11 October - River Ayr walk

Tumbin’ broon, the burn comes doon,

And roars frae bank tae brae,

And bird and beast in covert rest,

And spend the heartless day.

For the third week in a row the weather gods conspired against us. The deluge of the night continued into the day and left us with a torrent of rain at our rendezvous in Sorn. Therefore, our plans for the day – Blacksidend Hill -  were abandoned in favour of a lower level walk along the banks of the River Ayr from Sorn to as far as we thought sensible. We have covered this walk so many times that it needs no further description except to say that it was wet and we have never seen the river so high on this stretch. Over the old brig we went following the River Ayr Way.

We thought we had nearly lost Jimmy here. He stopped to photograph the river at the old brig and the branch he was using as support as he clambered down the bank gave way and we thought we would have to recover his body from the river at Ayr harbour. But the benefit of being a short-arse with a low centre of gravity meant that he regained his balance, took his picture and re-joined us none the worse for his experience.

The rest of the walk was uneventful but wet and we plodded on downstream towards Catrine with only the occasional halt to photograph the river in spate. The water was curling back on itself as it tried fall over the dam at Catrine and this afforded another stop for pictures before we plodded soggily along.  Some suggestion was made for coffee and cake in the Cotton Trail in Catrine and, given the conditions this was gratefully accepted by all. Well nearly all for Davie Mc, thinking the dog would not be welcome (erroneously as it happens), decided to walk on a bit further. Oh, how the warmth and the dry of that tearoom was welcomed and fairly cheered us up and our thanks must go to Eddie and his staff for making us feel welcome.

But all good things must come to an end and we were soon back out in the rain where we were joined by Davie and Holly. The decision, sensible it seems now, was to return to Sorn by the same route and this we did but with fewer picture stops this time.

We returned to the cars before the noon bells had chimed and in fact some of us were taking FRT in the Black Bull in Mauchline before this. The Black Bull is rapidly becoming a favourite howff of ours and is well on its way to becoming our pub of the year for the hospitality extended to us. We will be back.

Distance? Not far but far enough in the downpour.

Pics by Davie