The Ooters gathered at Davie's in Darvel ahead of the first walk of the year.
New Year greetings were exchanged and then Davie read out the contents of a touching letter he had received from Ian's son Allan, thanking him for the eulogy he had delivered at Ian's funeral and relating how much his father had enjoyed his times with the Ooters.
As always, Davie and Kay generously provided refreshments ahead of our journey into Lanarkshire!
We met up at the usual trysting place of Kirkfieldbank and opted for clockwise circuit. We descended to the Clyde without the drama of a previous visit and as we climbed back up to New Lanark light rain started to fall. By the time we reached the village, the rain was pretty heavy and we debated whether or not to go into the cafe for tea and coffee. However, we empathised with Holly's predicament, since she would have had to stay outside with Davie, and as one we chose to forgo the dry and warmth of the cafe for the shed overlooking the river, where we had sought refuge before.
Even at this low point of the river the flow was spectacular and we looked forward to the sights higher up.
The rain had stopped by the time we left the shelter. We weren't disappointed by the Falls. They were in full flow and the river thundered over the rocks and cascaded down the precipices. Plenty of photos and videos were taken and perhaps some will be appended here.
Lunch was taken on the far side, overlooking the falls. A couple of walkers had bagged our favoured spot and Johnny informed us that there was a better lunch stop a bit further on. It was as well we didn't pay any attention to him since it later transpired this location was actually on the River Ayr. Instead, we settled for spot on the grassy bank.
The path on this side of the river was very boggy and detours had to be made around mud and fallen trees but we returned to the cars unscathed.
FRT was taken at the Black Bull in Darvel and an Ooters' calendar was handed over.
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