Walk 268 -- Kilberry to Ardpatrick

Ages:  Colin was 68 years and 333 days.  Rosemary was 66 years and 110 days.

Weather:  Dull, but dry.  Mild temperature.
Location:  Kilberry to Ardpatrick.
Distance:  6½ miles.
Total distance:  2544½ miles.
Terrain:  All tarmacked lanes.  Undulating.
Tide:  Coming in.
Rivers:  No.307, Abhainn Learg an Uinnsinn.
Ferries:  None.
Piers: None.
Kissing gates:  None.
Pubs:  None.
‘Historic Scotland’ properties:  None.
Ferris wheels:  None.
Diversions:  None.
How we got there and back:  We were staying in our caravan in Lochgilphead.  This morning we drove to Ardpatrick where we parked at the junction with the ferry road.  There were no buses, and the local taxi driver had refused to take us.  So we planned to start walking towards Kilberry and hopefully thumb a lift.  Trouble was, there was no traffic!  We walked four miles in the ‘wrong’ direction before a car (only the third vehicle to pass us!) stopped to pick us up.  It was a family from Horsham on holiday in the area — very pleasant, and interested when we explained about our venture.  They conveyed us the last mile to Kilberry.
At the end, we sat above the jetty eating our chocolate, and felt quite pleased that we had managed to walk all the way from Balimore to Ardpatrick over the last three days despite being let down by that wretched taxi driver.  But we were also annoyed that we’d had to walk nearly ten miles in the wrong direction in order to connect up the Walks.  We then trudged the one and a half miles back to our car (no traffic at all passed us so there was no hope of a lift), had our tea and drove back to our caravan in Lochgilphead.

We started today’s Walk at the Kilberry Inn, which had turned out to be an expensive restaurant.  So we didn’t dine there, just took a photo of it then walked southwards.  About half a mile further on we sat on a wall and ate our sandwiches.  We could see across the loch to the peninsula we had previously walked round from Achnamara.  But the clouds hung heavy in the sky making for poor lighting.  If only the sun would come out!

We climbed a hill, but altogether this Walk was more downhill than up.  On a clear tarmacked lane too, so it was pleasant easy walking.  We passed some Highland cows in a field — I do so love these creatures, they look as if they are full of character.

There were some strange diggings on the grass verge, a lot of them stretching for about half a mile.  Colin asked me, “Where have you seen these kind of diggings before?  The answer will give you a clue as to what probably caused them.”  I couldn’t think what he meant, but when he said, “The Forest of Dean!” I realised immediately that they must have been made by pigs.  Are there wild boars in this part of Scotland?

The views were stunning despite the grey cloud.  It was very clear, and we thought we could see Ireland in the far distance.  But it was right on the horizon, and wouldn’t have shown up on a photograph.

As we came towards the end of the peninsula we had lovely views over tiny Loch Stornoway, which is really a glaciated river estuary.  The rocks lining the road were quite craggy, and off-road it was very boggy.  We were glad we had a decent road to walk on!

We passed some trees, still devoid of leaves, which were covered in some kind of fungus — or was it a moss? — which made them look creepy.

Then we crossed the river (with an unpronounceable name) which flows out through Loch Stornoway.  Beyond that we saw a number of standing stones in adjacent fields.

We passed an enormous farm building with a magnificent archway in the middle.  It looked run down, and we couldn’t decide whether it was derelict or still in use.

Five miles into the Walk on a public road, and we hadn’t been passed by a single vehicle in either direction.  Nor had we met any people, only sheep had watched us pass by.
At the road junction we came to our car, for we had parked it there rather than at the end of the Walk one and a half miles further on.  We stopped and had two cups of tea each from our flasks.

We continued down Ardpatrick Lane, a dead end.  We saw some deer running away in the distance, we think they were roe deer.  We also saw another standing stone, there seemed to be a lot of them scattered around this area.

We passed some houses where children were playing — yes, real people!  About a mile down the lane we passed through a gate and walked alongside Ardpatrick Farm.  Opposite the big house we had a lovely view across West Loch Tarbert — the loch which almost turns the Kintyre Peninsula into an island, but not quite!

