# "All my life, watching America..." # - RazorlightA couple of years ago, I began posting about another hobby that complimented my scribble addiction - my adventures in cycling are still rolling along, courtesy of a neat little folding bike and my more robust mountain bike.
I say that it complements my writing because I do hold firm to the belief that as well as spending lots of time at the keyboard practising your art, it's healthy for a writer to also lift their head once in a while and get out and see what's out there... I also find that exercise, whether it's cycling or swimming or just a brisk walk, gets the old cogs of the mind turning and allows those seeds of ideas to germinate and those difficult plot points you've been mulling over to unwind themselves in your head so that when you sit back down at that illuminated screen, you feel refreshed and ready to get back to work on your tome...
So this is the third and probably final time I'm going to devote a whole blog post to my biking pastime, and for that reason I thought I'd recount not one, not two... but THREE epic cycle rides which I've been fortunate enough to take part in during 2015 (and again, I thought I'd let the photos tell the story, rather than me rambling on with my own words) - the first was when my wife and I decided to hire bikes on our American adventure this summer and we spent a day cycling around the 3 miles of Central Park. The second two-wheeled trek that my photos show below is a two-day 70 miles bike ride with friends from Newcastle Quayside to a small Northumbrian village called Bellingham (think "Brigadoon" on a sunny day! - there and back again) and the third is a day cycle around the Kielder reservoir (a 26-mile cycle with lots of trails and varied terrain, mostly man-made).
CYCLING THE CIRCLE OF CENTRAL PARK:
Of all the things I expected to see in Central Park, an Indy-style monolith wasn't on the list!
"Who you gonna call?" Yep, that's me in search of the Ghostbusters apartment building...
Just your average day staring across the pond into upper Manhattan!
The bridge and fountain which are classic Central Park icons...
A rare shot of my wife (camera shy!) speeding off into the distance & the obligatory yellow taxi cab!
One scribbler meets another (sort of) - the Hans Christian Andersen statue!
CYCLING BELLINGHAM & BACK:
One of my favourite cycling pictures ever - sums up Northumberland for me!
The lads, taking a well-earned break on the outward 40 mile trip...
Nearly there! A minute before finding this signpost, I was completely lost.
CYCLING ROUND KIELDER:
It was the journey of the beards...
"Er, lads which path? We must choose wisely..."
We lost one of our number cycling straight into the mouth of this thing!
Nice weather for August in Northumberland...
A pit stop near the end.
Action shot (tilt the camera one way or the other!)
A happy bunch (the pack at the back!)
Onto the last mile... Kielder is a real mix of woodland and riverside trails.
As I've said, this is likely my final post about my two-wheeled adventures here on the blog (but don't hold me to that!) but you can still check out my Flickr feed where I intend to update (eventually!) my cycling pictures on a regular basis... I guess the thing to me about a bike is how far along an adventure it can take you - but near or far, I just love the freedom riding a bike gives you - whether that's physical or in your mind - even if that's just providing you with space and time to go shopping!)
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