Wigtownshire Ramblers.Girvan to Tormitchel Circular April 2011

Setting off on our walk.

I never fail to get a tree lined avenue.

Views of the Clyde open up as we get spread out.

Many walkers visited the ruined farm.

The two lamas came to greet us.

Lunch was taken in the lee of the wind.

What a happy bunch of walkers!!

Today's walk was a 9 mile circular walk starting at Girvan South car park where I had the honour and priviledge of being the walk leader with madam chairwoman of the Stranraer and Wigtownshire group as my back marker. (Not to be confused with Madam Whiplash of ADRC fame!!) 26 of us started out with visitors from Kilmarnock and Cunninghame groups accompaning us with a short walk to Shallochpark and the start of the Carrick Way from Girvan to Barr a walk we must do one day. A long steady climb soon sorted us out and several stops were made to re-group before we reached our coffee break  which was taken in a sheltered area as we were experiencing winds of 40 to 50 mph.At this point the group split and those walkers preferring the lower slopes and tracks went with Madam Chairwoman and I took the other 19 walkers up Trower Hill (296M) and over to Barbie Wood where we all met up again.Through the wood to the old derilict farmhouse where several walkers took the opportunity to have a  look round and imagine what life was like in there over 100 years ago.Dropping down now to Tormitchel Quarry I declined from telling the group how a quarry worked and operated as this was now in my past life and to be honest I couldn't care a jott. (PS that is a quote from Shakespeare!!) but then again you bloggers probably couldn't care a jott either.Passing a roadside farm we met up with the two lamas in the field  the farmers wife approched us. After inquiring why she had the lamas her reply was priceless and to quote  "What do you buy a farmer who has everything" there is no answer to that.From here it  was a road walk passed the noisy wind turbines of the Barr/Dailly windfarm which to some resembled a jet engine. We agreed that you would probably get used to the noise if you lived in the vicinity and it was not too unobtrusive.Excuse the large words today but our regular rambling walker whom we rely on so much for excellent photos and eloquent vocabulary has decided in his wisdom to attend a 3 day convention on Laurel and Hardy well everyone has to have an interest and today mine was firmly set on the South Ayrshire Hills. Sorry JD hope you had a great time.From the hard road we then climbed up the slopes of Trowerhill where we found a nice sheltered spot for our lunch break. The aerial on the way to the summit of Saugh Hill(293M) was our next marker and avoiding a couple of boggy areas we all safely made it to the trigg point where the views of the Clyde,Arran,Mull of Kintyre,Ailsa Craig and the Irish coast came into view which in my opinion has to be one of Ayrshires finest viewpoints.(Sorry I missed Laurel and Hardy) I was also absent for yesterday's wedding.. I must stop making these remarks but as  the walk leader I feel I am allowed  these off beat comments.From the summit we had a very steep descent to Fauldribbon Cottage which then using their track we arrived back in Girvan at the railway bridge on the by-pass. A one mile walk along the road brought us back to the car park where several of the group availed themselves with an ice cream from the coveniently placed cafe.It is difficult sometimes to assess your own walks but I enjoyed it as I hope everyone else did and my thanks to all for making it happen . My back marker performed her duties from the rear admirably and when she caught us all up we did not give her a lot of time to catch her breath before we were off again. Thank you Madam Chairwoman and hope you recover soon.Last word must go to our absent rambling  blogger and you know who you are you old  rascal,if you enjoyed your day half as much as us we all did then it must have been worthwhile. Thanks to everyone and I hope to see you all soon.