Back in the day I used to climb hills. In fact somewhere on an ancient laptop I have a spreadsheet with a list of over 100 munros( I used to rather like the ones everyone else said were boring grassy lumps, being very wimpish with respect to steepness, scrambliness, any sense of exposure). But then I broke my foot, had a sick mother, put on five stone, a partner who disliked me disappearing at weekends, you know, the usual random mix of excuses a lapsed hill walker has....
So here I am nearly a decade later, having moved to fife, thinking it might be time to explore some of the local hills, and with a week off work.
The first challenge was finding the road from Leslie up to craigmead, it's a narrow side street which I managed to miss, despite there being a sign, but having rectified that I was soon heading out of the car park into a glorious sunny ( if breezy) morning . The track heading to west lomond was very clear, and headed uphill very gently, but the hill itself was looming ahead, doing it's best to look intimidating. And to be honest I was intimidated! It looked very uphill. However the main track winds round the hill, with no nasty surprises, and wonderful views across loch leven, as you come round to the west side. It's always nice when there's a trig point at the top as well, makes it feel like a proper hill!
It was still very windy, so I decided to follow the circuit , thinking ( correctly ) it would be more sheltered down the valley, and the views of the reservoirs were lovely. But I'd missed the warning phrase, 'descends steeply on a somewhat eroded path' ! As I headed down I could see another walker, and became increasingly nervous as he appeared to be vertically below me... My true nature as a founder member of the girly wimp walking club resurfaced and I lost my balance, and my bottle on the (admittedly short) steepest section. Many thanks to the gentleman who was ascending for his advice!
Once down, the moorland was a delight, with heather, bilberries(? Maybe) and lots of birdsong. One or two slightly muddy bits but nowt drastic. The grassy path through sheep fields, turned into a rough track, and then before you know it, back on the road to the car park. A delightful walk, if you're not as bad at going downhill as I am!
So, am I going to try and do more hill walks? Absolutely. Ready for the big hills again? Absolutely not..... But you never know..... This time next year...?