Another blog a month behind :-/ this day out was on the last day of January & I still have another couple to do to keep up to date, so stick with me they will be done....eventually !!! We have had more than our fair share of big storms of late & this particular storm named "Gertrude" which hit our shores on January the 29th with wind speeds recorded at over 100mph in some parts of the country, here in East Lothian the wind hit us with gusts around 70mph causing a lot of damage to property, lorries were over turned on the roads & to make things worse the storm brought yet more heavy rain bringing misery to already flooded areas.
Leaving the village I head off down to the coast over the A1 & onto the old Skateraw road which nowadays seems to be a bit of a dumping ground & an area best avoided when the gypsies take up residence !
A wee ride along the old decommissioned A1 trunk road where gates have had to be installed to try & deter the gypsy pack that seem to have made this a regular home for themselves every few months once they've pillaged & been moved on from their last site, not that these gates have made a lot of difference as now at the time of writing up this blog post they are back at this location again only now they are limited on how many can pitch up.
A flock of Greylag geese taking a break & feeding on the young green barley shoots & they even have a bit of water to paddle in with the recent flooding that storm Gertrude brought.
Over the fence into Barns Ness & as I rode down towards the light house & along the shore I spied a couple of bird watchers, this seems to be a favourite spot for twitchers searching for migratory winter birds & birds blown off coarse due to storms seeking refuge until the wild weather passes, recently there have been lots of sightings of "little auk's" a small bird which breed on islands up in the high Arctic, I was lucky enough to see some near Torness during the Christmas period.
Even the short grassy coastal path was flooded so I opted to ride along the beach.
Back on track again & there were a couple of lobster creels washed up along the shore, normally the fishermen try to retrieve their fleets of creels if bad weather is on the way but sometimes it's not always possible if the weather's too rough to get out.
The Dry Burn not so dry at this time of year, plenty of rain running off the hills to keep this wee burn flowing through the winter months.
I wonder what the naturalist & environmental philosopher John Muir would think of a nuclear power station ?
Arriving at Skateraw & what's left of an old lifeboat station. In 1907 a second station was opened here at Skateraw to the south of near by Dunbar & was manned by members of the crew from Dunbar. The lifeboat which was stationed here was called the 'Sarah Kay'. In 1944 the lifeboat station at Skateraw was closed & the second lifeboat was withdrawn from Dunbar.
It all looks quiet & calm now around the Torness coastal path but when the weather's wild it's quite awesome to see the big waves smashing into the protective dolos around the power station perimeter, the thunderous noise & sheer power of the sea at it's very best.
I can't believe some of the people that fish at the outflow from the power station, it's dangerous as it is with the speed the water flows back into the sea & often even in wild weather there will always be that one fisherman who has to get to an inch of the top of his chest waders, I'm really surprised nobody has been drowned down here, often there can be into double figures of anglers jostling for position & sometimes like today just a lone angler having the place to himself, one false move or rogue wave & woosh into the water & before anything can be done they would be washed out hundreds of yards.
Onwards to Thorntonloch beach, normally a pretty much deserted beach other than the odd dog walker, but today there were loads of folk randomly wandering around scratching & searching around the beach with purpose, as I got closer my nose got the better of me & I had to ask if there had been treasure washed ashore after the storm, but no I was informed that they were all looking for jasper stones. I met an old guy a year or two ago looking for this stone further along the coast.
Jasper in it's raw form, polished & then made into jewellery.
A hard slog along the high cliff top path, very exposed, windy & the saturated boggy wet ground doesn't help.
Heading down the Bilsdean creek & I love this waterfall called the Linn, I wish I could find waterfalls like this when I'm cycling long distance routes it would be amazing showering in the icy cold water in the morning before packing up & moving on.
After a short blast down a muddy track I arrive in no time at all at Dunglass beach. There has been a bit of storm damage & a section of the rock face has fallen to the ground so I was eagerly looking for new lepidodendron fossils but there were no new ones amongst the fallen rock just the old ones that I'm familiar with & they're too big to move. Lepidodendron also known as 'scale tree' is a tree like plant that were once part of the coal forests, reaching heights over 30 meters - (100ft) the trunks measured over 1 metre - (3.3 ft) in diameter. They thrived during the Carboniferous period about 359 -2.5 million years ago before becoming extinct. The name Lepidodendron comes from the Greek lepido meaning scale & dendron meaning tree.
I love this rocky beach, there's always something interesting to find & today's good find was a cuttlefish bone which I put into my back back to take home as a treat for my chickens.
Pretty disgusting to see man's impact on the seashores all this was within a radius of about 30 ft, fair enough the lobster creels & buoys washed up due to storm damage but the rest I think is inexcusable & really hate to see it.
Small mud slide.
Leaving the coast behind I climbed up hill along Dunglass Dean & it always amazes me how this giant oak tree can grow out from the sandstone rock & it has to be on borrowed time now as huge boulders have recently broke away from the cliff around the tree, just hope I'm not cycling past when it decides to fall.
Into Dunglass estate passing by the collegiate church.
Spotted a heron then realised it was a pond ornament !
Gaining in altitude into the countryside I passed through Springfield farm & it was to know that I wasn't going to get any grief from cows today :-)
Onwards & upwards past Oldhamstocks Mains & then through Cocklaw farm as I climbed up towards Blackcastle hill.
Parts of the road up to Blackcastle were covered in thick ice but thawing quickly, it was noticeably a lot colder up here than it was down on the coast, still a bit of snow along the hills.
Once I made it to the top I was in two minds whether to just go over the edge down to Innerwick or take a detour in a field to my left so I would go downhill into Aikengall which I opted for just to make the ride a little longer.
Making my way over to Aikengall the ground was a sponge with all the snow melt & rain which was slow going but it gave me plenty of time to soak up the views.
Always great to get back to the shack & see these girls, they give as warm a welcome as any dog & today they get a lttle seaside treat of cuttlefish bone.
A wee movie of my days travels, still a novice when it comes to movie making but I'm researching some software to make them a little more professional :-/ Hope you enjoyed the ride from way down low on the beach to way up high in the hills above Innerwick, thanks for viewing & cheers for now. Check out my new facebook page called Mtb Innerwick Stravaiger for new blog updates & other bike stuff :-)
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