Corserine and The Rhinns of Kells - 12/6/2011

The Corserine cache had been sitting on our caching map winking at us for a long time. So we decided that Sunday would be a good day to claim it as we were kid free and the weather forecast didn't look too bad. 
We planned for the circular route courtesy as always of walkhighlands. This route took in Corserine and The Rhinns of Kells, 10.25 miles and approximately 5-7 hours walk well what else is there to do on a Sunday, I don't do Sunday housework!
http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/maps/map2_1dg.shtml

However all the best plans have problems...... our big mistake of the day? Not getting up early enough! Heading off about 11am we took the A714 south through Carsphairn and then looked for the signpost (and hoping there was one!) for Forrest Lodge, finding 'Forrest Estate' we hedged our bets and down it we trundled for a good 3 miles passing enroute two very interesting buildings indeed...

interesting because the roofs were grass, not perfectly mown lawn, but grass no less. This is a 'natural' energy company nestled in this lovely little nook, and sadly that's where the extent of my information lies. Grass roofs...well that's a first for me.


We reached the car park at Forrest Estate at 12.30, late due to the fact that I was exhausted after an all night Friday in Edinburgh Vaults, but that's a whole different story! 

Okay! Armed with poles and my map lets go find Corserine.

The weather was fair as we headed off, passing a big group of folks with rally cars, many of which passed us as we headed up the first stretch of our walk. We thought we were going to avoid the rally but unfortunately the high road that we were on joined the lower road and we met back up. We stood by the emergency vehicles who were able to tell us that there were three cars to pass...so sense prevailed and we waited...these guys were fast!

EAT MY DUST!

So not quite what we expected on our 'peaceful' walk! This reminds me of all the different people and their activities that share the hills and mountains. Still I was glad to leave them behind and continue the walk through the forest.





The walk was really nice, a good wide track through forest beside the Polharrow Burn which we eventually crossed. A little further and we reached a stile which took us to the Mountain track and we could clearly see the walk ahead of us eek!

UP!

AND OVER!

I found the hike up the underside of Polmaddy Gairy really hard going and had to take short breaks regularly for water and additional clothing. Still, the higher we climbed we were rewarded with sensational views of Galloway.

Still smiling through gobfuls of hair

Mrs.Biffo at the summit of Corserine, Arran in the distance.

The higher we climbed the cloudier it became and much windier! I  must concede that I do not have hair conducive to my hobby and on this walk I questioned if perhaps it's time for it to go. A good ten minute push through high winds and we reached the plateau that led us to the summit. It's a nice feeling when the mountain flattens out and you can really get your breath back and view the panoramic scenes. We had pretty good visibility at this point but I can imagine that on a brilliantly clear day the views will be out of this world. Mr.Biff was intent on the cache but I insisted on the trig first.

Mr.Biff at the trig

A last smile before the rain comes at us!

Of course we came to climb the mountain and add another Corbett to our stats but the reason for being 814 metres up is to claim another geocache. Not surprisingly it's named for the mountain.
 Corserine (Rhinns of Kells)
It's a 5 terrain well fair enough you feel like you've earned it by the time you reach it! And a 3 for difficulty which is very generous as it's not a difficult find. So we found the cache very quickly and grabbed a bite to eat, a good old cheese sandwich shared with the geohounds that as always had ran about three times the walk we had done! We were surprised to see that this cache hasn't been done often, we were only about the 7th to sign. This is a shame, more cachers should be seeking out these superb caches, it's not about finding a magnetic nano on a bench, well it's not for us. Fine for the numbers but climbing a mountain and seeing the world laid out before you is really what it's fast becoming all about for me. 

Signing the log book, with Hannah helping.

It was with much regret that we abandoned hope of walking the vast ridge of The Rhinns of Kells as we could see the grey sweep of rain coming across the mountains in the distance and we knew that we would have a very wet walk ahead of us. We turned tail and headed back the way we had came. We will most definitely climb Corserine and the Rhinns of Kells I can but hope of a clear weather day with which to enjoy the glories it will most surely present.