I work successfully with animals and children
Never work with animals and children. So some of my less famous wellie companions like to mutter. Today, though, I worked with both and the whole thing was a breeze.
Six hours in the saddle with eight-year-old Riona, her dog Bailey, yesterday’s companion Ruth (she must be keen), an old guy called Alastair, and a woman with a stick called Alison (to clarify, the woman was called Alison, I’ve no idea what the stick was called). They all seemed to be related (maybe not the dog, though), so it was a bit of a family outing.
No doubt their Christmas card to each other this year will be them pictured with me.Yes, six hours and a touch more than 16 miles, beginning in Bervie – without visiting the scary memorial – then down to Montrose, more of which later. The sun beat down on us and everyone kept saying things like, well, this makes up for the lousy summer etc. As quite a fan of wet weather and wet conditions generally, I kept shtoom.
Stunning stuff, this walk, folks. Big beaches, dramatic cliffs, a wee castle, harbours and boats, a lifeboat station that closed in 1928, hippies, horses, a stroll over an old railway viaduct, and in the middle of nowhere, a massive junk yard of bikes, kitchen goods, lawn mowers, wheels, furniture, pallets, and anything else that you can think of. Very entertaining.
Montrose is home to a man called John West who, according to my companions, makes the best cup of tea in the world. I don’t know. What I do know is that he did that signing his name on me thing, which is becoming very annoying.
