Saltcoats. Ayrshire Coastal Path Versus "Hurricane Bawbag". Part One.

I had a free day off midweek so decided to head down in the car to the nearest Clyde Coastal resort to me, which happens to be Saltcoats, as a perfect storm was expected to roll in from America all the way across the wild Atlantic then hit the west coast of Ireland and Scotland over two days. In a term borrowed from American forecasters they were calling it a "Weather bomb" in the UK Media. Weather forecasting seems to be changing and has now got "Sexy" "Dynamic" and "Entertaining" presumably so folk will pay more attention to it. They are still haunted to some extent by the Michael Fish unfortunate comment from 1987 where he predicted " There is no hurricane coming across the Atlantic." only to be proved wrong when a larger storm than expected caused considerable disruption to the South of England and brought down a massive amount of trees which blocked roads over a wide chunk of the UK.
Now they seem to always err on the side of overstatement with approaching storms, just it case it is a whopper and we are all caught unprepared with our pants down.Weather forecasting is not an easy job these days.

                                                ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN
Saltcoats was once a popular working class coastal resort but like a lot of British seaside holiday towns has suffered badly from cheap flights to sunnier climes and no longer gets large numbers of visitors most of the year and as a consequence can look fairy run down, especially on a bleak winter's day. I've always liked the place though as it has bags of character, and more importantly for me, is a good base for several walks and cycle rides which start from its large seafront car park.These are all described in my new book available on Kindle bookstore here for £1.99 which has over 80 enjoyable walks and cycle rides described in it from Lanark to Girvan along the river and is illustrated with 146 original colour photographs. For anyone that likes walking, cycling or just a visual journey down this famous river then around the Firth of Clyde  this may be a worthwhile addition to the Christmas stocking. Blah, blah, blah. Plug over.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Walking-Cycling-around-Clyde-ebook/dp/B00P1IO2SM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1418490296&sr=1-1&keywords=A+guide+to+walking+and+cycling+the+River+Clyde+and+Firth+of+Clyde 

As usual I looked up the Met office tide tables before setting off to make sure I would arrive a couple of hours before maximum high tide. I was not disappointed when I arrived as huge waves were already battering into the harbour and sea defenses with the gusts predicted to be between 60 to 80 miles an hour.
During the winter season Britain usually gets high rainfall, raging seas and extensive flooding as the country juts out into the North Atlantic Ocean and four different weather systems come together and fight for dominance over the UK. Scotland is already one of the windiest countries in Europe and these winds and storms seem to be increasing year by year.

We don't have hurricanes in this country of course... just frisky weather and the Ferry was still running from Ardrossan to Arran although by the way it was bobbing up and down a few passengers were no doubt turning green on board.

I put my boots on, locked the car, and had a stroll round the harbour, seen above. It was fairly breezy with good wave action on show. I,m not a thrill seeker as such and I,m very careful about putting myself into dangerous situations but I had a quick assessment and decided it was safe enough to walk around and up the tower seen in the second photograph. If I experienced any danger I would turn back. One of the benefits of being a mountaineer is that you do get fairly good at risk assessment of natural features once you have done it for a while. Careful observation before you do anything is usually the key to safety.

As on previous trips down the coast in wild weather I was surprised by the number of car drivers willing to drive through salt water spray in their vehicles as any inside the engine, electrics or bearings will soon turn into problems once it starts to rust.  My own car was parked well away from any spray.

The old esplanade to the south of Saltcoats is one of the best places to see good wave action as the shoreline here is rocky and uneven, producing "jumpy" seas. (a technical weather term :o) Although it was midweek this place has been on the television news several times as you can drive a vehicle close to the seafront here and both BBC and STV usually send a weather person to this location to jump out the car briefly and report on the storm and advise people not to come. Of course this has the opposite effect and quite a few photographers were already here and most of them had much better camera equipment than mine, many with shoebox sized zooms or several different expensive cameras slung around their neck. The last time I observed so much gathered Canon and Nikon equipment together in one place was photographing puffins on the Isle of May. I found this quite comical then as some of the zooms were massive and yet the puffins were only 20 feet away most of the time.

