Saturdays walk was a last minute makeshift hike. After last week's successful wild camp locally, we had planned a hike/wild camp across on the west coast but abandoned plans upon seeing the forecast high winds and heavy rain.
Last week's wild camp....
Step up: Housebyres Lochs!
This turned out to be an 8.4mile hike but only because we inadvertently followed the wrong waymarker at one part tacking on another mile or so as we decided to head back once we noticed (as it took us back to our original track and we wanted to change the route back).
We started our route in Gattonside and followed the road along til the waymarker for the Southern Upland Way heading uphill to the road. Upon reaching the junction we continued onward, winding uphill along the road until reaching the end. Here we started on the track and were soon upon Housebyres Lochs. Very quirky and a lot smaller than expected but very pretty and loved the 2 staggered lochs.
We continued onward and soon came upon Stoney Knowles Moss, another small loch where we came across a wee hairy caterpillar, a red dragonfly (a ruddy darter?), a stonechat and then found a fab stop for a brew, and a yummy snack too .
After a welcome tea stop we continued on where we came across a waymarker heading downhill. We took this path which returned us to our upward path, but shouldn't have, so when we noticed our error we headed back to continue along the path across the hill on the SUW. We were met by stunning views and soon headed down a lovely wee avenue of trees continuing downward to eventually reach our starting path.
We walked back along the waterside to complete our circuit. A blustery day but warm and dry, this was a lovely scenic, pleasurable autumn hike.
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