08/10/2019

The day we climbed Criffel.

Its going to be nice today, well that's the information that I got from the Met office website..Unbroken sunshine between 9 am and 2pm, with a 5% chance of rain [but where that rain might come from with unbroken sunshine beats me] it cant be true? can it? we shall see..It certainly was nice at 9 o clock as we took the short drive to the walkers car park at Ardwall near New abbey.We were expecting a steep climb,someone told us it would be boggy, cant be that bad we thought. The summit rises to the modest height of 1870ft but it appears much higher..It dominates the views around these parts of the Solway estuary. Boots on and we were off.

Once into the forest we picked up a most inviting path that runs alongside the attractive Craigrockall burn.The well constructed path was a gem to follow and the Burn added interest to the climb,as did the numorous Fly agaric mushrooms and puffballs.

Gaining height quickly we were soon free of the forest, the open fell beckoned, its looked easy enough, we were probably nearly halfway up already. However what came next can only be described as "a Bastard"..We had reached an area of dreaded bog, Black ooze hindered progress. We slipped and slithered up hill at a snails pace, I was being pulled along by Alfie, Thanks Alf, but Karen was soon left behind floundering in the black grime.

After a while the going got a bit easier although a lot steeper..Lungs rasping and calfs fit to burst we pressed on heads down, eventually making it up to the huge pile of stones known as Douglas cairn. at the summit of the hill. I don't know who Douglas was or why he has a cairn named after him but he chose a good spot for it, looking out across the waters and sands of the Solway towards the English Lake district...

The views are stunning from up there, although a trifle windy today, I decided it was time to put a waterproof on to help with the wind..Imagine my dismay when I realised that a bottle of Lemonade had leaked in my rucksack, soaking my coat, oh well I put it on anyway, it will soon dry in this wind and whats more It smelt quite nice. Back to the views I dropped down a bit to get a good look at the view to the south across the Firth.I don't know what had happened to the wall to wall sunshine.

A quick visit to the Triangulation pillar before retracing our steps a bit to pick up the path heading for Knockendoch, one of Criffels satellite peaks, its closest friend...We followed the reasonably dry ridge, for me this was the highlight of the day... Standing at around the 1400ft mark its a grand viewpoint, to the north the Southern uplands while to the south Criffel itself dominated the scene.

All downhill now towards the forest, but first we had to deal with "the bastard" again, only this time it was twice as bad. several times I went in over the boots..My white socks turned to grey, who the hell would go out hillwalking wearing white socks anyway. I decided I may as well just walk though the bogs now as my feet couldn't get much wetter.

The views down to New abbey and Dumfries made up for the wet feet..Karen was struggling on this terrain..i was walking as slow as I could but I was getting further and further in front...I would wait for her when I reached the forest track

Nice to get back down to a solid track through the woods, No more mud..it seemed like luxury, black water squelching from my boots with every step..I need to get these dry for tomorrow but I feared that this was never going to happen..We made it out of the woods where we needed to cross a couple of meadows to reach Loch Kindar...But somehow or other we got lost and ended up crossing the wrong meadow, ending up at a dead end, we had to retrace our steps, I cant believe we got lost..we never get lost..Ok lets just say we went astray "just a little bit"..Then to make matters worse it started to chuck it down...Whats going on , its not 2 o clock yet...Anyway we eventually made it to the shores of Loch Kindar...Its a lovely place..Alf had a swim to clean himself up a bit.

Almost back now..An easy walk through the woods back to the farm at Ardwall...We hadn't seen a sausage all day although there were now half a dozen cars parked up in the car park. I wondered how many othere were up there floundering around...I had planned on going down to New abbey for a well deserved pint but looking like bedraggled tramps we decided against it..It wasn't all bad..In fact I loved it and I would do it again at the drop of a hat, Those that love the hills will know what I mean.