25 February Return to the Ochils

Seven Ooters assembled at Robert's for a pre-journey coffee and piece of home-made gingerbread. Davie was still poorly (come back soon Davie, we are all missing Holly), Jimmy was waiting for the man from Dell Monte (he say no to any other day of the week), Ronnie had had a family bereavement and Peter was ... somewhere else. Having set off at 9.05am we arrived and parked (more about this later) at Dollar by 10.20am.
(Since the writer is not yet up to the high standards of some of the other Ooters in terms of what hills we were on I shall leave them to fill in the technical details but as currency was the order of the day and centing that nobody else was up for it, it was in for a penny, in for a pound as far as the blog is concerned. To be franc the experience has left a mark on me and I yen to take a back seat next week.)

It was up the Dollar Glen to begin with, passing by Castle Campbell (even by this time the writer was taking his usual tail gunner position), and on up a well marked path before stopping for coffee prior to the real ascent of the day. The climb to the top of the hill was steep with the weather changing quickly from wet to dry - thankfully mainly dry. However Johnny has an insurance claim pending regarding his torn waterproofs, caught on a wire fence. As the summit approached the wind got stronger and colder making possible only brief stops to admire the views - Kincardine Bridges, Longannet and Kincardine Power Stations, Grangemouth and beyond.
Lunch was taken huddled together in a stone shelter at the top and, given the ferocity of the weather, it was not lomg before we started off on the downward part of the walk (downward, I should know better by this time). At least the first part was down and made at a quick rate of knots as the hail was biting into our faces. The idea was to climb up on to a ridge that would eventually bring us round to Dollar again. Paul led the way using his GPS to great effect and liaising with Alan and Rex who were also equipped with the latest technology. To be honest I'm not sure how many other tops we navigated (Johnny says it was the Four Tops but lost all credibility by recounting how he used to enjoy their lead singer, Marvin Gaye). The wind was still strong enough to blow us occasionally off balance and with Dollar coming into sight a decision? was made to veer off the route and go straight down the hillside. This being accomplished, and in the lea of the wind, the walk back in was relatively straightforward via the steep-sided Glen. It was a weary group who arrived back at the cars at 4.15pm.
Another decision was taken to go back to the King's at Fenwick for refreshments with the result that the last of the Ooters got home to their loved ones at 7.30pm - they saw their wives later. A long day.

Diplomatic Incident at Dollar (A Fistful of Dollar?)
W.C Porter, as is his want, arrived back at the car first and was met by an eighty(maybe eighty-six) year old male resident who complained that where the car was parked impeded the entry into his driveway. Rex in his own inimitable way stated that we were parked their legally and couldn't see the problem. One word led to another with the resident, despite his age, threatening to scatter Rex across the burn. Rex invited him to go away and this he did but not before telling Rex that if he parked there again he would have a nasty letter attached to his windscreen. This
appealed to Rex as, in fact, it was Ian's car. Ian had kept 'shtum' throughout the altercation. The old geezer then appeared at Paul's car where Johnny was changing and complained about 'our rude little friend up there'. Johnny assured him that we did not mean to cause an issue and apologised for any inconvenience. This apparently was all that he was looking for - a word of apology - and hinted that a day on the hills may have affected Rex's mental stability. We assured him that Rex was an Australian (he didn't understand Antipodean) and that the day on the hills had had no impact, he was always like that.
This incident provided much needed hilarity after the tortuous day and was recounted with relish at the King's.
Following on with the Spaghetti Western theme the incident could be renamed 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly'. Mix and match yourselves who is who between Rex, Johnny and the old guy.