It was a beautiful sunny day today, and James and I decided to complete another section of the Ayrshire Coastal Path, an ongoing project of ours. We left the car at Ayr Station and walked through the quite attractive centre and then the industrial harbour areas of Ayr to the coast. Then we set off northwards following the marked trail. Just to be on the safe side we had with us printed maps from Memory map, the Ayr Coastal Path Guide Book and James had his GPS! It was easy walking; seaside promenades and sandy beaches. All the way we had lovely views across the Firth of Clyde, and we passed several golf courses, of which there are many in this area. When we reached Prestwick we stopped to have a cup of coffee from the flask that James had prepared and some digestive biscuits; this gave me a new lease of life and we walked briskly onwards to Troon, pausing from time to time to look at planes taking off from Prestwick airport including two Hawks, which James thought were there to refuel. We saw lots of seagulls and shiny sea coal on the beach. When we reached the river just south of Royal Troon golf club, we realised that we should have turned off the path earlier to use a bridge to cross it. But rather than retrace our steps I decided to lead the way in wading across. Oh dear! Despite taking off my climbing boots and socks and hanging them round my neck, and rolling up my trousers, the middle of the river was deeper than I thought and I was soon soaked - to the waist! And so we had to set off back to the bridge after all! Luckily the gentle breeze mostly dried my trousers while we walked, although my underwear remained distinctly damp for the rest of the outing.
We had a light lunch at our old favourite, the Venice Cafe in Troon, which was very nice, then we walked on a couple of kilometres to Barassie train station, where we didn't have long to wait for a train back to Ayr. In total we had walked about 15 km. I was amazed at how long it seemed by train from Barassie back to Ayr, I could hardly believe that we had walked all that distance. I was pleased by this walk, it added an element of virtuous but pleasant exercise into a very enjoyable holiday weekend.
I then had a lovely bath, put on dry clothing, and James has promised me a curry later!
No comments:
Post a Comment