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Walking Group One 25th April 2024
Five hardy souls collected today at Happy Valley for the first Hill Walk of the year .The temperature was cool with a North Easterly wind blowing and a hint of rain on arrival.
Off we set heading towards Russadale Quarry, spotting a Buzzard on the way.Turning into the footpath we remained sheltered from the wind all the way to the top of the hill.
The sun was out at the Quarry and a Greenshank was feeding at the edge of the Lochan. Then it was up the Peat road to the summit with spectacular views across Stenness and Harray Lochs, plus a view of the Closed Road beyond the Watch Stone. On the other side we looked over the Flow and down towards the Oil Platform and South Ronaldsay
Then it was back down after a stop for a snack and finally a walk around Happy Valley itself. The Daffodils planted by James and others were looking lovely and the Bluebells are days away from opening. Then it was on to a well deserved lunch at the Pier Cafe, having walked 4 miles and gone up 800 feet (and down again )
The next walk will be on Friday 24th May and hopefully more hills and views.
Keep moving.
U3A Walking Group 2 - January 2023
by Ellie - 16:57 on 12 January 2023
Nine of us met on a very gusty Monday at the Point of Ness Car Park and braved the weather for our first morning walk of 2023. This was the first walk for the new group as the December walk was cancelled due to the very icy conditions. It was a fairly cold day, very windy with a light drizzle. We decided to do a circular walk so that the south westerly winds would be in our backs when walking along the coastal path.
From the car park we walked towards Stromness and took a small turning on the left which led up to the Back Road where we turned right. We walked up the hill to the coastguard building and took the turning on the left and walked down Nethertown Road; whatever the weather you can always rely on beautiful views over to Hoy when walking down this road. Our aim was to walk to the Cemetery and on reaching the shoreline we decided to turn right see if we would manage to reach it with the full force of the wind in our faces. Not quite reaching it and after a fight with the wind we decided to turn back.
The drizzly rain had stopped on our return along the coastal path, with the wind in our backs we managed a few stops to a take a couple of photos and admire the beauty of where we lived. We finished our morning with a cuppa and a roll at Julia’s. It was great to meet up and have a chance to walk as a group after all the festivities of Christmas.
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