I had a few secret weapons of my own however that might give me the edge. A. I was willing to get wet. B. I had a full set of waterproofs and boots on. C. My camera was inexpensive and pocket sized and I was willing to risk it getting damp with some spray although I would try to keep it safe. D. I was not static and intended to walk part of the Ayrshire Coastal Path towards Stevenson just for the fun of getting out as I love wild conditions like these.

As I've sussed this place out before in previous years I already knew the electricity to the overhead railway lines in the above photograph might well be turned off during the storm and I made sure by asking a nearby line engineer examining the track for damage. A tiny portion of beach is usually exposed even with raging seas all around it so this is where I stood for this photograph. Perfectly safe as long as you are aware of the risks with an incoming tide although when I jumped off the seawall and disappeared I did notice some strange concerned looks as where the other photographers were standing (well back from the railings) they couldn't see this tiny patch of beach below.

Being a boy of very little brain I like simple plans and my next move was to stand right beside the incoming waves to take photographs as I,d already observed all the waves were breaking against the sea wall with the same action, which was straight up. Obviously, if it had been a different type of "punching" wave with a pushing then sucking action I would have stayed clear, although with my body shape these days it would take King Neptune himself to pull me through the railings. (Sadly, the last time I squeezed into a wet suit I looked like an apple in a sock :o(

Got a wet foot with this one though. Poor Bobby.

Saltcoats Harbour from the Esplanade.

Very pleased with this photograph and my new camera was still dry.

A large standing wave.

Some more. Two wet socks now and an elbow :o(

Saltcoats from the esplanade. Pleased with my efforts so far and still largely dry I pulled out my trusty storm bunnet, stuck it on my head, then trotted off down the coast to the next location..... To be continued.


Seen this music group last year and couldn't believe my eyes as they are so completely different, both visually and musically, to anything else out there. Worth watching. Totally unique. They are not so much a group as performance artists.

Black Rainbow. A journey through Glasgow's North West Frontier.

Something very different this time. The result of several mountain bike runs in the dark from Anniesland to Drumchapel, often in the wee small hours, taking in the hi- rise flats of Knightswood and Scotstoun, two areas which have some of the largest concentrations of multi-story flats left in Glasgow.
This post is best viewed with the lights off throughout to create the right atmosphere. Some photos are sharp, others are muted with abstract filters until they resemble the night time paintings we are so fond of creating.......

                                               ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN

                                                 Call us Legion... for we are many

In the beginning there was darkness... and then a light appeared. The first alter rises. When witch was witch and not potential wife...

"C" came into being.

This "I" formed on the edge of a large city. Blood on blood, flesh on flesh, life piled above life.

Inside these illuminated leviathans of  the modern age, rising from black depths in tandem together..... From London to Glasgow... the sprawling metropolis of Babel goes to bed. Tiny squares extinguished across the land, one by one. Like living Advent Calendars. Even these great cubes eventually sleep.

Tower on tower, level on level, tribe on tribe, bone on bone. The "Henge" culture of this era.

To explore it... but not as a human knows it, but as a 'something else'. A fox view, a  fossa view... my wolverine within.

A photo "painting" using the abstract setting.

Someone's lair.... perhaps. Eeyore's gloomy place no doubt, or some other pitiful beast of burden?
Is this the next step after food banks? People living in tunnels and caves again? Couldn't happen here? Well, 20 years ago no one had heard of food banks in the UK- now it's perfectly normal. We usually take our cue from America in these matters and tens of thousands already live in underground tunnels there. New York City is full of underground tunnels and sewers and at 20 below in winter it's the best place to be if you are homeless and desperate. The gap between the have and have not's in western culture has never been greater in modern times than now and it is still accelerating yet we are constantly told the economy is recovering. For who exactly? This current government seems determined to privatize the NHS and we might well find we end up with a situation in the future where if you haven't got private medical insurance you are up shit creek.
Welcome to the mostly hidden world of the tent cities and the mole people. This makes interesting and worrying reading when you know that most of America's solutions to social problems eventually get adopted here.
 http://www.pakalertpress.com/2013/04/11/the-tunnel-people-that-live-under-the-streets-of-america/

Christmas approaches fast in the city.

