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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 One - Aug 2023 (2)
by Tim - 08:27 on 01 September 2023
Nine of us met at the Gloup Car Park to walk the 4+miles to the Covenanter's Memorial . The weather was perfect with sun all the way plus a light wind .First we had a look at the Gloup itself and then went up along the cliffs to the Brough .The path over was still shut due to the landslide but this is relatively small .We could have gone across but didn't want to tarry .Further along the cliff there was a chunk that had recently fallen but nowhere near the path .Arriving at the Trig point we stopped for refreshments, While there one of the party cleaned up some litter so she thought, but discovered it was cache for Geocachers . We added our name and headed off again along the cliffs . The waters were beautifully clear and apart from one family we saw no one . The Covenanter's Memorial is such a sad place where 200 people drowned in an act loosely described as Man's inhumanity to Man . We saw the graves in along the long grass but missed the Viking Grave Stone hidden away by the lush growth at this time of year . Then it was up to the car park for some us to take cars back to the Gloup.
Two of the party decided to carry on to complete the circuit along the farm tracks . An excellent morning's walk for everyone .
There will be no walk next month so the next outing will be in the third week of October .ie Friday 20 th October .The venue and time will be sent when we see what the forecast is like .
Keep moving , Tim
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