An icy walk in the Galloway Hills

James and I were up early today; we were going with the hill-walking club to the Galloway hills and it's quite a long way. We met some of the others a Cathcart and then travelled by car to Carsphairn where the whole group met up and the nineteen of us squashed into a tiny tearoom for tea and scones. We travelled onwards to St John's Town of Dalry, a small and picturesque village, and after a flurry of moving cars about, we all started our walks a couple of miles west at Forrest Lodge. The majority were in the "high level" group who tackled a Corbett called Corserine, which was very snowy. There were seven of us in the "low level" group and we made our way southwards through the hills until we joined the Southern Uplands way and walked east to St John's Town of Dalry. We were lucky with the weather which stayed dry, but the ground was very icy underfoot in places and I was glad of my walking poles. We all chatted as we walked along and it was a lovely day. We were actually grateful for the ice when we crossed a very muddy area which would have been impassable if it hadn't been frozen! The prettiest part of the walk was near the end when we climbed up and over Waterside Hill, with lovely views of the valley as we went up and of the river and town as we came down the other side. We went to a pub called the Clachan for a drink, it was really nice with a log fire, and the other group soon joined us, it was all very convivial. I was not looking forward to the walk today, mainly because I have not been taking much exercise over the last couple of weeks, but I felt fitter than I expected and I really enjoyed myself.