We headed out to Loudoun Hill, an eroded volcanic plug on the road to Strathaven where Fiona is from. For years as I've gone past it or just seen it from the drive to work I've wanted to climb up it but the opportunity never arose.
It was also my first opportunity to play with my new birthday camera.
It was a great day but we really saw the impact of just how wet the summer was. The ground was quite wet and the route we took may not have been the best one. We seems to go straight up but we finally made it to the top. New respect for those to call this kind of thing a "Sunday Stroll". We thought there was no way we could go back the way we came and so had Ciaran plan an easier route. When we were walking to an edge where I could just see the top of a tree we removed him from the navigator role and tried something else.
A couple of near slips and 1 wet bottom (no picture of it this time) we got back to fairly level ground, where conveniently the water had all collected. Ankle deep peaty mud. Fiona was being smug as she was the only one who had actually changed into walking books before we left the car until re remembered Ciaran and I had to get back into her car...
I'm enjoying my new camera. Its basically the current version of my old one, so its a few generations along. It now has a panoramic picture mode which will stitch pictures in real time It seems to work quite well, but the image size is a bit low. I may still do some the old fashioned way but in the meantime it's great for quick panoramas.
