Thursday 13th September 2007 - Dark Ride Night again for anyone who cared to appear at Stevo's Cottage on the Great Lime Road.  The popularity of Thursday night rides shows no sign of waning yet. The usual suspects were there - Daniel, David, Ian A, Kay, Keith, Stu, Derek and Terry for another jaunt around the local inhospitable places. They were joined by Craig on his second outing, and Ray, Derek's mate from Cramlington to take the party up to ten. We left just after 7.00pm in search of a different direction. This time it was west to the Wheatsheaf end of the GLR as Golly took the group down through the farm to the Swallows Nature Park opposite the Atmel (Siemens) factory. We followed the bushes aside the A19 down to Silverlink Retail Park staying on the bridleways to the UCI complex, then turning west to Battle Hill just after young Daniel almost wiped out a car.

A spot of hill climbing never comes in wrong, so we did that up to the Rising Sun peak, but not before Derek took a dive off his Stumpy at the dodgy step-over gate to the fields. Dangerous sport, MTBing! We blasted off the top down to Station Road, crossing over to NUFC's training grounds and down to the Powder Monkey. From there we followed the bridleway west to Coach Lane, and all the way to it's end at Freeman Road, South Gosforth, with an anti-clockwise loop being Gollum's cunning plan.

We were in Speedian country now, and he gathered the clans to advise them of what they were about to be faced with, in the dark. Hilariously (sorry, Ian), he was about to become the only victim of this part of the route! He led us down the steep rooty drops into Jesmond Dene which somehow passed uneventfully. However, when we got through the little tunnel and down to the old Water Mill, Ian rounded the corner of the building to discover Keith stopped right in the middle of the path, yapping! So he had to apply some retardation. Unfortunately, the Gollum was right up his exhaust pipe, and gave Ian's back wheel a good old clout. That caused Ian, still half clipped into his pedals, to keel over sideways and land with a dull thud on the rock path.  I'm sure it hurt, but he said not. A Real Man.

When the giggles subsided we moved on, and up the Cherry Tree Walk bank onto Jesmond Park West. Half a mile up the road Golly ordered everyone into Paddy Freeman's Park for a short breather. We sat there in the glare of Derek's front Hope searchlight, watching the dark ducks on the black water in the lake, and had a snack break. Beautiful night, could have stayed longer, but the sound of approaching Chavas grew ever louder so we continued on our way. Somehow, Kay, Derek and Terry got split from the main group when Kay hit a tree stump. By the time we'd got going again, the others had vanished, but we caught up with them back on Freeman Road outside the Hospital.

We then dropped down to South Gosforth roundabouts on tarmac, scuttling through to the bridleway behind the golf course on our way into Melton Park. When we reached the Great North Road we said "goodnight" to Stu who had pedalled from home to Forest Hall this time and was almost back now at Fawdon. After the customary stop for photos outside the Gosforth Park Hotel it was time to light up the forest. Gollum managed to hit the wrong trail and was followed by another 3 or 4, who had to turn around to catch up Speedian's party. Then we all had a laugh at the many and various ways everyone descended the drop between the trails. Craig and David were last down and both skated to the bottom in spectacular fashion, David straight down and Craig broadside.

At Last! Golly gets a decent picture of the wall outside the... er, Riot?

Time to hit the remaining trees, literally in some cases! After Ian's next Mystery Tour through the pitch darkness we emerged onto Sandy Lane, and that was when Ray decided he'd laughed enough for one night and departed for Cramlington. Derek stayed with the crowd for the final black run through the top of the golf course but fortunately for the odd tired body, Ian chose a wider, flatter route back out to the road through the park. Derek left us at the gates as usual to go and chase down Ray, while the remaining bods crossed the main road into West Moor and the last leg of the Great Lime Road.

Gollum arrived home at 10.00 pm and according to Ian's clock we'd covered about 22 very enjoyable miles on a beautifully warm evening, Craig, Kay, Derek and Ray clocking at least 26 miles each.

Here's the pictures - still getting used to the new camera!

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