We had a good turn out for our June walk as Bernie, Christopher, Douglas, Gerry, Iain, and myself boarded the sunshine express to Ardrossan South Beach.
I’ve always had an unlikely soft spot for Ardrossan, the destination for the first part of childhood summer holidays (three days in Ardrossan and three weeks in Largs), and the only reason why I managed to scrape through my Geography A-level.
As we set off in glorious sunshine – the norm for most of our walks, one of our party rather unkindly enquired if I had made a pact with the Devil. However a perishing west wind and a couple of stinging squalls gave the lie to that suggestion.
A pleasant stroll along the south beach promenade brought us into down town Ardrossan; we didn’t linger. Mind you, as we had been walking for a whole fifteen minutes, at least one of the party was keen to (can we stop for a coffee now….? “No”)
Our route took us round the marina – not sure why, and past what I suppose is Ardrossan North Beach, a sweeping bay where they are building a fine new school campus on the shore. Now, I’m no civil engineer, but in this age of climate change and rising sea levels, is this a sensible idea??
North Ayrshire Council had very kindly laid on a fine path for us as we headed north. It even had separate cycle and walking lanes, well for a couple of hundred yards. So it was easy walking, but none the less pleasant for that, and as always the craic was good.
As we trudged the streets of Ardrossan, our leader made some complicated calculations, taking into account prevailing wind, length of stride, inclination of the sun, etc….i.e. made a guess, phoned the Waterside and booked a table for 12.15. We walked through the door at 12.10. Not bad……
Four of us went traditional with fish and chips, one 70s retro with a prawn cocktail, but our immediate past president put us all to shame with with an adventurous tempura battered cauliflower; apparently it was very good??
Replete with really rather a good lunch, we headed up to the nearby bus stop to catch the Largs bound 585, and what a way to round off a splendid day; not just one, but two circuits of West Kilbride (we could have probably walked back quicker…..)
Our next walk is scheduled for election day, July 4th (we may reconsider the day) with a voyage to Bute to tackle the Kilchattan Bay circular walk. Details to follow.