The Tail and The Trail

Before we went to bed on Saturday night we reached the decision that our knees could handle the Gray Mare's Tail one more time and we'd be up and off early to hike on Sunday morning.  There's always a dread that goes through me when I make the decision to hike the Tail.  The reason is, it's STRAIGHT UP HILL....like a stair climber for about 40 minutes.   Then there's the walk along to Loch Skein which is another 20-30 minutes.  But that's not the problem.  You see for people like Gordon and I, people with bad knees, the problem is coming down.  So we popped 3 ibuprofen a piece and headed up one of my favorite roads in all of Scotland, not that I've seen all the roads of Scotland, but the roads I have seen, the Selkirk Road.

The parking lot and you can see the trail cutting across the far hillside.

Across the bridge and up to the first set of rock stairs

The trail cuts above the wash and climbs up and up

Our first view of the "tail"

The gravely part of the path with the tail in the background

A pretty foreboding sky and there's a bit of wind on this side of the mountain

Gimpy Gordon coming along behind me on the flat bit of path

Mists over the Loch

And still we walk.  You can see the path in the distance

Almost there

Ah, here it is!

You can see how still and placid the loch is.  Clear enough for some good reflections.

And a little bit of blue sky

And blooming heather in the foreground

Another beautiful day

So we did it again.  We follow three Scottish fellows down the path and see many cars in the carpark and lots of people heading up.  We were glad to have gotten an early start on the day and be headed back to the house and make vegetable soup for Jillian who was arriving Sunday night from London.  Jillian was supposed to arrive at 4:30 but her tickets got messed up and so she took a later train which arrived at 7:30.  That was all good though because the repeat of the season opener of Downtown Abbey, which we missed last Sunday because we were traveling, was playing at 4:30 on Sunday, and the second episode was later Sunday night at 9:00.  So Jill's ticket change worked to our advantage!

Today, Monday, we all had a slow morning and then decided on a walk out the back side of Gallow Hill.  Gordon and I did this walk last year and remember it as a difficult uphill climb.  I forgot how difficult it is and wish I'd taken another couple of ibuprofen!  Last year when we walked out the back gate of Gallow Hill we stumbled upon a sheep which had been stripped clean of all its body right down to the still bloody and pink bones equipped with little sheep teeth.  We figured that it had manage to fall over and couldn't get up and got attacked by a fox.  You know if a sheep falls over, they can't just roll over like any other animal and stand up.  They lay there kicking their feet in the air like an idiot until someone comes to roll them over or a fox comes to eat them!  We were telling this story to Jillian when we came upon this:

 This seems like a dangerous field for animals like this:

 Soon we finished our walk across the field and headed up a very steep slope to the top of a ridge looking back on the far wood and the field we crossed with the sheep.

We continued our climb

Until we were at the top over looking Moffat in the far distance with the suns rays shining down.

 It was incredibly windy at the top and I was thinking this walk made Gray Mare's Tail seem easy.  We headed down the backside of the mountain to the Old Well Road and into the cover of some trees and came upon this cute herd of cattle.  They are only cute because a fence separates us!

 Then we enjoyed some fall color walking back into town and down the high street in search of scones.

Tall people just do not fit in the little land of Scotland!  Certainly people from the Netherlands just wouldn't do!

Jill worked on her film today; Gordon and I in the yard a bit and then we went out for a delicious Italian meal as a treat.  Tomorrow we meet with Maureen here for a coffee in the morning and then Maureen, her daughter, Stacey and her granddaughter, Freya, are coming for dinner.  Our days in Scotland are numbered and we are looking forward to our last visits with our Scottish family.