We continued to Ferry House, and were amused to see it was sporting a satellite dish.  How times have changed!

Opposite the house is the remains of a stone jetty from where the ferry used to run.  We sat on a log and ate our chocolate.

That ended Walk no.268, we shall pick up Walk no.269 next time by Ferry House on the other side of West Loch Tarbert — the ferry closed sixty years ago.  It was twenty to six, so the Walk had taken us three and a half hours.

Many people, who claim to have walked the coast of mainland Britain, took a short cut when they came to the Kintyre Peninsula.  Perhaps they counted it as an island, but it is not.  We decided it was too interesting to miss out, so we are going to walk down the west side from Clachan using Additional Rule no.13 which states we can count this derelict ferry as a functional one because there is a ‘Ferry House’ on both sides of the loch.  On reaching the southernmost point of the peninsula, we will then walk back up the east side to Tarbert where there is a ferry across Loch Fyne to Portavadie.

Having discussed this whilst sitting on our log, we walked the one and a half miles back to our car.  No traffic at all passed us so there was no hope of a lift.  We drank more tea, then drove back to our caravan in Lochgilphead.
The next day we moved the caravan to a site in Machrihanish, at the southern end of the Kintyre peninsula.

Walk 267 -- Lochead to Kilberry

Ages:  Colin was 68 years and 332 days.  Rosemary was 66 years and 109 days.

Weather:  Dark, grey and persistent drizzle.  Mild.
Location:  Lochead to Kilberry.
Distance:  12½ miles.
Total distance:  2538 miles.
Terrain:  All tarmacked lanes.  Undulating.
Tide:  Coming in.
Rivers:  No.302, Allt Cinn-locha.  No.303, Achahuish Burn.  No.304, Baranlongart Burn.  No.305, Ormsary Waters.  No.306, Crear Burn.
Ferries:  None.
Piers: None.
Kissing gates:  None.
Pubs:  None.
‘Historic Scotland’ properties:  No.27, sculptured stones at Kilberry which we were too tired to visit.
Ferris wheels:  None.
Diversions:  None.
How we got there and back:  We were staying in our caravan in Lochgilphead.  This morning we drove to Kilberry where we parked behind an expensive restaurant which we thought was a pub!  We caught a bus from there to Achahoish.  Then we had to walk two miles down a lane to get to the spot where we finished yesterday’s Walk.
At the end, we finished our Walk at the car which Colin discreetly drove out of the restaurant car park.  A little further down the road we had our tea and shortcake, then returned to our caravan in Lochgilphead.  We both felt wet and miserable — what should have been a lovely Walk along the lochside had become an endurance test in the rain.

 

 
It started to drizzle shortly before we arrived at the starting point of today’s Walk.  After a few little breaks, the rain became persistent and turned what should have been an enjoyable hike into an endurance test.  So few photos were taken today, we didn’t want to get the cameras wet.

We passed through a little wood where we saw a patch of arum lilies.  They were beautiful, easily the best thing on the whole Walk.

The road cut through a farm with daffodils on the verge, and a huge farmhouse behind high walls.  We peeped into the garden and saw a statue of a boy in a flower garden — I wonder what was the significance of that sculpture.  I felt, somehow, there was a story behind it.

Nearby was a standing stone — one of many in this area.

We crossed a stream in some mossy woods, it was very pretty there.  We sat on a log to eat our sarnies — we had sat there to eat our pies on the way out earlier.  Colin was feeling pretty miserable because he was still having trouble with his artificial sphincter, and had leaked.  I was feeling pretty miserable because my arthritic toe became quite painful and I had to take my boot off to apply ‘Powergel’ which didn’t really work even then.  I’ve had four and a half years of peace with that toe — in fact I had more or less forgotten all about it — so I was disappointed that it had started playing up again.

