Local ride out on the Bowman Pilgrims - offroad / on road route

First things first it was time to remove the full mud guards from the Pilgrims, then to swap the Conti 4 season tyre for the Panaracer gravelking tyres. That took a little while but sorted. Packed the camera, water bottle and clicked on the Garmin. It was lovely and sunny when I left home but could see black clouds over Consett way which was the way I was heading. I picked up the old railway line at Bearpark farm where I stopped to take my first photo. I looked down and the camera was not in the bag! I thought I had packed it then noticed the zip had burst open. I decided i was never going to find it again over the 3.25 miles I had just done so headed up the line. About a mile later I decided to head back and look on the descent down to the stream crossing as it was really bumpy going down there, there it was lying just at the side with a couple more bashes in it but the battery had popped out and bounced into the verge somewhere. I looked for 10mins or so and could not find it, the memory card was still in so any photos were still there. Then I was off again heading to the Consett junction.
By the time I got to Lanchester it was cloudy with a strong headwind which made it real cold, 5 degrees. Once up at Consett I turned left and headed up the Waskerley way, after the second road crossing I turned left and onto the country lane for some tarmac riding now, I was sick of the freezing headwind. I took country lanes all the way back down to Lanchester where I picked the line back up again for a while. After Langley Park I turned left and took the cycle land to Witton Gilbert, turned left and up to Sacriston, straight over at the crossroads and down to the Red lion to pick the cycle lane back home - 33.5miles, 2hrs 27min and nearly 2000ft of climbing. The gritters must had been out this morning as the bus routes were covered in salt!
Below are a few snaps from my ipad when I got back in, sorry no snaps during the ride ;-( will have to price up a new battery on ebay but not sure if the camera will still work or just buy a complete new camera

lines are bone dry at the mo with some dust kicking up

time for a spring clean with some Fenwicks products