Some impromptu fun, often the best.

We left here with the intention of going up to Hannahston Water at Drongan. Its a lovely area, a great place for walking or running about. There is wildlife to see, a pond to walk round and pieces of exercise equipment to play on. The children love these pieces of wooden exercise equipment to play on.  We only know about it because we have been up there geocaching. It has a fab series of nicely different caches to find, not a plastic box in sight

But we got just past Stair and for some reason the road was closed.  I didn't like the look of the road the diversion sign went up, a rather narrow  country lane, and wasn't sure where it would come out. So I decided to turn round and go back to Stair.

Parking up at the back of the church we sussed out the various options of places to go. There is a walk along the river there but having experienced it before we knew it was not suitable for the children. We spotted a gate and decided to go through it. Turned out to be a great choice.

First off we spotted a river, we looked for signs of life, found a few small minnows but that was about the lot. Next off they spotted conkers on the ground and set about breaking them open.

stomping on conkers

and gathering them up, we came back with a dozen, some not so big but its a bit early yet.

a conker

We had taken the butterfly nets and the bug viewer with us, the butterfly nets ended up with conkers in them but we never found any butterflies.

We realised there was not far to go on the side we were on, So Fifi set about getting across the river.

Across the rocks,

picking her route

and hump to the middle

jumping across

a short hop and she is on the other side. 

made it

She found a much easier way back. But we knew Bob would never balance across here as he was too small to hold the top bar. 

the easy way back

Granddad got her to pose half way across.

looking graceful

So with some team work we got Bob across the river, Granddad went across first, I helped him to the middle and Granddad help him jump across the last bit. The water was not overly deep and we would have only got slightly damp had we slipped.

We set off up stream, some of us walked along the bank, but Fifi literally went up stream. Bob did try to follow but decided the bank was an easier route for him being that bit smaller and slightly  less brave or less mad maybe.

scrambling across rocks

walks along the river

and along fallen tress when the rocks ran out.

scrambles across a fallen tree

Bob went down and some parts and decided playing splosh would be fun.

splash

By this time Fifi was across the other side. They started throwing rocks backwards and forwards but when a few got too close for comfort we out a stop to it.

lobbing rocks back and forth, Fifi on far side 

Fif wandered back to this side of the river and the two of them started picking and eating blackberries.

berry picking

all went well until Fifi got tangled up in them and needed rescuing. Yes I did take a picture first, but she was in no danger or discomfort as long as she stayed still. Of course as I pointed out if she would tie her hair up there would not be an issue.

oops got her

So having walked as far along as we could till we came across an electric fence. Granddad explained to them how to test an electric fence safely if they ever needed to.

Rather than wander back at river level we took the route back across the top of the hill to see if there was anything exciting at the top. There wasn't but it was a fun climb up.

Bob at the top of the hill

We came along various tree stumps so they practised their posing.

granddad can balance 

star shaped

Bob can balance too

Fifi climbed onto a fallen tree and Bob climbed up behind her, so granddad got them to pose again.

balanced on the tree stump

Fifi found what she thought may be a rabbit hole.  Granddad discussed with them how it does not look like it has been used for a while. He also discussed with them placing a small light weight stick across to see if anything is coming in and out. This lead onto various discussions on hunting and catching food in the wild. Its great how they listen to the information that one day they may find useful.

discussing the "rabbit" hole

Two hours of free fun was had walking, wandering and chatting. Spotting tree types, finding conkers and other general fun. Not a geocache in sight, may just have to rectify that...lol.