It's dark by 3:30pm now on dull overcast days. Grey, mist ridden, and uniformly unappealing for most of November and early December the streets and landscape around me seem far more colorful and interesting in the dark. I take to legs and bike to explore.

People head home to warm caves and tenements stacked high on the tops of hills.Christmas presents are carefully wrapped. Glasgow is after all "The Drumlin City of my Dreams."

The dark allure takes hold.

The city is locked up behind doors and safe. Plane landing from a journey to find the sun.

A half born emerges. So many long hours to kill in darkness at this time of year. Witch upon witch, blood upon blood, star upon star, furry mound upon furry mound, life against life. Moon takes the stars away from a lonely, tortured"Caliban" who slinks into the shadows of the golf course, seen above.

Sparkle memories appear.

Keen to keep to shadows, the dark margins of the city engulf your shy and wary companion... always half revealed, ever formless and indistinct. An edge of vision ...vision.

Skirting the perimeter of a park.

Always staying in the black ink corners.

Prowling the lanes yet leaving no paw print.... no blood left to seep for hungry Caliban to find.

Always on the other side of that wall.
Centuries ago many cities were once gated and guarded at night for safety. Now it's open season again away from the CCTV cameras.

One trusting swan not fast enough this time.

The ancient city provides sustenance yet again. Bird within beast, wall beyond wall...Bold Caliban creeps anew.

A Dark Tower ringed apart.

Daylight shows why.

Glasgow. My beautiful city of twinkling lights and gleaming Leviathans. Drumlins and soaring towers combined.

                                              Where streets are always lined with gold.


Many years ago I stayed in the Cotswolds but cycled through the Mendips, the North Downs and the Gog Magog hills exploring everywhere, often cycling back to the rented cottage late at night. The beauty and appeal of these small hill ranges, often sheltering little patchwork pockets of bright neon in deep valleys within them and the sea of dark lands all around made a big impression on me cycling across empty and pitch black minor roads between scattered pin pricks of habitation. Scenic and safe feeling during the day these upland places changed completely after dark and even the main streets in tourist villages then (late 1970's) had little in the way of adequate street lighting with ancient lamp posts far apart and ill lit. Some of the smaller villages seemed to be illuminated by glow worms such was the output of generated light between warm pubs and pints of delicious scrumpy. Beyond these picture postcard settings however the dark was absolute and unfamiliar places visited in the hours of darkness are always slightly menacing and strange.
 My reward was a meeting with a pure light - a rare find in a southern plot to be nurtured and tended before transplanting into a different garden altogether in the colder north. I was a collector of things back then you should know.

Another daughter of Kent and a similar nocturnal inspired theme... Some of the fan made videos are better than the official offerings nowadays and this is a case in point. Memorable. A good night time driving tune with a slight jazz rhythm underneath.

Firth of Clyde Estuary. Pillar Bank. Of Ships, Mermaids and Madmen.

ALL PHOTOS CLICK FULL SCREEN

I've not quite given up the idea of writing books just yet and have started my third one so this is both an account of an unusual walk across the floor of the Clyde Estuary at Dumbarton and also a plug for my new photo littered guidebook A Guide to Walking and Cycling around the River Clyde and the Firth of Clyde. The sunken Sugar Boat from Roseneath Point. I have left out the usual small maps common in most guidebooks and just used inspiring photos and detailed descriptions of routes instead as the maps require a lot of effort and space when you should always have the relevant OS Map with you anyway. In this case it is Sheet 63 Firth of Clyde. Due to this omission I have over 80 routes described instead of the usual 20 to 30. Therefore, it is probably the most comprehensive guide to walks and cycle rides around the River Clyde and the Firth of Clyde as I threw the kitchen sink at it in terms of number of enjoyable walks and easy bike runs.

