GT Day 12: A Perth Pimple

Friday 7 November 2014

Setting out before full daylight this morning, I had a plan of driving a little way down the road and (even though it was raining) taking a quick stroll up Cruban Beag (from the more sensible side). Ten minutes later, I caught sight of my hill and saw that it was covered in cloud. I did a quick sum in my head:

Rain + Low Cloud = Not a Chance!

So, I sailed past the turn I would have taken, and a few minutes later realised that I had been looking at the wrong hill, when the right hill hove into view and was completely free of cloud. Being now on a dual carriageway, I didn’t turn back, but decided to find somewhere else to walk further south. I’m so glad I didn’t go back, because instead I had a lovely time on a little pimple in Perth, by the name of Kinnoull Hill.

It’s not even 750’ high, but the glory of a pimple is that it stands proud relative to its surroundings and thus gives excellent views. With the weather being decidedly on the brightening side by now, I revelled in those views. I even grinned out loud at the joy of it. Or to put that another way, I had a jolly good hour and a half wandering through woodland and drinking in views. Here is a selection of the snaps I took to illustrate the outing (note that I had to re-ascend for the summit photo, as I got a couple of minutes into my descent before I remembered that I’d forgotten to take a snap at the top):

It doesn’t stand out too well in this snap, but that’s a ruined tower sanding at the top of the crag. Admittedly, it’s a shame about the presence of the A90, more for its noise than its appearance.

Poser!

I had to look twice when I first spotted this, it looked so realistic.

Fortunately, nobody has been and painted a target on it!

 This one was a real, and he posed nicely for me.

I had such a good time on this little hill that I completely lost track of time, which was compounded by an aberration as to how long it would take me to get from Perth to Moffat, where Mick was due to arrive at 3pm. As I was bringing the accommodation, and as he had made the effort to escape work earlier than is his norm, it was particularly important for me to arrive before him. I drove faster than I usually do and did indeed beat him … by 90 seconds. Considering how far we’d both come from opposite directions, that was incredibly closely timed!