rainbows in curved air (or curves in rainbowed air)

The Road Less Travelled

Although I have travelled to obscure corners of the world, sometimes you can get more from your immediate surroundings.

I remember coming back from the Himalayas & being just as impressed going through the Rest & Be Thankful Pass to Invereray.

It is merely a difference in scale. The proportions e.g. mountains vs valley are there. I could see echoes of the Khyber Pass although I did not have to check the windscreen for bullet holes.

Even when I survey the landscape around me, I draw parallels with areas from the desert in Saudi Arabia that I walked. Is it the shape of the land, the contours? I don’t know. If you imagine rock & sand instead of green grass: its there.

I have always enjoyed getting lost, sometimes this can induce conflict or annoyance (or terror?) in others, if you do not know me or don’t have faith in my ability to get back.

Last week my wife & I went out for our usual Sunday drive & passed by Killearn & Balfron & ended up in such a beautiful stretch of road, that I remember being on last, when our Canadians relatives were here. I love that bit that drops you down onto the Drymen – Stirling road from Balfron. It has such beautiful views of the hills (even now the wind farms near Stirling). However, I totally agree, I should ensure that there is enough diesel in the car!

Another journey with the elder son around the Killearn turnoff, led us to explore a new landscape & a strange one for me. We found ourselves on a tarmac road that did not appear to have a purpose.

At a gate, there was a burned out car, was this an omen? Anyway throwing caution to the wind, we decided to leave the car there & get out for a walk. It was a bright evening although the sun was dipping below the horizon.

We headed on up the tarmac road that seemed to go on forever. There was some wonderful views of Loch Lomond & the hills around, there was even a rainbow & unfortunately there was some rain in its path.

We found some weird abandoned debris around e.g. plastic pipes almost covered by vegetation, & also this huge, concrete & steel bridge, that seemed haphazardly dumped over a small stream. I mean there was absolutely no logical reason for 1) the tarmac road & 2) this massive feat of bridge engineering. Is it military? It certainly looked that way. Has it been here since the war? Which war?

There was other odd folly’s in the immediate vicinity, but they have escaped my memory at the moment. I felt I was in the middle of an ‘X File’!

Could this bridge have been here since the Burncrooks reservoir was built? The area around that loch has been another new venture for me. A recent exploration with the younger son also asked more questions than it answered.

I knew from memory, that a railway was built to bring workers & materials up to this spot. I was looking for evidence of the railway & the route taken, e.g. bits of ‘clinker’, straight lines in the landscape. I was so impressed at the formation of the stone walls, stone floors……….etc all mined from local quarries? & put in place by hand, no cement? Such another huge feat of engineering!