ANGRY FACE

It is hard with so many guidebooks and free online routes out there already to come up with something different or new but fortunately I have been different my entire life so it shouldn't be a problem for me :o) I have included the Pillar Bank walk in the book but it is always a fine line between revealing new, lesser known walks or cycles and the very real possibility of them gaining popularity to such an extent that they ruin the very thing that made them special in the first place. The only photos I could find on the internet of anyone ever being out onto Pillar Bank were my own so I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing. Obviously, local folk must have ventured out here for generations and just haven't talked about it online before but I've still got some reservations as the few times I've been out here there hasn't been a single soul in sight on the sands and part of me would like to keep it that way for my own personal pilgrimage to these areas. I was so disappointed with Knoydart the last time I was there as it was heaving with people and seemed to have lost its "Last Great Wilderness" tag a long time ago. So different from my first visit there and the original guide book writers description of the place. Any social media site these days is a double edged sword as it gives you a voice but you have to give a piece of yourself away every time to make any impact and I don't really like doing that. I have deliberately left a few short but treasured places out the book as they are far too valuable to me or are sensitive to more visitors impacting on them and would get ruined easily as anything that gets posted online now becomes common knowledge and is liable to get replicated elsewhere. There should still be some secret places left in the world.

Maybe the surface covering of thick mud near the shoreline puts most people off trying to walk over it, something similar to the "Flat Earth" view held in earlier centuries until someone actually sailed over the edge of the known world and proved it wasn't an edge after all... just more sea.
When you walk over this landscape at first your initial impulse is that you are just going to sink up to your waist in mud but apart from a few deep pockets it is perfectly safe as firm sand lies under a thin surface coating of sticky mud. Boots are required. I have only found evidence of quicksand in a few places around the mouth of the River Leven but these are obvious danger areas anyway to any seasoned mud skipper and the rest of it seems perfectly safe.

                                                                          Happy Face
I set off on my own from Dumbarton as I was researching this walk for the guidebook and had never been over the track inland from Dalmoak to Cardross which looked as if it might have good views.

The beautiful ornamental gardens at Levengrove Park, Dumbarton and the start of the walk.

A tractor climbing a steep hill in the fields near Cardross.

I bet farmers love the company of gulls as these ones were making a constant jarring racket around his cab when they should have been looking for grubs and worms, like the crows.

After a jaunt up and over the hill to Cardross with good views over the River Clyde Estuary I found I had timed it to perfection as the tide was receding to its lowest limit leaving the huge immensity of mud and sand that makes up Pillar bank, dry, safe and exposed. The first time I came out here was a couple of winters ago after I had been knocked down by a van at Christmas and I could only do flat walks at a limping crawl. The pain was so bad then some days on the return journey if I attempted too much, even with full strength painkillers, that I briefly entertained the notion of just waiting out here until the tide came in and covered me up. At some point in everyone's life they wish that the sea or land would just swallow them up as fertilizer.
 No doubt the roaming mermaids, as sweet daughters of Phorcys, would find me half buried in the sand and suck out then swallow down my eyes as they are a delicacy in these parts much savoured by sea creatures. Similar to dying or dead sheep's eyes are for hooded crows on land and packed with vitamin C. I don't know about you but I've always fancied being inside a mermaid.... one way or another. Think of the secrets you could find with them as a guide under the waves. I already knew the area could be walked on as I came out here on the mud with a companion, briefly, 30 years ago so it's strange, to my mind at least, that it's still so empty of people. I hope I haven't let the cat out the bag for the bird life on the estuary but as I say, to get noticed you have to swing on a wrecking ball at some point.

creating a Mud trail on a bike.

To save time on the jump over from Dalmoak to Cardross I'd taken my bike for the farm tracks but it didn't prove so helpful out on the mud flats and time in the saddle was limited. It felt good though racing across the flats and jumping pools on the edge of the ocean a full mile out from the land on a bike.( smooth tyres on a hybrid as mountain bike chunky tyres would not work here) Anyone who knows me well has always maintained I,m slightly mad at the best of times and they are probably correct. Even I think I'm mad at times but you should see my world from the inside looking out. That's really scary.

Greenock with what looks like a cruise ship and a container ship at the docks.

