Sunday 18th -- close walks

Today we stay close to home. A morning walk to a beach, an afternoon short drive then walk to a waterfall. Minimum driving, very relaxing. As if!

We walk from the hotel, into nearby woods. Along a pleasant trail, we were here yesterday... or the day before... some earlier time this holiday. We found a cache, the previous time.

Today we walk past the cache. Out of the woods. In a field next to our path is a cairn. A very old cairn, the sort which contains human remains. From the days when bodies were left out for wild animals then the bones buried in a cairn. No surprise that this cairn contained a mix of bones, incomplete skeletons of adults and children, plus some animal bones.

We join the Arran Coastal Way. We're still a few hundred metres from the sea, on the edge of farm fields. The trail is sometimes muddy, as it squeezes between bracken and blackberries.

It starts to rain. Should we turn back? Naahhh... we put on raincoats. Temperature is low teens, good for walking. I'm in shorts and warm enough.

Down a short farm track. We find a cache, we reach the beach. Secret Beach, it's called, both the cache and the beach. There's a band of rocks -- then actual beach sand. Part of the rock stands up like a natural 2m wall. Someone has topped it with a man-made stone and cement wall, it's not clear why, perhaps the wall used to go further and block off access to something.

Rain has stopped, there's a strong wind, a good day for walking along the beach. So we do.

We follow the beach for perhaps a km. Sand, some rocks, a couple of very minor streams to cross. A few birds, including a crow and a seagull sharing a dead sheep. We cross a rocky section which leads us to grass with only indistinct tracks. The next village is 5km ahead, there's no obvious way back to the road.

We've walked 3km from the hotel, far enough. We turn back

One area of beach -- just a few square metres -- has lots of little piles of sand. Clear signs that something, shellfish probably, have been burying themselves in the sand.

Another shower of rain. We retrace our steps to the hotel. Light lunch in the Velo cafe. Then we relax for an hour or two.

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About 3 o'clock, we drive a few km to a waterfall. Or, rather, to a carpark somewhere near a waterfall. We park and walk.

There's a good clear track, down to a very pretty cascade over flat rocks. Is this the waterfall? Probably not, there's a cache but it's still 400m away.

The path crosses a bridge and zigzags up a steep hill. Past a viewpoint then up even further.To another carpark! We go back to the cascade and try another uphill path.

After more steep walking we reach a "library", a wooden hut with lots of books -- and pictures drawn by visitors. The cache is now just 100m away -- directly across a steep ravine.  We follow rhe track further, around the top of the ravine.

Finally! a view of the waterfall. And a view to the lighthouse on a small island just off the coast. The cache is close by.

We follow the same trail as it goes directly downhill, to that second carpark. It would have been a steep climb up. More direct but less interesting than the roundabout way that we went :-)

We take the easy option and follow the road back to our car.

Drive home, relax, eat dinner and that's enough for one day. Oh, yes: dessert is very chef-y, a combination of flavours, very delicious.

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Remember that I bought a new pair of "trail shoes" in Oban? I've been wearing them for several days, they are very comfortable. They have leather uppers and let my toes get wet, but otherwise good. So I have finally thrown out an old pair of hiking shoes...

The old shoes were bought for walking in Ireland, about eight years ago. They were said to be waterproof but never were. Not at all. They were always very comfortable but the soles are now worn thin. They can be slippery and I can feel every stone on the road. They were good shoes... they are now in the bin.

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Tomorrow, we leave Arran. Driving, ferry, more driving... Could be a long day.

====    Dr Nick Lethbridge  /  Consulting Dexitroboper
             Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
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"I would like to think it's possible to construct a society where our orders don't involve slaughtering our own people." ...Gen. Khiruev via Yoon Ha Lee

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dying for you to read my blog: notdotdeaddotyet.blogspot.com.au :-)
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