Salty Cycle In The Sprintime Sun.

This great sunny weather is too good to be true, every time I'm on holiday the weather is usually rain or howling gales so after yesterdays trip to Lammer Law I thought today I would have a ride along the coast following the John Muir Way then head inland for the homeward return...

A week off form this place, just what's needed to clear the lungs of the cement dust I breathe.

Sheep have been introduced to the grass lands at Barns Ness to help encourage other plants to flourish, but even though there are signs asking people to keep their dogs on a leash in the fenced off areas where the sheep are some have decided not to & some of the sheep have been attacked by dogs.

Whitesands beach starting to take on it's familiar white sand again after the recent storms & I can't cycle by without taking a picture of the lighthouse at Barns Ness.

The JMW skirts around the coastal edge of Dunbar golf coarse normally you get nothing but dirty looks from golfers cycling around here, but today the sun brought out the smiles & hello's !

Looking over towards Dunbar town & the odd geology of the rocks on the towns east end.

Came across this old Citreon H van down by the harbour, strange looking contraption they were built after the war between 1947-81 & were very popular in their native France.

Calm waters in the old Cromwell harbour & the building of McArthurs Store or Spott's Girnell (granary) as it was first known, was recorded in 1658 located on a spur of rock within the eastern harbour of Dunbar that had been established a few years earlier under Oliver Cromwell. Early charters described the property as the "white herring house with girnell". The restoration of the store was undertaken a couple of years ago by the Dunbar Harbour Trust to create 11 fisherman's stores, an office for the Trust & a meeting room that can be used by harbour users & the wider community.

Around the corner to the more modern Victoria harbour & some of the local boats moored up as well as the Dunbar lifeboat 'John Neville Taylor'.

Some of the harbour wildlife.

A 4-ton proppellor in honour of the Dunbar man who invented it Robert Wilson.

Leaving the busy harbour behind still following the JMW now along the cliff top promenade to the west of the town heading for Belhaven.

Perfect weather for sea kayaking, quite fancy getting into that.

The 'Bridge to nowhere' which must be one of the most photographed bridges in Scotland !

Really enjoying cycling in this sunny weather passing Seafield pond an old clay pit for the brick making industry & crossing over the Biel burn heading towards John Muir Country Park.

I've not been along this way for a wee while & I notice that there is lots of new way markers for the new improved & extended JMW long distance walk/cycle route. The new route which officially opens on the 21st.April.2014 will span coast to coast from Helensburgh in the west to Dunbar (John Muir's birth place) in the east, at a distance of 134 miles, so that will be on the to do calender I think. I completed the existing route last year which I really enjoyed.

Leaving the salty fresh smell of the coast to journey inland through Tynefield farm & up into the Biel estate to visit my friend Davy for a mug of tea & a sugar fix of chocolate biscuits, but he wasn't in so a cereal bar & gulp of energy drink it had to be :-/

On the way home I couldn't resist a wee blast around the Spott Brock woods, a nice little walking loop now coming into it's springtime beauty with the wild garlic leaves getting bigger by the day, in a few weeks the woodland floor will be thick with their foliage, white flowers & giving out a really pungent garlic/onion aroma.

The top side of the old Spott waterworks, I can't find any written information of it's history but I have seen an old photograph of two old guys on a rowing boat on the reservoir itself which was behind where the bottom picture is, my wife also knew a women who grew up in the near by cottages & she could remember when the dam of the reservoir breached after a storm bringing the water works to an end.

 And the bottom side of the works, such a shame that the masonary is allowed to deteriorate in this condition some real craftsmanship in it's construction even the floor of the burn has stone blocks guiding the Spott burn on it's coarse. Nowadays it would just be shuttered & poured with tons of concrete & not very nice to look at.

 A nice spot to stop for a rest, sit back take 5 & watch nature do what it does.

Passing the witches stane at Spott & today I never had any money with me to put onto the stane, it's tradition to place a coin when you pass the stane I always have & my kids insist I stop the car when we pass it, costs me a fortune !

After a big climb up starvation brae leaving Spott chance of a photo of over Dunbar & looking east along to Doonhill.

Up the rough farm track to the highest point of the day at Brunt Hill looking through the warm haze to Traprain & North Berwick Laws & the Bass Rock out in the sea soaking up the views then I absolutely S**t myself...

...with the ear deafening BANG from behind me with the bird scarer that was about 20ft away from me & another one at the other end of the field but this one wasn't set up.

 So with ringing in the lugs that's the end of this post hope you enjoyed it & thanks for looking cheers for now.