12 February A Wet Wednesday Walk in Ayr

Allan, Davie C, Davie Mc, Gus, Jimmy, Johnny, Peter, Rex, Robert. Ronnie

OK, which one of us annoyed Mother Nature? After having bragged last week of not having had a wet Wednesday this year, today made up for it. Fortunately this was to be a short walk anyway for this was the day of Jimmy joining the ‘auld men’s club’ and we were due to go out this evening to celebrate. Still, it was shorter than we even expected it to be.

Yet all seemed well when we gathered in Rex’s place in Alloway to partake of his coffee and home-made Anzac biscuits. The morning was dry though the forecast was for rain later. But have heard this tale every Wednesday since the turn of the year so we were in defiance of the Met Office for we knew that nature smiled on us. And smile on us she did, at least for the first part of the walk.

We left Rex’s and came into Rozelle Park. Among the trees a swathe of snowdrops greeted us, a sign that spring might not be so far away. While Jimmy stopped to photograph them, the rest of us walked on towards Rozelle House and the McLaurin Art Gallery. Being the culture vultures that we are, we halted here for a quick look at the exhibits – all primary school children’s work today. Far too many reminders of our recent past, we were off again.

We came through Belleisle Park and noted the alterations being carried out on the house there; then by Carwinchoch View to the sea front. Some were for holding to tarmac here but the consensus was for the sand and this is where we found ourselves, right down a tide level and turning northward for the harbour.

We never quite made the harbour before the rain hit, light rain to start with but with the potential to get heavier. The sensible waterproofed; the foolish dripped. Yes, we never quite made the harbour; we turned right past the swimming pool to come up South Harbour Street to Loudoun Hall, the oldest building in Ayr. Now came decision time. With the weather deteriorating even from the light rain of earlier, we opted to cut the walk short and make directly back for Alloway.

Up the High Street we plodded, avoiding umbrellas and soggy shoppers, to Burns Statue Square. (One of these days we must find out whose statue it is that stands there.) Now we found the rain driven into us by the lightest of winds but a wind sufficiently strong to sting the rain into faces. Then we squelched on through the rain along Carrick Road and Monument Road to where we had exited Rozelle Park earlier in the morning. Only a few hundred more soggy yards to the cars parked at Rex’s.

We found ourselves back at Rex’s place around lunch time thoroughly soaked and miserable. The Cumnock contingent – they who hadn’t donned waterproof trousers – opted not to accept Rex’s invitation to lunch in his place but to head back home to dry out. The rest enjoyed Rex’s hospitality and his beer.

A much shorter walk than was planned but sufficient unto the day! Our thanks go to Rex for his hospitality at both ends of the walk. 

That evening we gathered in The Jewel in the Crown in Kilmarnock to celebrate Jimmy’s sixty-fifth with a convivial curry and a few beers. A good night was had by all and our thanks must go to our hostess for the complimentary drink for Jimmy’s birthday. We will most certainly be back here.