Alan, Alan McQ, Allan, Dougie, Graham, Gus, High, Jimmy, Malcolm, Paul, Rex
The weather forecast for the week was excellent and today’s walks were to be blessed with wall-to-wall sunshine, but with a wee breeze to calm the temperature down a bit and make the walking more comfortable. At Kames the group split into two with Alan, Allan, Dougie Jimmy and Malcolm deciding to take a low-level walk out over Tibbie’e Brig and towards the loch, with the others opting to go up Cairn Table. Plans were made to meet up at one o’clock back at the cars.
The former sub-group stopped at McAdam’s cairn where Jimmy gave us the background to his work in roadmaking and his involvement in tar production although it was another McAdam who many years later would add tar to the chippings to produce tarmacadam. Moving on and passing over Tibbie’s Brig we followed the well-known track to the old railway line and continued along it, listening to another of Jimmy’s master classes, this time on the Covenanters, until the marker invited us to go right. Jimmy suggested going straight on towards the loch (the former opencast) and all agreed. At the first gate we were welcomed by a small herd of Aberdeen Angus bulls, wee wans thankfully, which then followed us all the way to the next gate, At the loch we dismissed the option to go left and go round it as we had to be back at one o’clock so we went right following a rough track. The plan was to get to the trees and then return via the boardwalk path. However, this track soon ran out and despite our efforts to find an alternative, a combination of a high fence and some very rough ground led us to stop, have lunch, and then retrace our steps.
The young bulls had made their way off the old railway line, but we had come across plenty other wildlife i.e. white horses, deer, alpacas (or maybe llamas), new-born lambs and birds – Jimmy knows what species. Arriving back at just after one o’clock we were surprised that the others had still not returned. After fifteen minutes we eventually made contact with them and were informed that they would be at least another twenty minutes, so we set off for the Black Bull in Mauchline for refreshments. To be fair, they were only about ten to fifteen minutes behind us. Both groups had done about six and a half miles and enjoyed the sit-ooterie at the pub. Of course, we received our usual hospitality, and thanks again to Karan for the sausage rolls and biscuits.
A guid day oot!