New Luce+Castle Kennedy July 09

Walk today was only nine miles (felt longer), so did it in reverse in order to have the afternoon to visit Castle Kennedy.  Only a few navigational errors, but it is always frustrating and can be quite disconcerting when you make them.  The trick is not to get anxious, but just try not to!

Never can resist these ladies when they all come rushing toward you:

A suspension bridge, sort of like a very mini-misimo Golden Gate only not golden and made of wood:

A dark forest rendered less dark by the use of the automatic flash :

Photo dedicated to Our Fuzz, who would have loved to get her little claws into these, only maybe not since they were dead:

Castle Kennedy is more of a big park than a garden, really.  Anyway, it has this effective system of using coloured arrows to create guided walks.  You can see that right here, the red and green walks go left.  The green walk, the longest, and the one I chose, was supposed to take 2 1/2 hours only it took 45 minutes at a slowish pace.  As you can see, part of the attraction is a deep blue loch:

A lake of giant lily pads:

Of course there has to be a castle, only you can't go in.  But it was pretty just as a ruin:

And of course there have to be flowers:

This scent of this rose tree was divine:

Stranraer and onward July 06+07+08

8:20 ferry from Brodick to Ardrossan, taxi to Ayr, train to Stranraer.  The ferry, a great big car ferry, is so smooth I thought we were late in departing, when, in fact, we were already quite underway!  Taxi was waiting as promised, but then had 1 1/2 hours before train time. Normally that would not be so bad, but the station is being renovated, so nowhere to sit or have a latte or any little niceties at all.  However, because of all the disruption to the station, there are helping people at every track, and my helping person said I could leave my bag.  So I did.  Off I went in search of something to eat.  Found a dumpy little establishment and, at 10:00 a.m., ordered three scoops of ice cream.  Delicious, even if  not gourmet, and no sooner done than I noticed a much nicer shoppee next door where I could even have had a latte to go with, no doubt, but no tragedy.  Struck up a conversation with a woman who runs 100 mile races, would you believe.  "Well," she told me, "It really isn't so hard because you run slower than if you were running a marathon."  Now, that explains the joy!

Stranraer is a town one could skip and not miss anything, but it has a grocery store, so here I am instead of in Portpatrick where the Southern Upland Way begins.  And I am staying in a super nice place right on the water.  Granted, it is a mile from town, so a distance to schlep provisions which I will have to buy plentifully tomorrow  because there will not be any emporia for several days.

Taxied to the Logan Botanical Gardens this afternoon.  They were, in a word, gorgeous.  A few specimens:

I just love flowers growing from cracks in a wall.  Maybe because it reminds me of a passage describing King Solomon's wisdom, or maybe because I just do, or maybe both:




There were fish, too:




And these happy happy whatevers:




The arboretum section of the gardens was heavenly.  The smell alone divine.  This here is old Mr. Tree trunk with massive bunion, or.....tumor:




Saturday, i.e. today, was a "rest day," so I walked to Portpatrick—the start of the Southern Upland way—about 13 miles after all was said and done—so much for the rest.

Some piece of equipment!




Pond, in a park and angry cob who gave a great big honk:




Taxied, again, this time to Portpatrick to OFFICIALLY begin the SUW, which, as you can see, is carved in stone:




Some lovely parts, especially the dramatic beginning along the coast:

Big rock with bird and boat:

Bossie:

 Gates to another time.......and place:

At the very end of today's walk, could not find the B and B and ended up trudging well over a mile, uphill, through heavily bovine populated territory.  FINALLY reached a road, flagged down a car, lady with the worst black teeth you have ever seen stopped and ferried me back down the road where I began, again, my search for the place.  Phoned the proprietress, but between there being—if you are lucky—a one bar signal, and the lady's being very hard of hearing, it was not a simple conversation. Eventually arrived.  This is how a 14 mile day becomes almost 17.  Anyway, another really beautiful day and luxurious accommodation as reward.

Lagg to Whiting Bay+Brodick July 04+05

The combination of challenging and boring continued today but with new levels of difficult.  Bennan Head and Dippin Head, two large boulder fields, had to crossed.  No, they did not.  There are alternate routes, but it was not raining and the tide was right for both exertions, so I undertook them.  It was V E R Y  S  L  O  W going, especially through the second and larger one. One is warned by the almost useless guide book, "Do not underestimate the time it will take you to navigate these boulder fields." It was not so much scary—well, just a little—as nerve wracking because it was hard to know if you were making a good choice every time you took a step. This was not as beyond all as was Worm's Head last summer, but at least at Worm's Head there were lots of other people around as opposed to none today.  There was no escape route, so once committed, you have to get on with it.  Anyway, stepping, lurching, hopping, jumping, sliding, sitting, thinking, balancing with the poles, cursing the poles when they got in the way,  grabbing, and all manner of delicate (!) footwork got me through the pair, between which and after which there was much jungly stuff like yesterday, too, and it was hot, so at the end of it all, I spent seven hours walking ten miles, a record slow time.  There were two more miles to go to get to the B and B where I almost collapsed on the doorstep, and, to revivify,  immediately bought a sparkling water, with two little ice cubes, from the proprietress.

An odd sighting in a desolate spot:

Lone Tree Beach:

Gateway to the boulder field:

Cave with Yawning Mouth:

That there yonder is Holy Island where there is a Buddhist Monastery and Buddhist monks.  People go there to take meditation courses and that sort of thing:

Swans and cygnets:

This fellow was in my way as there was a stile just there:

AND he had friends!  But they all let me pass probably because they were just too hot to move:

Whiting Bay, 6:45 a.m., parents' morning out:

Look at those ear tufts on this little fellow!

