Chopwell Woods

We did the blue (Outside Line) mountain bike trail at Chopwell Woods today, which was hard work - too many hills for little legs, which meant we had to help push. It wasn't helped by the usual pathetic Forestry Commission signage - Chopwell's generally pretty good, in comparison to some other FC places we've been to, but there were some areas closed off due to logging, and no clue given as to which way to go.

But the ride through the pine trees was lovely (especially the downhill bits). Bizarrely, you could smell strawberries...

Derwent valley explorations

Stage 2: Rowlands Gill to Hamsterley Mill and back (about 4.5 miles), still on the path of the old railway. We crossed two amazing viaducts, met some very nice, inquisitive horses, saw lots of butterflies, and generally had a lovely time. No garlic in this section (the bit between Swalwell and Rowlands Gill is plastered with the wild stuff), which M was very pleased about.

More cycling

Today we pootled along a section of the Derwent Walk Country Park, which is about 20 minutes' drive from where we live. Two miles out of Swalwell along the Derwent Walk, there's a huge viaduct (the Nine Arches), with gorgeous views down the valley to Gibside and its Column of Liberty. You can see the Column in the picture here, nicely camouflaged by lots of twigs:


Here's the troops looking slightly restive at the halfway point, and needing their tea:

Our next challenge is to go all the way along the path to Rowlands Gill. A promise of a reward has been issued: ice cream at the National Trust tea room...

Cycle trip!

It's amazing what you can fit on the back of an Audi A2. Not content with towing the folding caravan, we've now got a bike rack that goes on the towbar (we've had bikes on the roof, but sadly that's too tall for the ferry over to Denmark this summer).

We rode in Sunderland today, along the river from the National Glass Centre, which is part of the C2C. It's not a bad path - apart from the odd scattering of broken glass - which takes you past some weird and wonderful remnants of industrial architecture. We liked the giant hamster wheel:

There's some interesting stuff to look at (and a very interesting smell), but it's not as nice as the route along Newcastle's quayside. Apart from anything else, I'd feel safe trundling along the Quayside on my own, and probably wouldn't along the more deserted stretches of the Wear.

Cycling: bribery will get you a long way

Today involved a lovely lunch with friends, followed by a long cycle ride from Ryton along the Tyne to Wylam. It's about three miles along the river bank, I guess, on a fairly flat, wide path. This picture's slightly blurry as I was cycling along at the time, but you get the idea...

We saw lots of ducks floating downstream, huge clumps of snowdrops on the sandy banks, and a fair few golfers on the fairway. The main attraction, though, was the Boathouse in Wylam itself - we'd promised the kids crisps (and us beer) if we made it all the way there.

Rather pleasingly, the older ones and M wanted to ride home again - so we tackled the path in the gloom, before a long push up Station Bank in the dark.

Today's budget: £6.10 on beers, orange juices and crisps.

Gateshead Quays

It was another cold, dank February day today, but we had to get out of the house. We've been trying to cycle every weekend over the winter, in an attempt to give M some practice before we head to Denmark this summer - so far we've hit the Newburn-Wylam trail, Chopwell Woods, Hamsterley Forest, the river at Stockton on Tees, and Newcastle Quayside. Today it was Gateshead Quayside's turn. We've lived here in Newcastle or Gateshead for the last...ooh, far too long...and have never gone upstream along the river from the Tyne Bridge.


Today only M was on her bike - some days it's warmer for us to walk really really fast alongside her, rather than cycle very slowly.


We discovered that:

- the bridges don't half rattle alarmingly when a train or metro goes overhead
- there's a fair amount of seaweed along the path
- the new houses at Dunston staithes look rather nice (but that they're beaten hands down on architectural merit by the staithes themselves)


After an hour or so, we were cold and in need of cake. So we headed to IKEA, where you can get cinnamon buns and a cup of tea for 50p.

Today's budget: £1 for tea and buns. Bargain.