Saturday 19 January 2008

Weekend Walk

Today we walked round Bonaly in the Pentland Hills Regional Park. Just a short bus ride from the centre of town and a short walk from the suburbs and you find yourself in countryside like this! It was very windy but not too cold, the sky was blue and it didn't rain though the paths were fairly wet and muddy. We had never walked round here before, one of the things I like about going for a country walk is deciding which fork in the road to take - where will you end up? We decided to keep to the straight route, through the woodlands where there were lots of tits in the trees, singing softly and flying from branch to branch. We then passed a small loch where there a duck kept ducking under the surface of the water, not allowing us to identify it properly. From the loch, we walked up onto the heathland. We saw footprints of deer and droppings from foxes and rabbits as well as from sheep. We heard stonechats calling, they sound like stones being tapped together. Sadly we didn't see them, they're lovely little birds. After wandering round the heathland for a while we turned back and walked the way we had come and got a bus back into town. Next time we walk round there, we might take another fork in the road and end up on a totally different walk!

You can browse all my nature diaries here

Fork in the Road for Writer's Island

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am envious of your walk. My usual walking trails are snowed in, and our street is way to busy and slippery to walk.
We don't have a good bus system here for traveling into the country, and that is a shame.
So, I will look forward to following your winter walking treks.
Sandy

Ričardas said...

Beautiful, I remember those views from my visit to Scotland. I like mountains, maybe because we do not have them, or maybe just because they are beautiful.

shadows and clouds said...

lush, that sounds very nice indeed. we went walking too, not very far, but still it was nice. you're also lucky to have such nice countryside so close to home!

have a good week!

Unknown said...

Like gardenpath, I too am envious. To get out this weekend I took a long drive through a bad neighborhood. Not quite the same. I could go for a walk but I'm not very cold hardy.
Enjoy your natural beauty. It is a gift.

Anonymous said...

Walks inside nature's kingdoms are the best walks ever!

I totally loved tasting a little of your Scottish walk there!

Smiles and Light

Lucy said...

what a wonderful walk! The tits in the trees surprised me... but then I clicked and realized these are birds too! nice post!

Beau Brackish said...

Those are beautiful pictures. That is the kind of fork in the road I'd gladly take. You can't make a wrong choice no matter how hard you try.

Anonymous said...

Marvellous meandering - lovely, Thank YOU!

Marja said...

That looks a great place to walk. I love walking or tramping as they call it here. They told me Scotland looks a lot like NZ. You even seem to have a lot of sheep like we do. Wish you many more nice walks

Anonymous said...

I too am a walk parson. Not that there are too many good places in Delhi for that purpose. Still I do make an effort to walk i the lanes and bylanes of Old Delhi.

I liked this post!


fluted

Anonymous said...

What a beautiful place!