Wednesday

The Dog Rambler E-diary

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February 2012
Walk

Warming to the Ormiston Railway Walk Cyrano, Dylan, Finn, Jolie, Phoebe, Solo

Length

6.2 miles

Dogs on walk

Another day and another railway walk. Today heading toward Ormiston and like yesterday with a detour off the railway and into the countryside. From the start near Carberry the sun began to warm the air. It got very warm. By the end of the walk as we sat in the car all the windows and the sunroof were open. Is this still Winter? The railway cut its way between farm fields empty of sheep or cows today. Further away the sound of a tractor churning the soil in another field drifted on the breeze. As it faded behind the dips in the land the humming swirl of the wind turbines replaced its noise. Then one of the many Buzzards mewing calls cut through the sky. There are so many about just now. As if to prove it a huge beast of a bird swivelled its head on a fence post not far in front of us before hauling itself skyward, cutting a dark shape against the towering cumulus clouds rising like volcanic dust higher and higher into the sky. Down on the ground and Phoebe already had Finn in a headlock. Jolie skipping around them acting as referee. One, two, three, release. Then off they would pound along the gravel track.

Solo more like a steady goods locomotive kept to a straight and steady course. Cyrano more the runaway train that went over the hill was this way and that. Eventually splashing to a halt in the rather orange coloured burn beside the track. Dylan maybe not like a shunter, rather more in need of shunting, toiled slowly at the back. Leaving the youngsters to tussle and play. As it got warmer Cyrano spent more and more time looking for the burn, often lost to us by the deep undergrowth made up of spiny long trails of brambles and thick tangled branches of bushes. He dripped along the track causing Solo to show some interest. Where was all this water? you could almost see him asking. Up front we saw a bundle of dogs heading our way. That is exactly how they appeared. All over the place, almost falling over each other. I am sure that is how we appeared too. Fortunately it was our time to leave the track and head onto a small path clambering away from the railway and into the patchwork of fields. As the path widened into a track the dogs spread themselves about happy to walk and bask in the warm glow of the sun. Having crossed back over the railway on a bridge we dropped back down. Just at the right time to almost rejoin it at the same time a man in a red jacket and his reddish dog were walking along. As we caught him he stopped to let us by. The dogs having done very well to walk to heel on the approach to him. Then just as we passed him the higgledy-piggledy group of dogs from earlier was almost on top of us, emulating Cyranos runaway train impression. We managed to all sidle by each other. Not stopping our helloes drifting off with the wind like passing toots from trains. The excitement of it led the dogs to turn their attention to some sticks with Solo the freight train picking up the largest. At last he found one that passed muster. About four feet long and at least four inches across. Jolie tried a few times to wrestle it from him but his grip was firm. Then Finn began to get a bit panicky. A colourful walking group, who at this point were not walking, clustered across the track in front of us. At least twenty of them he did not know what to do. In the end I had to put him on his lead to calm him down as the rest of

us quite placidly weaved through them. Solo almost knocking one or two over with his stick. The track gently weaved us back toward the start with Cyrano jumping in the water again and a last little chase between Finn, Jolie and Phoebe. Throwing all the windows open we settled down to cool off a bit in the car.

Nick

Photo slideshow from the walk

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