Blethering Blonde

We had such high hopes for today.  The weather bods were giving it blue skies all round.  They forgot to tell North Ayrshire that.  Not to worry, we were only planning a wee wander so it was off to the local HuMP to show our visitor a not very well kent part of the region. Within half an hour we were on top of Goldenberry Hill.  The hill has a great viewpoint.  It sits above Hunterston Nuclear Power Station with unrestricted views north, west and south of the Firth of Clyde.  Disappointingly the cloud was obscuring Arran Argyll, Bute and definitely no chance of seeing the Arrochar Alps.  Poor Kate has been to our wee part of Ayrshire twice and is yet to even get a glimpse of Arran.  We had a mess about on top and then got talking to a couple who had approached from the north east.  The decision was taken to descend in this direction but to cut in just before the power station to loop back via Portencross.  It didn't quite work out ...

The weather has been dreich for yonks and I was starting to get a bit stir crazy so we grabbed that very narrow weather window of opportunity before we got engulfed by even more stonkingly dreich weather. The latest physio regime is to maintain my baseline to minimise any aggravation so it was time to bag another local HuMP with the perfect distance Goldenberry Hill. There is limited parking on the road at Ardneil Farm but we were fortunate as there was only one other car there. It was very blustery as we set off and knew it wasn't going to ease off. There is a good track practically all the way to the top which you can't miss due to the mobile mast station (allright for those on Orange) There is a gate to climb over but nothing too strenuous. Well it was entertaining trying to remain upright and that was only at 140m. Thank goodness we weren't any higher. There is actually quite a lot occupying the summit of this wee hill other than the mast station. To get to the tri...

With the pootling about on the bike on the flat going OK I decided to set myself a goal. In fact it was going to be a double goal but more on that later. To most of us who live in the west of Scotland at some point during our childhood we'll have been "doon the water" to one of the Firth of Clyde seaside resorts. I've always referred to the I sle of Great Cumbrae as Millport , which is the main settlement on the island, but there is certainly a lot more to Cumbrae than its town. The island lies just off Largs in North Ayrshire with a 10 minute ferry ride to make it all the more exciting. Even better, cycles are free :-) The first goal of the day was to cycle round the island. It's 10.25 miles of mostly flat road and my guide book said it should take approximately 1hr 30m. ................mmmmm wonder how long we'd take? It was a tad nippy as we waited for the ferry at Largs so I ran into the cafe to pick up some coffees to keep us warm on the crossing ove...