Off the Beaten Path

So I've got these Wellies that I've been wearing everywhere because the earth is so sopping wet here in Scotland.  I asked Gordon this morning before our walk if he thinks I still need to wear the Wellies or if I could wear my hiking boots.  "What do you think?", "I think if you don't won't wet feet, wear your Wellies."  Okay, so I'm wearing the Wellies. 

Today was GORGEOUS again....but very cold...another frost and we started late at 10:45 driving way into the Beef Tub further than we've ever been before.  Me in my Wellies and Gordon in his sturdy leather hiking boots.  It's completely lovely and we got lost in a very deep valley on tiny, skinny roads.  We drove all the way to a farm called Corehead at the very, very end of the Beef Tub; over tiny creeks, tiny roads by old stone buildings and corrugated sheds and fields and fields of green until we reach the Corehead Farm below:

We parked and got out of the car to look around at the acres of green surrounding us.

We went through two cattle gates and across this little-bitty plank people bridge....

And up onto the hill that forms the back end of the Beef Tub.  Up and up and up....

Past fall rust ferns....

and now brown heather....

to where we could look down into the basin.  The path was Billy-goat straight up, in fact called Strait Steppe, and at a slant so steep I didn't feel comfortable in my Welly boots.  It would have felt better to have hiking boots....something sturdy on my ankles and with gripping ability on the soles unlike Hunter Boots.

We decided to just hike far enough to spot a very specific feature before heading back down.  If you look way down into the picture below you'll see a white dot.  That's a small van that launched over the Beef Tub from the Old Edinburgh Road which runs the very top of this picture.  The story goes that a woman, 8 months pregnant, was going over the Beef Tub at night, in the fog, and lost the road and launched out over the road into the Beef Tub.  She ended at the base of the Tub, alive, crawled out  (8 months pregnant remember) and climbed all the way back up to the Edinburgh Road before flagging another car.  Okay?  What do you think?

Far, far off in the distance you can just barely see a mountain sticking up at about 10 o'clock.  Gordon and I think that's the Cumbrian Mountains in England. It was a really clear day and we know that the Cumbrian Mts. can be seen from Moffat on a clear day.  So just saying....that's the Cumbrian Mts.  So we decided to head down the mountain and hike along until we reach the site of the car crash.

This sheep pen is quite old and one of the most photographed objects in Moffat.  The photo at the right is a copy and the one that Gordon is sitting next to is actual!

Rock sitting and resting.

Looking back toward Corehead Farm.

approaching the vehicle

There it is laying on it's roof.

Camera setting is all wrong but we walked right up to the other side of the fence from the vehicle scaring off a couple of caught unaware goats.

We are as far into the Tub as you can possibly go without climbing out and this is the path back to our car and

the view up the hill we climbed originally with the sheep pen.

When we arrived home we had a flat tire.....doh!  So that's the first job in the morning, finding a place to get the tire fixed.

We worked an hour more in the yard, whacking and chopping and trimming.  I'm quite pleased with our progress.....a once a year clean-up.  We've had a relaxing evening; a little white wine on the back porch in the sun and a walk down town.

All-in-all a terrific day on a road less traveled and off the beaten path.