Wigtownshire Ramblers-Lamachan

Saturday the 8th of June,and the dry weather continues.
Todays walk will be quite strenuous.Starting at Caldons at the western end of Loch Trool we'll follow the Caldons burn upwards.
We're heading for Lamachan,at 717 Mtrs.

We're a group of nine today.

The first part of the walk is through Caldons wood.
We've had no real amount of rain for a few weeks now.Normally the water would be tumbling over these rocks under the bridge.

A moment for catching up.

As we reach the rising ground the surrounding area comes more into view.
Benyellery opposite at 719 is two mtrs higher than Lamachan,so we've an idea how far up we've still to go.

It's fairly heavy going,so mini stops are fairly frequent,and wee burns negotiated.

Time for a longer break.

Another burn crossing.
We're now clear of the forest,and the real climbing begins.

With the forest below us,our western panorama opens up completely,and although distant images are a little hazy,landmarks can still be seen.
Knockdolian,the false craig at Ballantrae can be picked out quite clearly.

We've still a bit of climbing to do as we stop for lunch...

...and i get in the picture(i'm glad i remembered my Chic Murray hat this week).

There's even time to cool ones tootsies in the burn.

Still about 150 mtrs of height to gain.

To the south west are the twin peaks of Larg Hill.

We're nearly there now...

...with all round views as we approach the top of Lamachan hill.

And now we're here.Time out to identify other peaks,distant landmarks such as Ailsa Craig and the Mull of Kintyre,and time to take pictures.

Ok it's not Mount Everest,but and it still feels like an achievement to get here.The Galloway Hills encapsulates 24 named peaks over 2000 ft,and i'm slowly but steadily counting them down.As are my fellow walkers of course.

Here's the Rig of the Jarkness sitting behind the Long and Round Lochs of Glenhead.In the distance the peak of Mullwharchar,with what i think are Lochs Valley and Neldricken also in the picture.

Too hazy to see the isle of Man today,but Newton Stewart,the Cree valley,and the Mull of Galloway are all in view.
I indicated that i could see my house,but of course that wasn't true-not that anyone believed i could-did they?
There's no B & B up here,so we can't stay.It's time to begin descending.

We're heading down to the forest road near Glenhead.

Here alongside the Scars of Carnine a herd of mountain goats view us with suspicion.

While to the east Loch Dee looks as beautiful as ever.

Now we come to the roughest part of our descent.If my map reading's right this area is known as Brishies.I assume,someone correct me if i'm wrong,that the name comes from the scots pronunciation of brushes.

Most of the group had an inadvertant sit down at some part of this stage.Thankfully there were no injuries,but lots of laughs.

This picture of what could be the Shiel burn,gives an idea of how steep our descent is.
Finally we reach the forest road and terra firma.The scheduled stop was cut shorter than intended.No amount of 'Skin so soft' was going to deter the swarms of midges that greeted us.
Water bottles were replenished from the burn,before starting the last edge of our triangular walk.

Another moment to regroup as we start along the southern path of Loch Trool.

Loch Trool looks lovely and serene,there's quite a few visitors about.

Could this be a midge free zone?
Finally back at the car park.A pedometer reads 9.5 miles.The general consensus is that it felt like it.
This has been the most difficult walk i've done with the ramblers so far.The dictionary definition of Camaraderie is 'a spirit of friendly good-fellowship'.I certainly felt that today.