February girly walk

We went for a girly walk yesterday, a version of the Culbin walk we did in April last year (I think). There were seven of us altogether and I used our old camera to record the event. I wish I’d taken my new one, the photographs are dreadful for some reason and I can only blame myself.

Jo, Judith, Sally, Alison and I met in Lidl’s car park. Useful place that, always empty. We took the path to the bridge at Broom of Moy, then continued on our merry little way to Kintessack. At this point, we had to telephone the reprobates, Angela and the New Girly, Sarah, because Angela (still a little Hoppy) had kindly allowed us two and a half hours to cover three miles. I know we’re a little out of practice, but hey, that’s an insult! Turned out they couldn’t meet us any earlier because they had to wait for the Other Louise, who was still going to join us at that time.

We planned a ‘scenic route’ through Cloddymoss to kill time and arrived ten minutes before midday, just in time to meet Angela and Susan, have  a toilet stop, (the PC was unexpectedly open mid-winter, so you have to take advantage!) and lunch. Well, second lunch, we’d had the first at Cloddymoss…

From the left, Angela (Hoppy), Alison (seated) Jo, Judith, Sally and Sarah is the hat. Hidden, unintentionally, honest.

We decided to shorten the route, despite Angela wanting to go to Binsness via the Gut, and took a more direct route. We are taking care of her strained ligaments whether she likes it or not!

We walked and chatted to Binsness, then continued on until we could leave the track and Angela could see the sea(it’s like walking with a child sometimes!). We had snack. A seal came to say hello, maybe it’s in the background of this photograph?

Or maybe not.

(Yes, I know, it’s sluds. I have no idea why, I only had cocoa in my flask, honest! Could have been the whisky in the home-cured salmon in my butties…)

We walked on, not believing Angela that her knee was fine, until eventually she caved and thought she should go back to the car via Earnhill, with Sally, while the rest of us carried on.

We took the track over the bridge that takes you down to the ford, then took a wrong turn somewhere (doh) before Judith voiced her concerns and we turned around. We hadn’t gone too far the wrong way and perhaps if we’d realised sooner, would have been in more shelter when it snowed. Eventually, we arrived at the bridge at the Broom of Moy again and soon returned to the car park.

Overall, those that did the whole route did 15.1 miles with 313 ft climb (odd, not sure about that), we took just over 4 hours with 1 hour 30 mins rest stops, with entertainment provided by my new emergency group shelter (group emergency shelter?), not that we used it, we just got it out for a giggle. Like you do when a group of grown women on a Sunday afternoon stroll, ahem.

Extremely good fun all day and slightly riotous at times.