SANDY SINGLE TRACK

Monday morning was a little windy with the occasional shower, but with the wind coming from a south westerly direction, i knew the woods and dunes at john muir country park would offer me a little protection for my morning ride on the pugsley, so i crossed the beil burn and cycled along belhaven beach into the wind until i reached the tyne estuary, then i turned on the go pro and headed along the sandy single track as fast as i could, this area is known as spikey island, during high tide on big springs around 5.5 meters the whole area can be surrounded by water which has caught out many a dog walker, for a small area there is a lot of winding little sandy trails which are great fun to blast around with the fat bike, also there wasn't another soul about today so i had the area to my self, the video is recorded in HD the artist-DJ Shadow, the track-stem long stem.

NO PHOTOGRAPHS JUST A QUICK FILM.

Thanks to losing my charging kit for my panasonic compact camera, i only had my go pro to document my cycle on the coast today, still i haven't used it for a couple of months and to be honest i have been enjoying my beach riding without feeling the need to make video or take pictures, although making a film is quite an enjoyable experience so for the first time in months i thought i would do just that, and had a couple of hours ride today along the scart rocks and out to saint margrates point and along to belhaven, the weather was perfect for a beach ride with light winds and calm seas, i even bumped into a young seal playing in the small surf at belhaven beach, unfortunately my camera didn't pick this up very well so i decided to remove it from the video, however i have had the idea for a while now of getting in the water with these beautiful animals and getting some video of them in the wild as they are abundant on our coast, should manage it in the next couple of weeks, weather permitting.

SHORT BUT SWEET

Time was something i didn't have in abundance on friday morning as my younger sister was getting married at two o clock at the Rocks hotel in Dunbar, however i surfaced early and managed to squeeze in an hours beach ride around john muir country park and Belhaven beach, it was a glorious morning a little overcast but not a breath of wind.

 I wasn't the only one taking advantage of the weather, There was a small surf running and this lone sup rider was catching a few waves on to the beach.

As was this guy on his longboard.

I continued my ride to the tyne estuary, and as you can see the sand here is very soft indeed, see how the tires of the pugsley float compared to my footprint, quite amazing really.

I pushed on through the soft sand and stopped for the occasional photo and enjoyed the still morning not a sound apart from the surf on the beach and the birds song, i hope to get out on the pugsley during the weekend as my week off work is almost over.

Once off the beach i sought out the single track that cuts through the woods and peddled as fast as i could to work up a little sweat ducking to miss branches and swerving to avoid tree stumps, the little paths that cut through these woods are great fun if a little short and at this time of the morning not another soul about.

Once i caught my breath i stopped for a quick picture of the pine trees and then it was home to sort out wedding clothes for my sisters big day.

QUICK AUTUMN CYCLE

Autumn in East lothian is probably my favorite time of the year, the cooler temperatures make cycling a little more comfortable, the autumn swells are more frequent and combined with the shorter daylight hours it means that its dark to quickly for the Edinburgh and glasgow surfers to get waves after work,
which is fine by me as i have spent many an Autumn evening surfing Belhaven bay in glassy 3-4 ft perfection with just the local wildlife to keep me company,
Tuesday late afternoon i decided on a quick hour or so ride on the pugsley so i  cycled down to Belhaven and out across the beach, where i bumped into this young gannet above. and managed to maneuver myself into position and get a decent picture before he squawked loudly in disapproval and paddled off into the surf.

I continued along the soft sand until i eventually run out of beach stopping for the occasional photo. and decided to head along the john muir way to east linton

The river tyne

Hard to spot, but a nice sea trout waiting for the cover of darkness to head up the river to spawn.

 Preston mill

Prestonkirk manse

I continued my cycle to the village of East linton and stopped to take in the views of the linn rocks.

I have not fished this far up the river this year, and as the sea trrout and brown trout season will shortly be coming to a close i promised myself i would come back with my fly rod,

An enjoyable ride on the bike but now it was time to head for home.

SUNSET, WIND AND BEACH RIDING.

The wind tonight was really strong from the west but i decided to head out on the pugsly and catch the last hour and a half of daylight.

I cycled out towards john muir country park and around spikey island and was relieved to turn around at the point and head along the sandy sweep of belhaven bay with the wind finally at my back, you can just make out the WW2 anti glider poles sticking out of the sand, these have recently been exposed thanks to the recent large tides and swell that we had last week.

During WW2 the british fear of an airborne assault stemmed from the coup de main attack of german glider borne troops capturing the Belgian fort of eden Emael, with east lothian having some large hard sandy beaches such as Aberlady bay with east fortune airfield near by which was used extensively in WW2, Burntisland and also Belhaven bay would if not for the anti glider poles  made excellent landing grounds.

As i continued my cycle along the beach with the strong wind at my back i noticed a large number of gannets feeding out in the bay, i tried my best to capture this event but my small compact camera was not up to the task, The biggest single gannet colony in the world is the bass rock which is home to an estimate 150,000 gannets during the summer months, the gannets spend most of the year on the bass rock until the end of october then fly south some as far as the west coast of africa.

With the wind gaining in strength and the sun slowly slipping below the horizon it was i decided time to head for home to wash down the pugsly, a quick ride tonight but very enjoyable indeed.

 Belhaven bay at dusk.

I NEED A GIMBAL

Yesterday we went along to yellow craig beach for the skinny dip in aid of the marie curie cancer charity with the ILB as safety cover, on the way back home the wind dropped and the sun came out so i decided to get the quadcopter out and film the inshore lifeboat crew recover and square away the boat while i filmed them from the air, however when i tried to get the phantom airborne i got all sorts of error               lights flashing from the led display, and the quads propellers refused to kick over, so with some investigation on the DJI website i quickly discovered that i had to upgrade to the latest firmware, which  thankfully was a breeze to download and install, once that was done i had to recal the imu's, today i took it out for a test flight over the promenade,enjoy the film.

FLY FISHING

Just recently i have rekindled my interest in fly fishing, something i have not done for over three years, so i purchased a permit from the pet shop in dunbar for the river tyne, looked out my fly rod and I've spent at least three hours every day this week fishing, the first day i must admit i was a little rusty and it took most of the first session to get my casting sorted out.

Tuesday morning i awoke early to bright sunshine so i loaded the surly LHT with my fly fishing gear and had a very pleasant cycle along the old A1 to the river, once there i studied the water and due to the warm weather there where a number of fish rising and plenty of fly activity on the water, the area where i wanted to fish was tight so i opted to use the tenkara rod, i tried to match the hatch as best i could with the patterns that i had in my fly box and tied on a small olive spider and aimed the line under a low hanging tree branch where there was a number of fish rising, for the first fifteen minutes the small trout ignored my fly so a change to a small wet greenwall glory, i again cast the line under the tree branch and started a slow retrieve of the line and bang fish on, although small these little brown trout put up a surprisingly good fight when fished with light gear, i fished on into the afternoon landing around eight brown trout all catch and release.