Botanical Meanderings And Seated Climbs

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Today dawned very bright with the promise of even more sunshine to come so it was decided that a visit to the nearby botanical gardens was in order. Miche and Ms V were taking a diversion via the local charity shop to check out some more cheap reading material so they left before the male members of the group. Mickey and Mr P decided to head to the gardens via the walk of Lieth and were rewarded for this decision by getting up close and personal with a crane enjoying the sunshine.

Once inside the gardens Mickey and Mr P walked past the wildflower garden full of poppies and cornflowers amongst others. With the group re-united it was time to do some serious floral appreciation. Heading towards the Conservatory we got to marvel at part of Britian’s oldest fossil, (no not ERII but an old tree Pitus Withami found close by in a quarry). Heading into the building we got to some Japanese Ikebana works recently completed by a group of kimono clad Japanese ladies.

Britain's Oldest Fossil	A Heron In The Leith
Ikebana	How Many Eyes Do I See

Inside the first, (and succeeding), conservatory buildings we found ourselves in a photographers paradise. Everywhere we looked, from the exorbitant lillypads to water repellent leaves, to the multi-eyed lotus flower head to the smallest of blooms there was something new to spy and discover. The only drawback was the very high humidity in most of the buildings so it was with great relief that we found the Australian-New Zealand exhibit was more open air with no need for artificial temperature control. Having initially planned on a one hour visit we were surprised to find in the end that we spent more than 3 hours discovering and photographing as many of the plants as the fast fading batteries of our cameras would allow, (to check out the full set you will need to look on Mr P’s Flickr Photostream).

Lilly Pads	Flowers ???
More Blooms	Another Stunner

As it was no well past 2pm it was time to head back to the flat for a bite of lunch before Mickey readied himself for work at the Beehive. Having said goodbye to Mickey the decision was made to scale the heights of Arthur’s Seat at 210m the highest of Edinburgh’s hills. Given the time of day, around 5pm, we were able to easily find a car park at the base of the climb right next to the Hollyrood Parade Ground which was adorned with rows of tents readying for the up coming Highland Games.

The first part of the climb took us along the rocky side of the seat facing the city and along quite a wide path. The many great views back over by now familiar landmarks provided numerous excuses to rest and regain our breath. A flattening out of the track provided even more relief until we realised that we had only conquered one of the spurs and that the next climb to the peak was much steeper over what looked like a goat path enclosed by a very rustic fence. Mercifully once past this hurdle the track widened out again to another gentle rise before a scramble over rocks to the summit.

Heading Up The Seat	Looking Back Down
Some Flat At Last	Hey But You Didn't Tell Us About This

Finally atop the seat we found the views exhilarating indeed. We took in the all weather ski slopes on the Pentlands that we had missed viewing previously. We could see all the way across the Firth of Forth and beyond. We also watched with amazement as a group of cyclists firstly appeared at the summit and then proceeded to mount up and simply ride down the other side. Another thing that caught our eye was a raven or crow that first sat on the cliff edge then gently glided off into the air beyond.

Arthur Seat Panorama

Gee It's A Long Way Down	On Top Of The World
Raven Getting Down Easily	Another Way To Get Down

Having taken in as much of the panorama as we could it was time to make our way back down, this time via a more direct but still quite steep path at the rear of the hill. There are in fact a multitude of paths that criss-cross the seat. On our way down we stopped off to check out the ruins of St Anthony’s Chapel. The origins of the chapel are a little obscure however it was built no later than the 15th century. The chapel is situated on one of the many ledges that dot the hillside but is now little more than one wall with other rocks that once formed the structure now scattered about.

St Anthony's Chapel

Heading down from the chapel our attention was caught by voices and the sounds of tumbling rocks. Looking around the corner Mr P saw a couple of males attempting to scramble back up the slope towards the chapel. One was obviously inebriated and was being pushed from behind by his companion. Whilst scrambling up they were dislodging small to medium sized rocks that rolled back down the slope passed and in some cases into their female companion who was perched on the edge of a 2m drop leading to a quite steep rock and grass 40-50metre slope. Scrambling over to the males Mr P helped pull and push the intoxicated male up to the flat again before heading off down to see to the female.

Halfway down amidst another shower of stones we were joined again by Mr Drunk proferring all manner of advice punctuated by some pretty fruity language. Realising it would be easier to go down than up with the female we were thankfully joined by another male who had made his way up the slope from the bottom and had succeeded in making sure the also quite inebriated female didn’t slide over the edge.

We finally prevailed on the other two males and started down over the ledge at which our female friend yelped in pain suggesting she had broken her shoulder. All other evidence suggested otherwise and that instead she might have torn some ligaments or something of the sort. As a result lowering her down became just that little more tricky but we soon had her over the edge and down onto the slope below all the while fending off the attempted assistance of her more drunk friend.

The rest of the descent went quite well save for the time when Mr P was unable to support her and the female flopped onto the grass ever so slowly lowering her head onto the rocks nearby. Alcohol though is a great anaesthetic and despite an audible clunk our friend didn’t mutter a sound.

Finally at the bottom our female friend wanted to kiss our hands to death before we finally extricated ourselves and mad our way back to the car passing on the way St Margaret’s Well which dates from the 15th century.

St Margaret's Well

As it was now 9pm and given our climb and other adventures we were quite hungry so a Thai takeaway was in order before more sweet dreams on the pull-out bed.

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