Gollum had once again been racking his pea-sized brain for some different routes, so off we went, first following Speedy up to the Old Coast Road through Old Forest Hall, and onto the Rising Sun Country Park like last week. This time, however, Gollum took lead and shuffled the pack along the top of the Park before turning south to the farm, then down to the Barking Dog bridleway. Left a bit into Battle Hill Estate, cutting through to Battle Hill Drive then the underpass beneath the Coast Road.

Golly just managed to stop Derek taking the "easy route" as we emerged from the southern slip, and diverted him to a set of tricky agricultural steps a few metres west. This sets you along the skinny top lip of Wallsend Burn through a jungle behind Holy Cross, and there's a real need to be super-careful you don't stray an inch to the right, otherwise it's a sheer 50 foot or greater drop into black oblivion, even in daylight! The New Derek, even on his singlespeed hardtail, just bolted down these dodgy treads to lead into the Great Unknown. Half way along here, as Derek picked up the pace in front, his Hope searchlight picked out a couple of cats living dangerously on the trail just ahead of his front wheel. I suppose they didn't expect a mountain bike club hurtling through here in the dead of evening! He missed the black one by the width of it's tail, and the Gollum a few feet behind even saw the grimace on the little beggar's face as it expected to become tyre black. Another 50 metres further, on a short, sharp incline, it's brother popped out and ran between Derek's wheels. How many lives? The short, fresh-to-the-mob jungle trail produced grins all round.

We stopped after escaping the bushes to let the backenders catch up, and Gollum then described the next obstacle as being "about a hundred steps, and a bit tricky". He and Derek led down this six foot wide concrete staircase, side by side, bumping down in perfect harmony. Reaching the bottom it was grin time again, but unfortunately Golly just didn't have time to sprint back for a picture of Stu manhandling his beast down the awkward descent. We took the dark path through the Burn to Rosehill Bank, and cut through to Howdon and the Tyne Pedestrian Tunnel. With the "DOWN" escalator actually travelling upwards, and the "UP" switched off, only stupid Gollum tried his luck against the flow on the down side, and just made it off the bottom before being carried straight back to the top again on skimpy, burning legs. The others, sensibly, carried their bikes down the stationary steps.

We whizzed through at some rate, using Derek as the hare, merging from the south side we cruised gently along the riverside cycle path to Hebburn before Stu's Curse struck again. The Old Fool said "turn right, lads" when all but he knew it was too soon. So they followed him down towards the river, but arrived only at an eight foot fence across the road. Stu's Curse? Well, last Thursday Golly made him climb a bank in Jesmond Dene for nowt, and here we were again, a nice hill to get back up for no good reason! We took the next right from the main road to get us back to the riverside, where Craig went straight on the defensive when a group of Chavas (or just kids, even?) seemed to be communicating by voice with another bunch in the middle of the Tyne! Unless, of course, they'd nicked the Police boat! Another set of "under attack by Chavas" jokes followed as we continued onto Keelman's Way.

Once more it was time for Gollum, somewhat familiar with this circum-Tyned (careful!) route, to warn the others about the invisible enemy along here. No, not Chavas again, but Bollards! Loads of them, most painted light black and most right in the middle of the trail. Excellent for keeping you alert when the sun goes down. So the cry went up, from front to back of the pack for the next few kilometres, "Bollards!". It worked. The nearest we came to an accident was when Ian F eased Gollum out of the way on a fast swoop down but didn't see the huge boulder sticking out into Golly's path. Sweaty seconds for the little rock dweller.

We continued to wiggle our way through the riverside trail, stopping only to lift ourselves and the bikes over dirty great fences, as first Derek, then Gollum led the others up blind alleys. Here's one. Good exercise, lifting bikes above your head, I suppose.

We finally arrived at the Millennium Bridge to find the Gateshead side taken over by a great big marquee over the bridge entrance. And a burly security guard patrolling the temporary "indoor foyer" leading to the bridge. The Gollum plucked up the courage to ask his permission to ride through, over the lush green plastic grass carpet and the big fella just nodded, busy reporting in to his mammy on his mobe. We halted in the middle of the bridge so that Golly could make yet another attempt at a night time photo. here they be:

First, a very nice young lady agreed to have her photo taken with the lads- but for some reason I missed the lads!

Here's the one of her, too bright, showing the ruby Millennium Arch properly I darkened the first one to bring out her, er, pleasant features. (ie gorgeous smiling face, one very excited old Gollum)

Onto the Quayside we cruised past the boozers, sat staring at us as though we were freaks, duh, hang on a minute... We turned up away from the river at The Tyne public house and ascended the bridleway under Byker Bridge. When we got into Heaton, Ian F left us just short of the Park to go catch his train, and we headed up to the Library and then into the Park. It was dark in the park. And crunchy, with bits of tree and leaves and conkers all over the floor being splattered by our tyres. Craig was on lookout duty again, and it was he who spotted what he described as a "spook" coming towards us out of the nothingness. It was a bit of a surprise to see someone alone walking through here with no light at all, and stories of dead bodies and stray body parts were quickly circulated. We hurried on a bit!

This put us on one of our regular trans-Jesmond Dene routes and we scuttled through, slowing down only for Golly to grab a vid snippet of Titchy, aka Big Stu, squeezing through the tunnel at the waterfall. See it here.

As normal now, we popped out again at the bottom of Freeman Road, and that's where Stu turned left to get home again, while the rest of us took to the Tram Track upside the Ministry, over Benton Road, then Coach Lane, and on to the Powder Monkey before heading north up the side of the East Coast Line to the Old Coast Road. Terry H scarpered right to get to Cullercoats, while derek, Craig, Brain and Ian A took a left to Station Road and then down into Forest Hall again. That left the Gollum to follow in Terry 2's wheeltracks to Holystone, except that the other Terry must have been moving like a scadded cat as he'd vanished by the time the Gollum got to Proctor & Gambles research place!

Golly clocked about 23 miles, Derek and Terry H considerably more as they both rode to the start and home again at the end, easy 30 miles, I reckon. Another great ride passes into history, but is preserved here for ever. Oh, and the Gollum stayed upright for the second ride in a row. So there.