sunday skyline

3/08/14

John Coyle was in town over the weekend and had asked on facebook if anyone was up for a run possibly in the Pentlands on Sunday. I can't remember rightly where I first met John - probably through Phil Davies as they go back a ways. I had been planning a long run on Saturday but wimped out when the weather turned bad. So took Saturday off. If I had been thinking properly (instead of doing a movie Sat evening) I'd a noised up hill-team-Porty, however I got the feeling that John wasn't up for a big day out. In fact in response to suggestions he had replied he certainly wasn't up for a skyline.

JC picked me up in his van - somewhere between the Mystery Machine and a multi-sport camper - on the bridges about 8.30am. (I actually rise earlier at the weekends than weekdays.) And we headed to Hillend. I knew there were one or 2 others probably doing similar but rather than hang around I thought we would bump into them at some point on the return leg. We set off from the bottom car park before 9.

We didn't at any point discuss what route we would take. The weather was iffy and might have gone either way with the sun occasionally popping out between the low grey clouds. But it was warm and what with all the talk we didn't really notice the hills going past.

Looking back to Arthur's Seat.

photo John

I like the way the panorama has caught fingers halfway to mouth

We bumped into Nigel

I am enjoying the longer lens on the new camera: being able to zoom in on stuff a long way off.

Kips

You could get across the Green Cleugh with dry-ish feet.

Black Hill

photo John

Black Hill from Bells Hill - I was wondering why the lack of photos from here to Allermuir then remembered we got a shower around this bit and I put the camera away.

So we continued to follow the skyline route without ever discussing it and slowly it became evident that we would probably complete it (plus the extra down to the lower car park taking mileage up to 17.6 miles) though in order not to jinx it I wasn't going to mention it. The pace was unrushed and there was a fair bit walking and a good bit more talking. Lots of very funny stories. The weather never deteriorated too much and while there was some rain in the air it didn't lash down and the day was mild if a bit blowy later on. However it was to our backs on the return and although we sort of ran short of refreshments it only encouraged us to keep going and anticipate with relish the eventual return to civilisation after a very splendid outing in the hills.