The Road goes ever on and on; Down from the door where it began;
Now far ahead the Road has gone; And I must follow, if I can;
Pursuing it with eager feet; Until it joins some larger way;
Where many paths and errands met; And whither then? I cannot say.

[JRR Tolkien, Lord of the Rings]

Saturday 8 February 2014

Romach Loch

Having given the route-planning task to Louise, and having not asked any questions, we had no idea where we were walking today. We didn’t even ask how far it was, for which reason Louise didn’t need to confess when she opted for a short cut; we would never have known!

It was a fine morning as we drove to the start of our outing, although it didn’t stay that way for long as a light shower hit us (us being Louise, David, Mick and me) just as we finished the car-boot-faff and set off up the road. The shower can’t have lasted long, as by the time we had entered the forest and and gained a little height, there was blue above us and fine views out to the coast (not that you can really make them out in this snap):

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The main feature of the outing was Romach Loch, where we declared it to be lunch time. I’ve never been there before, so can make no comparisons, but it seemed from the witness marks that the water level was rather low. Apparently, it’s not been as wet up in these parts as it has down south.

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It was a good lunch spot, but the day was much colder than it looked and by the time food had been eaten and flasks drained, I was glad of the pull uphill to get the blood pumping again. It turned out, as we went gained the viewpoint, that the loch went around the corner.

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More coast views were seen as we descended back down from that hill, but again, I failed to take a decent photo (although I did manage a completely accidental one of the sky, but I’ll save you from that!).

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We recognised the Dava Way as we reached it at a bridge which has featured in a couple of previous walks, but I found myself completely surprised when I realised that we had formed the full circle and returned to our start point.

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The little bit missing is where I forgot to turn the Garmin Gadget on before we set out.

We’d not been in the car for more than 30 seconds when it started to rain again. Good timing! And a good outing, taking us a smidge over 9 miles with 1300’ of ascent.

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