Thursday

The Dog Rambler E-diary

top 06
October 2011
Walk Dogs on walk

Not quite to the top of the hills Gustave, Jerry, Lucas, Otis, Ozzy, Tim

Length

6 miles

It looked like a very wet walk was in the offing as from nowhere dark clouds covered the sky. Rain lashed against the windscreen, the road a bright strip of dazzling water. Drops making big circles as they exploded on the wet road. But As we picked up Jerry last the sky started to clear and the dark clouds rapidly recede. We would head for the hills after all. Still not fully confident I enveloped myself in full waterproofs and it was chill enough to require gloves. Hopeful that the temperature might rise we stayed low at first. Rounding the base of White Hill and into a field packed with sheep. The dogs behaving extremely well took very little notice of the sheep. The sheep in turn slowly moved away if we got too close for their liking. The dogs good behaviour continued even as we got to the far side of the field and some sheep that had found a way into the small wood beyond, though a section on fence that had fallen uprooting its wooden posts. As we approached the gate the sheep decided to come back through from the wood. About twenty of the in a long single file line paraded across the fallen fence no more than twenty feet from us. It was almost like once they had started moving they could not stop. It was an irreversible motion. Pressure from the sheep behind driving them onward. Those at the front with little

worried looks on their faces. Nothing to be fearful of as the dogs gathered in their own little flock around the gate. Looking backward and upwards at me imploring me to get it open. After having proven themselves so well with the sheep it was Jerry who let the side down. As we climbed the steeper than it looked track through the trees a man came strolling downwards with his two dogs. Despite being asked to remain with us twice, Jerry could just not hold himself back. Gustave ran in behind him and then Tim. The others hanging back with me. It was just overexcitement on Jerrys part; excitement which prevented him from walking to heel afterwards just to prove he could. So he spent a short spell on his lead to cool off. With the freedom of the heathy moorlike ground ahead of them Ozzy and Tim were off on one of their wild chases. Sprinting far ahead their feral like barking carrying back to us on the wind. They wind each other up so much. I do not know who is worse. As they ran back toward us they gathered up Gustave and Lucas. But as they raced off again they soon left them behind. There would be time again later. Gustave and Lucas fell back into step with Otis who was wading about rather aimlessly but happily. As we began to climb the wind cascaded over the rise ahead of us. Cold and hard. Otis ran and chased with Tim and Lucas for a bit. Allermuir Hill much higher up in front of us looked less inviting. It got stronger blowing us sideways. We retreated down the other side of the climb. We would have had two hills to do on this route in that icy wind. Bas plan. As we clambered back down our alternative route the black clouds silently swept in covering the sky with their malevolence. They threw rain at us like spears, pricking the skin. Tim took shelter under gorse bushes during the worst of it. Otis conceived to get himself lost as we trooped along heads down. We retraced our steps up a slope calling into the wind. My voice must have broken through its wall as Otis, quite nonchalantly, reappeared. Tim and Ozzy ran off on another of their mad chases but only persuading the rest to join them intermittently. Before long Jerry was too occupied in his own little world of imaginary animals needing flushing out of the long grass. Otis and Gustave making quite a pair wandered on ahead of me and Lucas had slotted in behind my heels.

To give us some shelter from the next onslaught of rain we made our way into the tall wind twisted Scots Pines covering White Hill. Like the trees the path twisted around it gradually dropping us to the stream leading back to Bonaly and the car.

Photo slideshow from the walk

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Nick Fletcher The Dog Rambler 9 Links Street Musselburgh East Lothian EH21 6JL

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