The container ship Jana leaving Greenock and the free French memorial on Lyle Hill. Cross of Lorraine. Most of the goods arriving come by container ship these days so this is the real Santa delivering Christmas and not a reindeer in sight. I'd hitched a lift on a mermaid's back for these two taken near Kilcreggan on a previous visit. You can also walk at low tide well out into the sands from Dumbarton to Helensburgh via Pillar Bank which is another walk in the book as is the Kilcreggan walk or cycle.( Like most of the walks in the book I actually completed them by bike to check they were still OK detail wise and it saved me a lot of time, so I know they can be cycled, with some off the saddle sections.) Pillar Bank is as far out into the Firth of Clyde Estuary as you can probably go without a boat so it had to be included in the guidebook as the sense of huge skies, remoteness and scale of this place is impressive but I hope I haven't given any secrets away and ruined it's isolation for future visits. The Firth of Clyde estuary is the largest and deepest enclosed estuary in the British Isles and this is as far as you can travel into it's bare immensity on foot. Scotland doesn't have many completely flat kilometres so this is a special walk with Netherlands or Kansas like skies and views.

Approaching Dumbarton and a distant view of Dumbarton Rock from a mile out into the estuary. Obviously, when the tide comes in you don't want to be here as it's all submerged.

The Inverclyde and Renfrewshire shoreline is actually much closer at this point than the Dumbartonshire one which is just visible in the distance but a deep dangerous channel cuts it off, seen here. You would probably stick in the mud and drown if you tried to swim across to Renfrewshire as there is quicksand here on the sloping banks under the surface and my madness has its limits.

Swans, terns and gulls came over to say hello.

Approaching Levengrove Park across the mud flats. A beautiful sunny day and not another person in sight yet the park was busy and very hot and airless, it being mid summer. Maybe they are scared of mud and dirty boots these days as the estuary had a nice refreshing breeze wafting down it.?

Near the mouth of the River Leven. This area does have some steeply sloping banks into the river but you would need to deliberately walk into the current to get into trouble here. Cycling in any city or town is far more dangerous than this mud walk if you have any shred of common sense. It's a great feeling being so far out from the land but as a previous companion on another estuary trip remarked...

" Not everyone would want to do a walk like this one anyway so go ahead and publish it before some other person beats you to it and then you will kick yourself for not putting it out first." I have never seen this enjoyable and unique walk in any another guidebook but I don't read any current guide books anyway these days and just did a basic check online before posting so I may be wrong about that. I am prepared to stand corrected... yet again :o)

The lovely but derelict shell of Cardross Church. I think this was bombed during the Second World War and has never been restored although the graveyard is lovely. Brambles are a problem here.

Dumbarton Rock and castle, famous climbing area with overhanging cliff face and the scattered bouldering boulders, both of which contain some of the hardest graded climbs in the UK.

And journey's end back in Dumbarton.  My guidebook has over 80 walks and cycle rides in it, many lesser known like this one, along with 146 colour photographs like these and at £1:99 on Kindle should be of interest to anyone who likes walking and cycling around the Glasgow, Paisley, Motherwell, Hamilton or Firth of Clyde area. Or anyone who is feeling nostalgic to take a visual journey around these areas from the comfort of an armchair if you live overseas... or just don't fancy the mucky reality in person. (Not me!... the mud walk) I know you can get printed walks free online these days which is another reason for using photos rather than maps and I may be biased here but it's a good cheap extra Christmas present if you have a colour image kindle kicking around the house and if I had this guide years ago highlighting the best routes over a wide area it would have saved me numerous other expensive guidebooks and many years of half aborted journeys into the unknown trying to find the best walks in my local district to suit my tastes.
I dedicate this post to my "DID." muse in the last chapter of my novel "Autohighography" by Bob Law. also available on kindle. The last chapter seems to baffle people slightly judging by feedback, hence this extra clue...but who exactly is it?
" I am legion... for we are many." quote- unquote.

Type 45 Destroyer HMS Duncan and escort on the River Clyde at Partick for the recent Commonwealth Games.

Side view of HMS Duncan returning to Glasgow for the first time since her departure down the Clyde in early 2013 as she was built at BAE systems yard in Scotsoun. Her home port is now Portsmouth Naval Base, the last of six new warships completed for the MOD.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Walking-Cycling-around-Clyde-ebook/dp/B00P1IO2SM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1417379815&sr=1-1&keywords=A+guide+to+walking+and+cycling+around+the+River+Clyde+and+the+Firth+of+Clyde.+Bob+Law