Craigenreoch.

You couldn`t make it up if you tried.Sunday was the last day in the calendar year of the blog pursuing blue skies and sunshine.We had one shower of rain on Blackhope Scar last summer and a day of snow and sleet showers on Kaim Hill last March but even on those days we still managed to stay below the cloud.Not today..!

The usual forecast study predicted that Galloway and the Ayrshire coast would probably be the best of a bad bunch.I managed to persuade Bob that a small hill would be in order and suggested Craigenreoch on the western fringes of Galloway.....an easy enough hill .We cut off south at Maybole and through Crosshill before heading up the single track road to over 1,000ft on the way towards North Balloch.The weather had improved all the way south but on our first view of our chosen hill the clag had made an appearance although the summit was just about visible.A quick compromise was reached.A quick flog up the hill to keep me happy and the afternoon would see Bob pursuing some blue sky on the coast.


From North Balloch we gained height again up the Nick of the Balloch road.A fabulous remote feeling up here for somewhere so close to "civilisation".If you can call Ayrshire civilisation that is :-)

We pulled in to the small parking place at the summit....


Within five minutes of leaving the car we were in the mist.One of the advantages of hillwalking in the sunshine is that you don`t need to burden yourself with all the paraphernalia that you would normally require.As the year has progressed my rucksack has been getting correspondingly smaller and lighter.So light in fact that it didn`t contain a compass.Neither did Bob`s :)
It was fairly straightforward as hills go though and it wasn`t long before the trig point loomed out of the mist...


A quick about turn and we were off back down to the car and some sunshine for Bob.As usual, as we headed away down the Nick of the Balloch road on the return journey, the sun decided to taunt us by putting in a belated appearance.

Heading down the Nick of the Balloch road...



Looking back to the hills from the farm at North Balloch...


Bob will be along in a couple of days to conclude this day out with some photos of sunny places :)