arrow-straight, wide under-tree blast eastwards until we had to cross the dual carriageway (not easy in the heavy holiday traffic). More treats awaited there and even a twisty climb through the trees which we did in both directions as the clock was heading rapidly towards BBQ time and we were still 5 miles away from the embers. We hoped.

The back of East Crammy past in a flash and we were soon hitting bridleway past Lysdon Farm heading directly out to the coast. The bridles deposited us on the Coast Road a mile north of Seaton Sluice and we crossed onto the Dunes trail to ease southwards towards the Astley Arms, stopping at the allotted barby spot at 1430, right on time.

Well, WE were right on time. But where was Chris K, our final hero for the day who'd very kindly offered his services to deliver the BBQ kit in his car after his surprise appearance for a chat only at the Cave on Thursday night? We waited patiently in the fragile sunshine and the minutes ticked by. We only waited patiently for a few minutes. Then the tongues got longer. The laughs turned to groans. Empty bellies were heard to gurgle. Terry rang the Cave. It was 1445 and Chris had left the Cave with all the gear at 1400. That's 9 miles away. You work it out.

Tempers frayed. Grass was ripped out and chewed violently. Jaws ached. Paul headed up the Dune track towards Blyth to see if he could spot Chris. Tim went south into The Sluice to do the same. Minutes later, although it seemed like hours, Tim rang to say he'd found Chris sat outside the Church! So he pointed him in the right direction. Unfortunately he then pulled in to the Astley Arms car park, still well short of target. Tim must have spotted that last manoeuvre and corrected Chris again and finally the s@d drove past us waiving outta his window like the Queen on parade day.

Boy, were we glad to see him (!).

There followed a wonderful cookery session in our own secluded dune with Chris K overseeing as Steve did the manual work. The speed and quality of the cookery was only matched by the speed of digestion once the first meat turned off-pink (yuk, I mean, yuk - bl@@dy cannibals, this lot). Dunno why Terry was scorned so much for wanting his burgers charcoalised.

Only bad news of the day was Team MAC Skipper Stevie B not being able to make it up from Harrogate but that was compensated for when wor Jason turned up around 1530 after searching the length and breadth of the north east coast looking for us. Someone, The Prof I think (Tim) eventually twigged we had no signal in the bowels of our dune so that's why Jay was having trouble locating us! He finally got through on Chris D's mobe and we scaled the heights to spot him coming back north after passing us minutes before.

Should have been the charred remains of four ex-burgers that gave Terry bad guts here, but no, it was Peter and his insistence that salad is bad for you, and then Tim with his outrageous birthday cake made from a burger and cheese topping complete with un-blowoutable candle for the Gollum to waste his puff on! And there was plenty more dubious, curious, hilarious and of course lecherous stuff to keep the ache going.

We started wrapping up around 1630 when the sky suddenly darkened and icicles formed on the barby tray. Chris sped off in his car loaded with the remains while the rest of us headed into Hollywell Dene which we followed all the way home, taking the easy, flat route along the top so as to reduce any potential digestive issues. Derek turned off where Crammy was closest and the rest of us were redistributed home along the way.

Great company once again for a Club get-together, although we expected a bigger turnout. Chris K may have lost his mobility but he sure ain't lost his sense of humour. The indefatigable Jason chipped in his usual dry four pen'orth and the rest are just nuts anyway. As a bonus we even got away with half decent weather for it.

Pix here.