Close encounters
Angus - had a bright idea.
More SoL fun! Just
like the queen having 2 birthdays the Speed of Light had 2
anniversaries. This time a bit more official (with NVA staff, though
no hardware,) and a lot more Chrismassy Lighty. Normally I
would avoid the C word especially in August but the impersonation
light suits were quite impressive and could easily be mistaken by
passing motorists for a scaled down re-run of last year's light
fantastic. Myself I strapped on bike lights (front and rear) and a
couple of headtorches. Others glowed gently with snowflake themes.
Top three photos thanks to Mike Lynch.
2 Cats and a Mike
After a lot of
hanging around in car parks we set off up the hill with the walking
staff doing their route and the runners doing ours. We then, after a
few circuits of hub 3 (watching the Tattoo fireworks from the top of the crags) and Mexican wave on the A path, took the G route. Then climbed up to meet the walkers at the summit for photos, then a race down to the pub, which I think Angus won.
think of a number
Reports are that
some only got home at 5am but being a lightweight these days I left
after one pint and headed home for shortly after midnight. Great to
catch up with the team again, and oh the nostalgia for photos with
streaks of dotted lights on black backgrounds. It was like last year
all over again.
What a team.
Serendipity
Perhaps the real
reason I left the pub pretty early other than a long hard week at the
coal face, was an early rise to get down the coast. Bruce had drawn
our attention to a 0.4m low tide just after 10am (whatever that means)
and we thought it would make the run along the beach from Aberlady
good fun. It was brilliant.
Both the subs were
out the water. Not even the water filled ripples could spoil the huge
expanse of empty beaches under a soft and furry grey sky. The day was
warm and the humidity high. It had been drizzling heavily on the
drive to Aberlady and we had taken extra tops to ward off the misery
but it stopped almost as soon as we got going and I was glad I opted
for the good camera rather than the compact. I carried a poly bag to
protect it from the light rain.
Jellyfish or cluster of spawn? Any ideas?
The tide was
indeed far out. We were able to skirt round the lowest rock outcrops
rather than climb up the paths at Gullane point. Towards the far side
of Gullane beach there was a wire haired fox terrier and both Mary
and I thought it was very like Horatio. I stopped to take a picture
and who should pop out of the dunes looking for their dog but AGH and
Lucy. It WAS Horatio. I think he might have accidentally earned those
brownie points (for miraculously finding us) as he had apparently
slipped off a couple of times after Amanda had given him a dressing
down for biting a hole in her rain jacket.
With Amanda were
Lucy and Richard, Harris and Kipper, and it was great to catch up. We stood there and
chatted for ages before they went along the beach one way and we
headed down towards Archerfields.
The blue grass of Eyebroughy
With the tide being so far out we
got out to the sand banks that lie beyond the rocks of the beaches.
There is an expansive feeling here and when we turned the corner we
noticed that Eyebroughy (as mentioned here before) was actually high
and dry out the water. Never seen this before so we took the chance
to run across the sand and up onto its craggy shoreline. This was
where I suspected I heard seals singing the other week so I was
interested to see what the other side (the dark side) of the rocky
spit of land was like. Pretty much like the visible side actually
though there was a strong blue tint to the grass growing between
stagnant ponds of sea water. Lots of seabirds down the pointy West
end but otherwise little of interest apart from the novel views of
our familiar coast and trails from an unfamiliar vantage point. I
took loads of photos while Mary made her way back to the Archerfields
trails that lead back to the main road.
oh, deer
It took a brisk
run to catch her and shortly after that we met Amanda again who had
parked the dogs and run back to meet us. She ran with us to the van
at Aberlady and then continued round the circuit to Gullane. A great
day out (12miles) and we couldn't have timed it better if we had
planned it.
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