Falls of Clyde

by Michael Reid
(www.reidnet.org.uk)

On Friday Ka and myself arose to a gloriously, wonderful, sunny day. Who would have thought?! Scotland in early April with such a lovely day? Weather like this in Scotland is immediately suspicious. You usually expect the clouds to close in within a few hours but yesterday, thankfully they did not.

After a quick trip to the gym, Ka and myself headed off to Lanark for a walk around the Falls of Clyde, down around the small conservation village of New Lanark near Glasgow. Upon arrival Ka and myself settled down for a picnic at the top of the hill alongside the mill water wheel.

The village was extremely quiet with only a few elderly couples murmuring to each other on the wooden benches around us and one bearded gentleman, maybe not quite as old, sprawled on an adjacent bench obviously recovering from a jog or cycle as he wore skin tight sports gear. When I say sprawled, I mean he was lying back taking up the whole bench with one foot propped up on the bench's back support and one foot hanging limply down over the ground. Unfortunately for Ka who was sitting closest, the man had a large tear in the groinal area of his joggers and either had not noticed this or was simply unembarrassed by it.

Fortunately we had the rather brilliant view of the surrounding forests and passing Clyde waters before us to deter us from this rather unsettling, alternative view.

After finishing our picnic we headed out into the forest and up the River Clyde, pausing at the beautiful waterfalls and viewpoints along the way. After passing, and greeting, the third bunch of fellow walkers heading back, Ka questioned my particular cheery disposition with these walkers. She had no idea of the hikers code. The code that states you should always make an effort to greet or nod fellow walkers upon every passing. I'm not sure who made this code or if it is written somewhere but it somehow goes with the territory.

On our way up to the most northerly waterfall, the Bonnington Linn, we also chatted to the park warden who let us look through his binoculars at the nesting Peregrine Falcons in the reserve. Ka nodding describing the white feathers which I was slightly puzzled by as the bird I had seen was grey. We then realised Ka was in fact looking at a rock!

Note from Scott - Thanks Michael for that great introduction to the Falls of Clyde near Glasgow. You can check out some of Michael's great work at Reidnet.org.uk.