We were both feeling pretty miserable because of the rain.  We put our cameras away and struggled into overtrousers.  Further up the road it stopped raining and became too hot in the sun — momentarily.  I was foolish enough to take my overtrousers off, Colin didn’t.  Almost immediately the sun disappeared and it started raining again!  I couldn’t be bothered to struggle into my overtrousers again, so I got wet.  This time the rain was here to stay.
We came to Achahoish where we had alighted from the bus earlier, and turned southwards along the slightly mainer road.  Hardly any traffic, that was a godsend.  This road follows the shore of Loch Caolisport, sometimes right next to it and sometimes a bit further inland.  The view was foggy.  We didn’t see any wildlife.  We were wet and miserable.  We just tramped on. 

Further on we sat on a mossy bank to eat our apples in the rain.  Then we trudged on.  I have found that I have far more stamina now that I am taking thyroxine tablets daily.  I went to the doctor about something completely different, and a blood test revealed that I have an under-active thyroid.  One of the symptoms of this is ‘sluggishness’, apparently, but I hadn’t noticed that I was sluggish.  However, we have both noticed the difference since I have been taking the thyroxine.  Whereas I used to lag behind Colin and could never catch him up, now he has difficulty keeping up with me!

On and on we went, two sad figures in the rain.  We sat on a wall to eat our chocolate, then trudged on.  A four-by-four vehicle passed us, then came to a stop.  The woman driver offered us a lift to Kilberry which was still about two miles away.  We said that we’d love to because we were so wet and miserable, but explained why we couldn’t.  I thanked her for her concern, and gave her one of my blog cards.  As she drove away I really questioned my sanity once again!

We passed the signpost to some sculptured stones, but we were too tired, wet and miserable to divert down the lane to see them.  We thought we may come back another day and take a look at them, but we never did.  They are probably little different to other such stones we have seen in other locations around Scotland, so we weren’t too bothered about missing them.
Eventually we arrived at the ‘pub’ in Kilberry, only to find it was really an expensive restaurant and the car park was full.

This should have been a fabulous Walk, but the weather ruined it!

That ended Walk no.267, we shall pick up Walk no.268 next time by the Kilberry Inn.  It was five past seven, so the Walk had taken us six hours.  This morning we had asked permission to leave our car in their car park all day, saying that we would call in for a drink after our hike.  This we fully intended to do, but we now discovered it wasn’t an ordinary boozer but an expensive restaurant — not our scene at all.  We felt like two drowned rats, and the place was full of posh people in smart clothes!  So Colin quietly sneaked the car out of the car park and drove it a little further down the road to the bus turning area.  There we had our tea and shortcake, then returned to our caravan in Lochgilphead.

Walk 266 -- Balimore to Lochead

Ages:  Colin was 68 years and 331 days.  Rosemary was 66 years and 108 days.

Weather:  The rain had stopped and the cold wind died down.  We had occasional glimpses of the sun, and even began to get too hot.

Location:  Balimore to Lochead.

Distance:  5½ miles.

Total distance:  2525½ miles.

Terrain:  Semi-tarmacked private road and a public lane.  Undulating.

Tide:  Going out.

Rivers:  None.

Ferries:  None.

Piers: None.

Kissing gates:  None.

Pubs:  None.

‘Historic Scotland’ properties:  None.

Ferris wheels:  None.

Diversions:  None.

How we got there and back:  Yesterday we towed our caravan from home all the way to Lochgilphead in one day — well done Colin who did all the driving!  This morning I spoke to a local taxi driver who pretended he didn’t know any of the places I was talking about and that he couldn’t understand the maps — he lives here, for goodness sake!  He told me a pack of lies about accessibility, then flatly refused to take us to the place we wanted!  So our only hope now is to thumb a lift, the bus only covers the middle bit of tomorrow’s Walk.  We had already decided to do a short Walk today in both directions (3½+ 3½=7miles) to connect two remote roads over a hill, but thought we’d better extend this so that tomorrow’s Walk is not quite so long.  We parked at Lochead, then walked 5½miles over the hill on a private road to Balimore where we finished the last Walk six months ago.

At the end, we finished our Walk at the car.  Our “short walk” had been eleven miles in total!  We had our tea and shortcake, then returned to our caravan in Lochgilphead.

We were really angry that the local taxi driver had let us down like that.  He just didn’t want to know!  Doesn’t he want the fares we were prepared to pay him?  Now all my meticulous plans for the next series of Walks are down the pan!  We had to do some hurried replanning before we set out to do today’s Walk in both directions, making it twice as long.  On the upside, by the time we reached the lonely house called Balimore where we were to turn round, it had actually stopped raining.

