Elite walking group. Barrhill to Ballantrae Recce November 2011

Our mode of transport today.

What a dinkey little signal box at Barrhill Station.

Large collections of fungi are still growing in the forest.

The teacher at the martyrs tomb.

River walk down the Cross Water.

Details of the tomb.

Normally they are such a happy group!!

Today Tuesday 15 November we decided to travel to Girvan station by car and catch the train to Barrhill. So far so good. This was to be a recce for a group of walkers who have asked me if I could take them from Barrhill through the forest and over a windfarm all the way to Ballantrae on the coast.Always up for a challenge 4 of us left the station armed with maps of the area heading for a forest and  as we all know once inside the canopy of the trees the whole place looks the same.With the help of the compass we made our way along some quite tricky boggy paths through the trees and after about 2 miles we came to a clearing and a made up road. Feeling very smug we congratulated ourselves to have made it this far we could see wind turbines in the distance.One of the maps we had, provided by a fellow Girvan rambler  showed all the turbines have numbers so we thought all we had to do was walk to a windmill and get its number and from that information we could ascertain where we were. One problen though as we arrived at checkpoint charlie or at least that is what we called him he informed us this was a working construction site and we were not allowed through. Now to be honest all you had to do was go into the trees a wee bit and by pass Adolfs  hut and we would have been on our way but he informed us once I had suggested this alternative route that we would be stopped again further on.Nothing else for it but to abandon our original idea and we made our way down the site road back to village of Barrhill. Well here starts another  story I will only give you a very abridged version of what happened next. We missed a train by 5 minutes to be told go for the bus as an alternative. Checking the timetable we were informed we would have to wait an hour and half for the next one. Well those that know the area well there is not really a lot to do in the village so we had a little walk to the bowling green and beyond when out of the blue along comes a bus to be told that there had been an alteration to the timetable but no one had informed the travelling public. 2 of our group who at this point were in the trees doing whatever girls do in there were shouted at "the bus is here" and the driver  was prepared to wait for them. The rest of the story was a great laugh but to be honest you would  have to have been present to really appreciate it. So in conclusion if you are thinking of going from Barrhill to Ballantrae forget it until next year when the construction will have been completed and checkpoint charlie will have been removed.Not all reccies work out the way you plan them.