Only three made the walk this week
again. It might have been four had we waited at the meeting place long enough
for Peter to join us, but we didn’t so there were only three today on the walk
today.
The weather was fair; the sun shone
and the air was clear but the persistent northerly that has been with us for
most of the month kept the temperature down. Still we anticipated a good walk
as we drove to the water treatment works at the head of Glen Afton. In the glen
we were sheltered from the full effects of the wind, and the start of the walk
to the dam face was relatively warm in the morning sunshine. But, as we climbed
up the path by the face of the dam, we could feel the wind rising. And a chill
wind it was.
Work is being carried on at the dam
at the moment and men in hard hats could be seen mulling around the middle of
it, too far away for our inquiries. Nor was there anybody about at the works
headquarters - a port-a-cabin surrounded by land-working machinery and a
temporary fence - so our nosiness about what work was being carried out went
unsatisfied. We continued up the track to find the forest road that runs from
here toward the Dalmellington to Carsphairn road.
Now, as we climbed with the road, we
could feel the full effects of the northerly wind – strengthening and chilling
– and we were only too happy to crest the ridge and drop into the shelter of
the trees in the valley of the Water of Deugh. It was here that we met the
cyclist. A man of our own vintage was labouring upward pushing his mountain
bike by his side. As you know, we are not the people to miss the opportunity
for a blether so we stopped to encourage our new friend in our inimitable
fashion. ‘Only another four miles to the top’, said we seeing how he was
enjoying himself. We can only hope he made it.
We walked on easier than he did for
we were now going down into the valley of the Deugh. ‘Coffee’, said Ian and we
stopped on the bridge over the Deugh for a break. The morning was warm in the
shelter of the trees and we, even Robert, were happy to take our time over
coffee.
After coffee we left the forest road
and stated the first serious climb of the day. This climb through a firebreak
was wet underfoot and warm from the effort. But it was not as wet as it might
have been given the weather of the last few months. Nor was it as warm as it
might have been for, as we rose, we found the strong northerly again. By the
time we cleared the trees and came to the first wind turbine on Jedburgh Knees
the wind was strong and chilly. But, as we turned on the wind farm road towards
Windy Standard, it was on our backs and we walked on comfortably taking in the
view as we went.
It was the northerly wind that kept the
air clear and the views took in the Ayrshire plain and as far north as Whitelee
wind farm, as far east as the Lowther Hills, as far south as the Cumbrian fells
and as far southwest as the high Galloways. But there was no Arran in the west.
Somehow a haze hung over the sea and Arran was obscured today. And the view
changed subtly as we walked along the road towards the short climb to the
Standard itself.
We came across a turbine with one blade
missing. The blade lay along the hillside awaiting repair or re-fixing and the
turbine stood forlornly still while its neighbours waved at each other in the
strong wind. The bladeless turbine needed investigating and we made the fifty
metre diversion to examine it and the blade. This is where Ian’s engineering
knowledge came to the fore. He used words like ‘ergs’ and ‘torques’ and
‘kilowatt hours’ and we nodded in intelligently and hung on his every word.
Then we walked on before he could come up with more words.
The short climb to the top was easy and
we found ourselves standing by the trig point with what seem like no effort at
all. A figure was seen coming to the top from the opposite direction to us. She
had come from the Ken Valley and was making her way along the wind farm roads
to Clennoch bothy and back to the Ken. (She was asked her name but the scribe’s
memory is not the sharpest and he has forgotten it, hasn’t he! If this lady
reads this blog she might give us her name in a comment – Ed.) The wind was
beginning to really chill now so we left our new friend to continue her walk
and started our descent towards the Afton again.
Hunger was beginning to call as we came
down the fence towards the Afton but the wind was strong and cold and there was
no shelter until we reached the edge of the forest again. We left our downward
progress and crossed to the edge of the trees where we were out of the wind and
settled down to eat.
After lunch we came round and down the
hill towards a sheep pen we could see in the valley bottom. This, said Jimmy,
would avoid the wet of the bog that is the Source of the Afton. Avoid the bog
we may have done but there were still some wet patches to be negotiated before
the sheep pen was reached, and even after this. But negotiated they were and we
found the path that would take us down the right of the burn to the head of the
reservoir. Some work is being done here as well with a new road being driven
in, but whether this has anything to do with the work at the dam we don’t know
for there was still nobody about to ask. No doubt we will find out in due
course.
A pair of sandpiper lifted from the bank of the burn as came down the road to find the
forest road that would take us back to the dam. The walk along the road by the
side of the reservoir was a delight in the afternoon sun and we arrived back at
the cars sun-kissed, wind-blown and thoroughly pleased with the day’s walk.
FRT was taken in The Sun in Cumnock, a
vastly improved place since the first time we came here seven years ago.
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