Swollen burn forced retreat
TEMPERATURES locally are up again, in fact over the last day or two we've heard the dawn chorus; around our house rendered by greenfinch, blackbirds and, of course, oyster catchers who seem to start their "peep-peeping" well before first light. Do oyster catchers ever sleep I wonder?
Overhead and underfoot conditions change plans for walkers as has recently been brought home to me. A fortnight since a scheduled Monday climb up Cat Law was changed to a coastal walk at Tentsmuir; the beach and woodland near Tayport.
Having relatives down there it's an area I've got to know well. A few summers ago I happened to be at Tayport Harbour as half a dozen swimmers, children in their early teens and with attendant craft, were just arriving having swum over the estuary from Broughty.
Given the age of the kids and the nature of the Tay at that point I was well impressed.
It was foggy and damp on this day. We could hear seals barking but were unable to see them. Further along the beach we came across three large deciduous trees that had been uprooted in recent storms, swept out on the tide and washed up again; the largest pieces of flotsam we'd seen in a long time.
The grid of tracks around Tentsmuir means you can choose your length of walk. I'd say we did about eight miles on that day. This National Nature Reserve with protected flora, seal and bird colonies is overseen by a local ranger service.
A disused ice house in the woods is now home to a colony of Natterer Bats. Coming back we heard the distinctive cry of the curlew recognizable also by its long decurved bill.
Although dry for most of the time we arrived home slightly damp. (OS Landranger Sheet 59).
With son and grandson up from the south on a week's holiday it was left to me to organize some local rambling.
Over the time, and often in weather that was warm and sunny, we managed walks over the Angus Paths Network; here in Brechin, at Forfar and along the Seaton Cliffs at Arbroath.
The various agencies involved have done a great job on these routes whether by surfacing, waymarking or bridging. They are a delight and a great improvement on what they were a year or two ago.
Towards the end of their visit we set off to do Mount Keen on a day that was dull and overcast but not cold.
Driving up Glenesk we noticed that the Northie was in full flow with meltwater from the surrounding hills. This did not augur well because you have several burns to negotiate on this trek.
Doubts were confirmed when we had to wade a small burn near Invermark Lodge; a waterway you can normally step across without breaking step.
The Easter Burn, beyond the house at Glenmark, was crossed using the 'bin-liner-over-the-boots' ploy. Eighty metres beyond this and round a bend the Ladder Burn flows down from Mount Keen.
To describe it as "looking like the upper reaches of the Zambesi on a bad day" was, I felt, pitching it a bit far, but it was swollen beyond recognition with white water bouncing everywhere.
To cross here would have required life-jackets and fortitude. Not being in possession of the former and not doing fortitude these days we had, reluctantly, to give up the project.
We ended up walking the length of Loch Lee in gale force winds which, while not forecast, seemed to have suddenly arisen for our sole benefit.
They only subsided, on cue as it seemed, when we got back to the car park. We arrived back home with damp feet and persecution complexes.
I know that mountain burns are "quick up, quick doon," so it was with no surprise but with some dismay that I learned that three days later the Monday Walkers, in my enforced absence, had successfully crossed the burns and a couple had even got to the top of Mount Keen.
Here, apparently, they had been treated to a wonderland of ice-patterned rock and the sight of a tame ptarmigan. I'm a tad envious I can tell you.
Their news was greeted with some grinding of teeth on my part. Heigh ho! (OS Landranger Sheet 44).
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Weather for Brechin
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: East
