Wet 'n' Wild - Glentress.

Normally during the Christmas holidays myself & the guys from my work go on our annual fly fishing competition, but this year some of us decided to have a day on the trails of Glentress mountain bike centre instead. The weather forecast was to be heavy rain & very strong winds & it certainly was the wind wasn't bad amongst the trees although there were divertions at some trail sections due to wind blown trees that had been blown down over the forestry access road & trails & it never stopped raining the whole time that we were there making the trails muddy & the rooty tree sections greasy but a fantastic day was to be had...

Starting from the bottom car park at the Peel Centre & heading upwards to the trails following the way markers for the 'red route'.

The 'Go-Ape' centre at Glentress a high rise assault coarse up in the trees with zip wires etc, going to give this a go when the weather's better.

The ugly mob have been allowed out for the day !

Normally the views are amazing from up here looking down over the Tweed valley, but today with the rain the vision was limited.

A wee play at the freeride park before climbing up to the summit of the red route.

Just a few of the many wind blown trees that we encountered luckily on the mtb trails there were only a couple blocking our path.

We even came across snow higher up into the hills.

With the hard work done it's all downhill fun from here bombing down the trails :-)

This is the 'Meteorite Stane' with it's carved text in Star Treks Klingon language. 1 of the 7 Stanes that make up the network of trail centres around the south of Scotland each has their own unique stane. I have detailed each trail centres own stane in a previous post from August titled-7 Stanes 'Glentress'.

The 'red route' our choice for the day & some of the red route way posts with their trail names, after we completed the red we had a wee muck about at the freeride park & the blue route before heading back downhill to the Peel Centre car park wet muddy & each of us with a grin on our face having had a great time.

And that's that for today folks, if you ever find yourself in the south of Scotland you just have to give one of these 7 stanes centres a go an absolute excellent day out. So now I'll leave you with a wee video from the Go-Pro of some of the trails we did today.

Thanks very much for looking I hope you enjoyed.

Early Morning Light Show !

4 a.m. & wide awake club, after tossing & turning for 15 minutes I decided to get up have some scrambled eggs on toast, a couple of mugs of coffee then go out for a cycle. Unsure where I would go I thought that I would head along the commute route past my work & head into Dunbar followed by the village of West Barns to see the Christmas lights, both make a huge effort to decorate their surroundings but West Barns wins hands down for me as there is not one business advertising there shop / company etc with  colourful Christmas lights...

Crossing the A1 onto the old unused Skateraw road, this road was decommissioned when the A1 was converted to a dual carriageway & now only farm machinery use it.

Along the Sustrans route 76 cycleway that I use for my commute route & passing my work.

Sea Buckthorn I'm always tempted to try the berries as they are edible, I did once watch a T.V. programme where they used the berries to make a champagne !

'Sunny Dunny' 

but not at this time of day !

A small selection of Dunbar High Street Christmas lights, a great effort done by all the towns people many who give up their own time to assist, however I do feel that there is too much advertising of local businesses made up in colourful lights, personally I would rather there were more Christmas illuminations & maybe a board at the end of the street naming the company's who contribute to the lights :-/

Dunbar Town House, built towards the end of the 16th century, contains what is considered Scotland's oldest functioning Council Chamber.
Spanning a history of more than 400 years, the building has been given a 21st century refurbishment, as you can see by the above photos it has been coated with a lime mortar again to protect the sandstone walls & at one time there was a building protruding the front of the Town House.

The Eagle Inn one of Dunbar's many pubs, I've always loved the old windows advertising the local Belhaven brewery Featuring a picture of 'Belhaven Bill'.

A mile out of town is the village of West Barns where I grew up & next to the West Barns Inn is the blue cedar 'Jubilee Tree' planted in 1935 for the Silver Jubilee of King George V & Queen Mary.
West Barns lights are amazing, just decorative lights on the tree's & lamp posts not an advertisement for a business anywhere, I did take photos of the other tree's in the village but they were poor quality so you'll just have to take my word for it !

About turning & homeward bound on the way to Whitesands beach as daylight is starting to make an apperance.

Well worth the early rise out of bed just to see the sun come up, the colours in the sky were utterly amazing & what better backdrop could there be for Torness power station, Barns Ness lighthouse & the LaFarge quarry earth moving elevator!

What's left of an old pier ? I can't seem to find any documentation about the pier & it's purpose. In 2012 some idiots decided to have a go at burning it so now there is a good chunk of it gone !

LaFarge cement works with Doon Hill in the background.

One of Dunbar's boats lifting creels for his lobster catch.

It's days like this that I'm grateful of where I live having all this on my doorstep.

Many ships sail up & down here the top picture is of the tanker 'Front Commodore' anchored for the time being, it flies the flag of Liberia & measures 333m X 60m.
The bottom tanker is the 'Ursula Essberger' en route to Grangemouth further up the Firth of Forth it flies the flag of the Netherlands & measures 99m X 17m.

Looking back from Skateraw over towards Barns Ness.

Looking out to sea with the top photo being of the 'Front Commodore' & below Barns Ness lighthouse & the Bass Rock.

Cruising around the seaward perimeter of Torness power station.

Around the front of Torness & one of the examples of the coastal defensive dolo's outside the visitor centre.

These two horses were having a great time stretching their legs running around the field until they noticed me !

Busy time of the year for the sprout harvesters leading up to Christmas, will soon be time for me to harvest my lonely red sprout plant which is coming along nicely in another field.

Well that's another trip done I hope you enjoyed the

'Early Morning Light Show'

Thanks for looking & please come back again soon.
Cheers for now.