Hamish and Dougal go to Largs

Today we went for a really great walk all the way from West Kilbride to Largs. This was part of our ongoing quest to walk the whole of the Ayrshire Coastal Path. James had planned it all; we drove to Largs, listening on the way to the Hamish and Dougal CD that Ewan and Heather gave James for Christmas. We saw Barry Cryer and Graeme Garden performing Hamish and Dougal sketches at last year's Aye Write festival and thoroughly enjoyed it. The CD provoked many chuckles and groans on our journey! We caught the 9.53 train to West Kilbride, and started our walk by making our way through the town to Seamill Hydro, which is where we finished another part of the walk. When we got down to the beach we could see some seals basking on the rocks. We headed north towards Portencross where we had coffee; we saw wee brown birds with red legs and long red beaks walking about the water's edge and we also saw an oyster catcher carrying some sort of small shelled creature in its beak and dropping it on rocks to break it open. The weather was ideal for me when walking; cool so that I didn't overheat and not much wind. We then walked on through the grounds of Hunterston Power Station which was quite interesting, James was telling me about its different parts. We saw five workers dressed in full nuclear gear checking out a drain, I wonder what was down there? And we saw steam coming off the sea where they pump the hot water. We walked on and had our lunch in a picnic area at Fairlie, which had a scary automated toilet. I say scary because soapy water started to come across the floor while I was using it and I was terrified that it was going to go into full self-clean mode while I was still in there. I didn't hang about! And then we walked on to Largs. When we got to the marina we were into very familiar territory because we have walked there and back from Largs many times. When we got back to the car James checked his GPS and found out that we had walked 19.4 km! I was delighted and pleased that I still felt quite energetic. When we got home I had a quick bath then a nap. When I got up I found that all my leg muscles had stiffened up and now I am hobbling around! We are going to have risotto for tea with Ally and Davie and then we will all watch a film.