Would you believe it. A beautiful mild, sunny day all day, then when we all met for the Calder walk last night Friday 27th April 2018, the heavens opened up. Right from the off, the rain came on, so it was absolutely astonishing that a brilliant turnout of 33 people joined in, comprising of members of Friends of the Calder, South Lanarkshire Council and local residents, some from as far as Hamilton.
A huge thank you to everybody for braving the elements. We all did truly get soaked and lost a few people on the way as they headed off, in a particularly heavy torrential downpour.
The free history tour, with myself as presenter started off from the Hoolets and headed down the Pech Brae, towards Niaroo, Milheugh then back up again to Larkfield. We stopped off at each point of interest as I gave away all the little history secrets I’ve learned over the years. I learned something too about the age of a wall, that i thought was much more modern!
The tour lasted 2 hours, (the first hour being in rain). Sheltering under trees at the pond, proved useless so we marched on. Then, to everybody’s delight the rain passed, the sun came out and ended the evening with a beautiful sunset in the dry! It was welcome relief to everybody who braved the weather.
The little guidebooks as illustrations for the tour proved useful and everybody was allowed to keep them, a free gift worth £6 each.
Along the way, I had the honour of choosing 3 people to officially open the new paths at the Calder. Choosing Cara, Marie and Alan, who each got an ‘opening medal’ as a keepsake courtesy of Blantyre Project.
A big thank you to South Lanarkshire Council Rangers, Jo and Abi who also attended and for all the recognised hard work the Council have done in making this area more safe, more accessible and more beautiful.
25 people were still there at the end of the walk to enjoy teas, coffees and biscuits kindly brought along by Margaret Lindner. It was most appreciated too. Feedback was very positive and seems a good time was had by all.
I love doing this sort of thing, so will be hosting another re-run of this particular walk in June after the Summer Gala.
Congratulations Paul! A superb turnout in appalling weather. Best wishes for future walks. Kudos to all brave participants. Hopefully sunscreen needed for next outing.