Back On The Saddle.

After nearly a month off work laid up with an excruciatingly painful bad back & symptoms of Lyme's disease from a Tick bite, but even more painfully I've been unable to go out on my bikes for what seems like ages, but now all sorted & back to normal I was fair eager to get back on the saddle so this is the first blog of my 3 adventures in 3 days...
...Let's rock'n'roll...

Gutted at missing most of the harvest but it was nice to see the eternal puddle was still under the bridge on the way down to Skateraw.

At this point I made the decision to choose an alternative route as yet more gypsy travellers have taken up residence in the area & I value my bike & belongings too much to chance cycling through them !

Down onto the shore front now where I found this fishing float on the high tide mark, always treasures to find washed up by the sea.

Even down here on the salty coast, there is an abundance of wild fruits & a sure sign that the autumn is fast approaching.

The saviour of the sea, Dunbar lifeboat at it's mooring at Torness power station with views looking out to Barns Ness lighthouse & the Bass rock in the distance.

Around the perimeter of Torness & onto Thorntonloch beach where I spotted these pieces of old rail track sunk into the ground & in a very uneven row all heading out to towards the sea, I have no idea of there purpose :-/

The whole beach to myself not another soul in sight & the sand was firm enough for a good smooth ride along the shore front with only the sea birds & gently breaking waves for company.

Running out of sandy beach, now time to scramble my way over the rocks & hope my back survives. 

Love this bit of coastline as there's loads of interesting geology to see, here there must be millions of years of layered sedimentary rock, some layers with fossilised coral some with layers of coal & others with different types of rock like limestone & sandstone.

Someone at some time has mined slabs of rock for whatever reason & if you look on the 3rd picture above they have left a wooden wedge jammed into the rock at a desired thickness.

A good test for my back at this point up & over the big slippy boulders & rocks.

The 1st of the 3 arches, these cliffs look like giant wind & wave worn sculptures.

The 'Stand alone stone' but for how long ???

Here you can see how the sea stacks & arches are formed, with the huge blocks of sandstone falling out at the bottom of the cliffs creating caves for the sea to further erode the rock from within.

Screaming rock faces.

The 2nd &3rd arches.

Up the woodland pathway towards Dunglass.

Over & under the road & railway bridges, it was a left turn at the top to detour into the near by village of Cockburnspath to visit a friend for a mug of tea.

After popping in to visit my friend (who wasn't in) I meandered through the beautiful grounds of Dunglass estate & up a rough farm track to the farm of Springfield.

A bumper harvest of wild fruits, nuts & seeds this year, great stuff for all the wildlife to keep them fed throughout the lean winter months.

Showing my age I remember as a young laddie when these combines came into use & vividly remembering how cool I thought they looked with their green tinted windows ! They look very dated & small compared to the giant technologically advanced combines of today.

The produce of the bulls handy work.

Innerwick from above, that's what I love about this time of year, all the stubble fields which open up different trails & the reward of views not normally seen by anyone other than the farmer. 

Anyway that's the first of my 3 day get back on the saddle adventure & it was great to be out into bosom of nature again where I belong !

Thanks for looking.