Freedom

I have called this freedom for two different reasons, firstly the large boulder you can see in the foreground is a memorial to celebrate a victory by The Bruce over an English army in 1307, seven years prior to Bannockburn and second as it was great to escape the confines of The Veelage and head off in to the Galloway Forest Park today.

Set off well before dawn in the hope of catching a sunrise but not to be, as the dawn brought some low cloud and freezing rain over the Galloway Hills. I struggled along an unclassified road covered in snow and ice until my old Citroen decided it was not going to manage to slither up the last incline on the road so unlike Bruces' spider I gave up after three attempts, found a safe place to leave the motor and set off on my seven mile walk around Loch Trool only to discover that the Forestry had closed it, undeterred I detoured the obstruction blocking my way and continued to enjoy a bracing walk through the snow and ice accompanied by a fresh North Westerly for good measure, had fun dodging the quite large clumps of frozen snow that were now beginning to drop from high up in the tall pines and enjoyed some superb views across to a now sunlit Merrick the highest bump in Southwest Scotland at 2766 feet. The only company I had was a herd of wild goats that I startled and numerous birds in the trees.

The only living souls I met all day were two guys who had spent the night camping, strangely enough at what was once an old campsite ( until the greed of the Forestry Commission caused it to close several years ago ) obviously a couple of hardy types but well equipped for the terrain as their massive 4x4 had the chunkiest tyres I had ever seen.

The guide book for this walk recommended allowing 3 hours to complete it, which is exactly how long it took me surprising as I had numerous stops and conditions were not brilliant plus I'm as fit as a double bass these days.

Was pleased to see the old car was still there and had thawed out a little too so fired it up and headed back to The Veelage for brunch and the rest of the afternoon with my feet up watching the telly.