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The trade-off you make for an easier drive, usually, is that the hills just aren’t all that exciting. That’s not to say that you won’t enjoy the outing, but at the end of the day, a Donald-plod can’t really hold a candle to, say, for example, a trip to Torridon. I’d already had two drives up (and down) Loch Lomondside earlier in the week, and in contrast, a nearly all-the-way motorway drive to parts south sounded pretty good.
I was still pretty wiped out, too, after those earlier endeavours, but I hadn’t seen David for a while, and I also knew that I’d likely be chomping at the bit within a couple of days without another outing. So we hatched a plan to tidy up the rest of the Daer Donalds, after only managing two of them earlier in the year as our first outing after lockdown restrictions lifted.
We met near Scotland’s theme park (at that ‘orrible roundabout) and left David’s car there. Another half hour (hour? Not sure) or so saw us parked up along the Daer reservoir, which currently doesn’t have very much water in it. We decided to do the 5km road walk first, and finish by coming down Comb Law, fairly close to the car.
the water level in the reservoir was *very* low -- shockingly so
There’s just not a lot to say about this. Up and down, up and down. None of the descents or ascents were particularly difficult. The ground underfoot was mostly dry, except for a really soggy expanse of ground between Ballencleuch Law and Comb Law (I think), which had us traversing precariously along a fence line with boards at the bottom. Yikes!
One of the best things about the day was the lack of creepy crawlies. There were a few midges about, but we mostly managed to avoid them. No keds were sighted – hoorah!
the summit of something -- seriously, I have no idea...(some of the hills had no summit features whatsoever, so a cairn was pretty exciting)
I think this is on the ascent of Ballencleuch Law; at least, that's the one that had a good track leading to it much of the way
another summit
David trying to get out of the photo -- not fast enough!
precarious fence-shuffling to cross a very wet section
ooooh, look, a bit of a view -- over to those other Lowther hills, I believe...
...and to some of the hunners and hunners of wind turbines that cover the southern uplands
The final descent down Comb Law wasn’t very pleasant; long and tussocky grass, and a barbed wire fence that required a detour over the burn (again) to a gate. It seemed to go on forever.
the final descent
So, all in all, a rather “meh” route. Good company, and a good catchup, but nothing much to write home about. Five Ds done and dusted. At this rate, I might actually end up finishing them some day.
