by Bbbadger » Wed Mar 12, 2014 8:19 pm
Sub 2000' hills included on this walk: Meikle Bin
Date walked: 25/02/2014
Time taken: 2.5 hours
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Having waited about for a month for an opportunity and semi dry weather to coincide we headed off to nearby Carron Valley to a well walked wee hill while kids were at school.
Meikle Bin was the destination and the car park at end of the Carron Reservoir was the starting point. As usual the part of the country we had selected for a wee jaunt was the only part with rain and clouds while the rest of the country was bathed in sunshine. Nevertheless we had the waterproofs an so off we would jolly well go. The path is well sign posted and a few cars indicated there were already a few folks on the hill already. After farting about with poles and map my walk apps we got into a steady pace and the sweat was soon lashing off us as we set of at a pace. We soon passed the couple who had left 10 minutes before us and a few folks with their dogs. The steepest part is once you get off the forest track and on the hill.
Christmas must go on for two months instead of two weeks up those parts as there was a fully decorated fir tree half way up the final slope, complete with tinsel,baubles and other decorations....well it makes a change from prayer flags and new age paraphernalia.
The summit must have been on the landing flight path for Glasgow Airport due to the wind that day and at regular intervals jumbo jets would suddenly and noisily appear above just below the cloud.
After finding a sheltered spot on the leeward side of the hill for lunch we headed back down to the forest track. It was on this part of the walk that I made a chance startling discovery. During conversation I was minded to look for a music track on the iPod I was carrying.
It was this foray into a genre seldom heard apart from at Hogmanay that I found I was able to release a hitherto untapped source of latent energy. My theory is that while listening to the music of Andy Stewart my mind was transported back to its youthful boundless energetic days where the family would visit my grannies on a Saturday evening with only the radio for entertainment. After the football results Robbie Shepheard or Gerry Mckenzie would hold court playing a selection of Scottish country dance tunes which are somehow etched into my memory and as familiar as a favourite pair of shoes.
As we listened to such tunes as Yer big Kilmarnock Bunnet and Bonnie wee Jeanie McColl our pace seemed to effortlessly double and soon were passing bemused walkers who must have thought we were oot for the day from a local asylum as they heard the music and witnessed our jaunty manner.
In future now if I'm flagging a wee bit I will be reaching for the iPod and inviting Mr Stewart to take me by Loch Tummel and Loch Rannoch and Lochaber and I will smell the tangle o the isles.
