Alan, Allan, Davie Mc, Dougie, Gus,
Hugh, Iain, Ian, Jimmy, Johnny, Malcolm, Paul, Rex, Robert
 |
| Careful, Jimmy! (The boys from Ayr had not yet caught up) |
It was a dry and reasonably mild
morning as we awaited the arrival of our Ayr/Prestwick contingent, only to be
informed that they had taken the wrong road (too busy blethering, no doubt –
they really should not be let out on their own) and would be late. The plan,
therefore, was for us to leave Kirkfieldbank and walk up to New Lanark and wait
for the guys to catch up whilst we took coffee.
The walk up to our customary coffee
stop was straightforward, although Jimmy, with us again after a good number of
weeks, was taking things gingerly due to his continuing back issues. We didn’t
have too long to wait before the lost boys caught up with tales of seeing parts
of the countryside unknown to man.
As we moved up past the power station
towards our next wee stop at a viewpoint, we enjoyed great views of the Clyde
crashing down over the various falls and, with a background of autumn colours,
cameras were working overtime. It was at this point that Jimmy decided that
discretion was the best part of valour and decided to retrace his steps back to
his car. We wished him well and continued up to the dam, our highest point
today, crossed over, and took lunch, overlooking the falls, a few minutes down
the path. Johnny, however, decided to forego lunch and walk on slowly as his
leg was giving him some discomfort.
As we had anticipated, the track on
the last part of our walk, prove to be a bit muddy in places, but not as bad as
we had encountered before, and nowhere as bad as last week, and it was not
until very close to Kirkfieldbank that we caught up with Johnny.
The walk, about seven miles, had
taken three hours and twenty minutes in total, and had been done in good
conditions. FRT was taken in the Black Bull in Darvel where our second round
was bought for us by Geoff, a regular, who had recently benefited from a tax
rebate. Thanks, Geoff! We reciprocated by buying him a drink. And, in case
anyone was wondering, Johnny was revived by his hour in the pub!
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