The walk started out on a beautiful path up to a waterfall:

Waterfall:

 View of Holy Island when you are much closer to it.  It looks just like Arran Island only smaller:

The low tide route from Lamlash to Brodick was lovely and the tide was out, so it was all good......until I got near a stile that had to be climbed that was blocked by bovines, youngish frisky ones.  There was nowhere for them to go nor did they have any interest in letting me pass.  "Well, at least there is a high route option," I reasoned, and that route was lovely too. In fact it was the prettiest walking of the whole island.  Get to the top, find the path to descend and in a few minutes, see this:

"Bother," thought I.  "I am not going to be deterred.  "I'll just crawl under those trees:"

After "those trees," it was obvious that the route was no longer a route, and I had no idea what to do.  But who should be coming the other way but a family of four.  They had encountered a similar problem and were just avoiding the whole thing and heading back whence they came, but they very kindly helped me figure out a way on to Brodick, which was not difficult but it was long.  This is how a 12 mile day turns into almost 17 miles.

Would I return to Arran Island?  There were some memorable stretches, but on the whole, not a particularly interesting or beautiful walk, and much too much road walking.

Machrie+Lagg, July 2+3

Today's walk is photo-less due to my having neglected to put the card back into the camera, not a bad day to have been so careless as I hardly took any pictures.  The walk consisted of two distinct parts: there was the deadly dull road walking punctuated by two take-care-now-finding-your-way-through-the rocks sections, which were kind of fun, only I did find myself saying "oy" a lot.

Tonight's B&B involved a transfer to Blackwaterfoot where I was all excited to be because it has an excellent little bread bakery.  But the bakery was not open to-day, so that was sad-making.  The local grocery is tiny and must cater to the golf-playing cocktail crowd because it sells things like venison pate and several varieties of herring, but little in the way of staples.

Oh, but I have accomplished two things about which I am so bloody proud!  I figured out how to make tracks from routes and how to split routes.  I always hated routes as a navigational method because I realise now that I did now know how to use them.  Well, now I do.....which does make turning them into tracks less vital, so if anyone wants to know, just ask.  Tomorrow all this new knowledge gets put to the test for the first time!

This is tomorrow and still struggling with new knowledge, but making progress with the route format.

After more deadly dull walking along a shoulderless main road where cars and trucks speed like crazy, it was really nice to have respite in this pine woods especially since I had already made a mistake that cost me about an hour.

An upended tree can be quite beautiful and it can also serve as a structure behind which one can pee:

Eventually there was beech walking and there were caves.  This particular one has been honoured by the placement of many mini cairns.

These caves have not:

Honestly, these stones are really jet-black, as black as charcoal, which they resemble, but you would never know from this photo:

Today's walk was the weirdest ever.  Too much road walking punctuated by some excellent walking along the water, but lots of bushwhacking through jungle-like thorny, underburshy and overbrushy stuff that I wasn't sure whether I would, any minute, be assuming Dr. Livingstone or empathising with Teddy Roosevelt in the Amazon.  And there were large gates, which, being locked, had to be climbed, and other impediments.  It was a long day and as a topper, my bags were delivered to the wrong hotel.  Took a bit of doing to get that sorted!  On the plus side, the famed bakery in Blackwaterfoot that was closed yesterday was open today, so I schlepped a loaf, strapped to the top of my pack, all the way to Lagg.  BUT, since I dined in the B&B/hotel—big mistake, food swimming in oil—I did no more than taste the bread, which, indeed was quite good.

To Sannox and Lochranza June 30+July 01

This is not Everest or even K2, or Mont Blanc, but a view from the B&B of Goatfel, the highest point on Arran, and it needed to be climbed, of course.  There is another way to get to Sannox, but more of that later.  For now it is enough to know that all energy and concentration were focused on that peak.  It was another rare day here, hot and sunny, so a 7:00 a.m. start was not at all overkill because to head up that mountain mid-day, which many people do, is insane. The climb, especially the last third, was challenging enough—think navigating your way through vertical boulder fields—without the added burden of a burning noontime sun.  

There are two, no, three reasons to climb this peak: one is to say you did, two is because on a day like today the views are spectacular, and three because the alternate route to Sannox is on a wide track through chopped down forest, teaming with flying, biting critters.

My photos do not do justice to the view AT ALL:

Looking towards Brodick:

The people I followed down, having a sandwich before the descent.  The woman's shorts say Minnie and Mouse.  That white pillar thing is a trig point, where you can measure the accuracy of your GPS. People tend to get very excited about trig points even if they don't use a GPS.

I was supposed to descend by a path (unmarked) that goes off at a thirty degree angle from the main path....to the extent that the main path is discernible.  I was not sure where it was and was scared to death to try a solo descent to who knows where in those desolate hills.  The photos do not capture the vastness and cragginess and into-the-no-where-ness of the hills, so I just followed the sandwich eating couple back to the starting point, turned at the junction, and walked to Sannox on the low level route, the one with all the flies.  The entire day's walk was only fourteen miles, but felt longer due to the demands of the Goat.  It was a good first day!

A pretty start on the way to Lochranza:

There were no habitations except this abandoned cottage, no sheep, no cows, just cliffs and rocks and lots and lots and lots of biting flies. Tomorrow the DEET goes on before departure!  A chunk of the walk was tricky going as you had to work your way along an undefined path through boulders.  And it was slow as every step had to be calculated.

Then things evened out, you might say:

 As I was checking into the B&B, Jesse James here told me that he has walked almost every walk in England.  He probably has:

"If you have time," the notes say, "Visit Lochranza Castle."  This castle may have the distinction of being the smallest, most modest castle in the UK:

 

What I learned from ambling through it was that lots of things that were done were later undone.  For example, the plaque informs that there was a window in that very place in the 13th century, but it was filled in in the 18th. A truism about castles, though, is that the stone work never ceases to astonish.