A man with a pony tail came out of the house and asked if we needed any help.  We were rooting in our rucksacks for our apples at the time, and I expect he thought that we were lost or something.  We thanked him for his kind thoughts, and started our Walk eating our apples on the way.  The track was quite muddy by the gate, but better further on and gave us no trouble.  That was a godsend since it had been raining non-stop for the past twenty-four hours.  But it had stopped now, and was getting brighter by the minute.

We passed some unusual coloured cows, a sort of pale grey which was rather attractive.  We’d not seen that particular breed before, and wondered what they were.  We also passed lots of sheep, but they were just ordinary colours.

The track led on, following the contours along the side of the hill.  I got into ‘route-march’ mode because we were actually walking eleven miles in an afternoon and I was already getting tired.  We crossed one of the many streams on a slatted bridge where I took a video of the water running underneath.  Colin noticed that some twigs and weeds had caused a minor dam to form and he wanted to ‘let it go’!  I walked on and left him to his boyish pranks because I was still in ‘route-march’ mode — he soon caught me up after setting the water free with a satisfying whoosh!

We passed a rock wall which I identified as a basalt lava flow from a long-extinct volcano.  I was quite pleased with myself because, when I later looked it up on the geology map of the area, that was indeed what it was.  (We passed another one much further down, on the road past Ellary.)

The track bent round and seemed to go ‘over the top’.  We started having magnificent views ahead.  But first we passed two small lochans.  It was very boggy around them, though thankfully the track was sound.  The sun came out weakly causing a thin mist to rise from the lochans.  A small breeze formed ripples on the surface — it was absolutely beautiful!

Round a bend in the other direction, and we came across a parting of the ways.  One track continued along the contour, the other descended rather sharply at first.  At the fork was a wooden seat, the only one we came across on the whole of the Walk.  So we made use of it, sitting down to eat our chocolate.

While we were sitting there admiring the magnificent view over Loch Caolisport, we were sure we could hear a car.  But we were miles from any road!  The sound got gradually louder until a car full of people appeared on the lower track.  We were very surprised!  It passed us and continued up towards the lochans.  It must have come from Ellary Farm because the gates were locked at both ends of the track when we passed them, only the narrow walking gates were open.

We descended the narrow zigzag track which took us out on to a public road (only a lane really) at Ellary Farm.  There we admired and photographed the bright pink and red camellia bushes, and other fresh Spring flowers, in people’s gardens.

There were some men retiling the roof of one of the houses, and we had commiserated with them on our way up several hours ago about having to work in the teeming rain.  As we passed them this time we called out, “It’s stopped raining now!”  They were smiling, especially as they were about to knock off for the day!

The road we were on followed the shore of the loch.  We saw a man and a boy fishing off a beach, and passed a small waterfall in one of the many streams which went under the road.  We came to some fantastic metamorphic rocks, all twisted into amazing patterns.  I do wish I knew more about this branch of geology, I find metamorphic rocks fascinating.

We also passed another basalt-lava flow which had been sliced by the road.

The wind got up a bit as we concluded our Walk, causing bigger waves to appear on the loch.  We felt sorry for a couple of ducks who were struggling against the flow and getting nowhere — poor little things!

A path led off on the loch-side and disappeared behind some bushes.  We decided to follow it because it was “nearer the sea” and we wanted to know where it went.  It led round a knob of land, on the very edge.  It had partially eroded away making walking quite difficult.  Fortunately it wasn’t very long, and we were soon back on the tarmacked lane.

We soon came to the car which we had parked opposite some chalets at Lochead.

      That ended Walk no.266, we shall pick up Walk no.267 next time by the holiday chalets at Lochead.  It was five to six, so the Walk had taken us two and a half hours, but we’d been away from the car for five hours because we’d had to walk it both ways.   We had our tea and shortcake, then returned to our caravan in Lochgilphead.  It rained most of the way back, and was very gloomy.  I think I shall always associate Lochgilphead with slate-grey skies and teeming rain!