Thursday 2nd January 2014
We had to cancel the group hike for the second consecutive week. The weather isn't bad all the time but we prefer morning walks and try to pick the best morning out of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday because Dorothy has other commitments later in the week. Recently the weather gods have been teasing us and have scheduled the worst possible weather on the mornings that we are all free to walk.
This week the best forecast was for Thursday so we set off alone for a walk up the glen, intending to climb up to the Millennium Way and then return through Skyhill Plantation. It is a walk we have done often in the past but the views are lovely and there is enough climbing to exhaust us and perhaps burn off a few post-Christmas calories. Poor little Danny really wanted to come with us but he is no longer strong enough for long walks over rough paths through the heather. He had to make do with a short walk up Fern Glen later in the afternoon.
There was a series of little waterfalls above the path - small streams tumbling down the west side of the glen.
Some of the water flows through half-blocked drains under the track but most of it just makes its way down the road.
We climbed over the stile just beyond the old shepherd's house and reached a more serious waterfall.
The track becomes a footpath at this point because the vehicles belonging to the pheasant shooting people turn down before the stile and follow their road along near the river. Our route continued higher up along the side of the glen. Just before we reached the stream (that we cross when we are going to the pool at the old quarry), we turned uphill towards the dubs and the Millennium Way.
A mountain biker passed us as we turned off the track and commented "It's very wet up there!" The appropriate response would have been "It's very wet down here too!"
A large branch had been ripped off the old horse chestnut by the gales since we last walked this way.
The direct route to the dubs is very steep but avoids the worst of the boggy areas so we headed straight uphill.
It was less steep near the top and we avoided the boggy bits by walking along the top of one of the old sod walls that formed field boundaries.
I wondered whether we would see the "wild" ponies that frequent this part of the glen and finally caught sight of them in the distance. When I got home and examined the photos on the computer, I saw that one of the "ponies" was a sheep.
When we were a little further up the hill, the sun came out and I looked back to see if I could get a better photo of the ponies. They were busy grazing behind a wall and refused to look up but I liked the view of Ramsey in the sunshine.
We continued to the dubs , the highest point of the walk. I am not sure why I wanted to photograph more water.
On the way back down the Millennium Way there was a shower of sleet or small hail and I thought it would be the end of the photographs but it only lasted for about half a minute and was followed by a faint rainbow.
The fields down by the Garey were a patchwork of puddles.
Before we reached Lezayre Road we turned through a gate on the right hand side of the Millennium Way and walked up a track through Skyhill Plantation. It was tiring switching to uphill walking after a long downhill hike and we stopped to admire the view and rest our legs.
Further on we passed another victim of the recent gales. Luckily it hadn't blocked the path.
Then the sun came out again!
As we passed the top of the paddocks above Ballagarrow I stopped to take another horse photo. Not a wild pony this time . . . a pampered horse dressed correctly for the weather!
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