Catch up and some Festive Walks

Well I had a very busy run up to Christmas one way or another and did not finish work until early afternoon of Christmas Eve. Me and Jane did mange to spare up some free time and had a day trip up to Berwick Upon Tweed last Sunday. It rained on the way up and on the way back but stayed dry all the time we were there. I have not been out on the bike since the 15th Dec which is not good but i have been out for three walks over the Christmas period before going back to work today. 

26th Dec Boxing Day we dropped off the shopping to Janes mum and dad then went for a walk down the old railway line from Meadowfield Surgery / car garage to Broom Park then up and onto and over the bridge dropping down to the Stonebridge before walking the full length of the front street back to the Surgery area. 5.15 miles and the weather was dry, overcast with a cold wind. They have planted out large areas of hawthorn hedge etc across the field at Meadowfield which will never be maintained so in a few years will go wild and block many parts of the field off for use. 

27th Dec the weather had finally decided to give us some sun just for a couple of hours so we headed out to South Shields for the day. The beach was very busy with other walkers etc. We also had a walk around the town and got some shopping in. Finished off with fish n chips from Colemans takeaway but the havens opened and we had to run back to the car. All in 5.25miles. 

28th Dec there was a heavy overnight frost with loads of ice and sun so me and Jane headed off over to Shincliffe to park up. We knew the hike was going to be muddy and by god it was. We hiked over a solid mile in over ankle deep sticky mud which was very hard work. By the time we got back to the van it was over 7 miles and we took a short cut back chopping off the walk around the full field edges next to the river. 

Below are a few photos from a couple of the walks, enjoy and hopefully more soon - 

Lovely road loop from Lanchester over to Stanhope n back on the Synapse Neo E Bike

 

The forecast was finally for some sunny spells after a weekend of continuous rain, so I used up a couple of my spare hours I had built up at work and went out for a spin. I drove over to Lanchester and parked up. Jumped on the bike and headed straight out of the village the back way to the A68 then all the way up to Parkhead. The wind up there was a strong head / to side wind and freezing cold. The Garmin was down to 1.5 degrees. The sun was trying to come through the black clouds at times which made it slightly more enjoyable lol. The descent down Crawleyside was not that fast due to the headwind and the roads conditions were wet, muddy with some gravel so took it steady. I then went through Stanhope and took the back lane to Frosterley. From there a few miles down the main road and in to Wolsingham. The temperature had picked up by now and reached 4 degrees. I swung left at the market place and up yet another hill, then down then back up again to cross the A68 for a second time before heading over to Cornsay. The downhill into Lanchester was fast and back to the start. All in 31.5miles, 2hrs 8 mins and climbed 3000ft on the nose. The bike went well and I felt ok. Below are a few saps from the ride and a short video clip at the bottom of the blog. Enjoy and hopefully more soon-