31 March 2021

A local loop with Jane in the sun - Spennymoor - Bishop Auckland , along the old railway lines.


Jane is also off this week and we have never stopped with jobs and one thing or another. Yesterdays weather was unreal, red hot and sunny all day. Today was supposed to be cloudy and cooler but the sun came out and it was red hot again. Once we had finished our jobs around midday we dragged the bikes out and went for a spin in the sun. It has bene quite a while since Jane has been out on her bike and she had a flat front tyre so I chucked an inner tube in and I will sort out the tubeless set up later. We did one of our regular loops taking in some old railway lines and we had a late takeaway lunch from the bay window of Fifteas Tea Rooms at Bishop Auckland before heading back. It clouded over on a couple occasions on the return leg and mixed in with a headwind it felt a little nippy! The lines were mainly very quiet which was very surprising, I thought they would have been rammed but everyone must have headed to the coast etc instead, all the better for us. Do not worry the forecast is back to normal tomorrow with a top temperature of 8 degrees, everyone will be freezing again. Below are a few snaps from the ride, enjoy and hopefully more soon- 


























27 March 2021

A short out and back along the Lanchester Valley Walk line then over to Hownsgill n back

 


Sorry for the lack of blogs this week but I have been off work and catching up with all my yearly Spring jobs inside and outside the house. I have worked everyday between 8 to 10 hours. The weather has been fantastic so got loads done and will hopefully get them all finished next week as I am not going back to work until the 6th April. Today was too nice a day not to go out for a spin on the bike, well apart from the near gale force wind. I parked up at Broompark picnic area and dropped straight onto the old railway line and headed towards Consett. The sun was shinning away when I left but had a massive headwind all the way up but on the plus side there was very few people out and about but to was early. At Consett I turned left and over Hownsgill viaduct and ended up at Whitehall picnic area carpark, just short of 15 miles so turned and burned. It had clouded over and the temperature had dropped right down to 3.1 degrees. Now I had the massive tailwind nearly all the way back. I was 20 minutes quicker coming back down than going up. The sun came back out heading towards Lanchester and the temperature shot up to 8.3 degrees on the Garmin. Once back at Broompark I was just short of 30 miles so did a short out and back along the line towards Ushaw Moor just to push it over the 30 mile mark. The lines were dry in places but wet and muddy in other places with the overnight rain. Below are a few snaps ride and one short video clip at the bottom, enjoy and hopefully more soon. 





Thank you but no thank you, not after you ripped us off a year or so ago, food and drink was not the best either.