On Nature's Trails

Oh, I wanted to go further, to get out of this Edinburgh / Lothian region. Go St Andrews and the villages along the east coast. Go Loch Lomond; just one of those "bonnie bonnie banks" will do. Touch the highlands at Killin in Perthshire, or Fort William for that scenic railway ride to Mallaig. Dare I say one of those west isles? But they are in dreamland, and most probably will remain there. Mid July comes and I am still roaming the Lothian circuits.

The River
Since I could not see beyond Edinburgh, at least I should see more of this city that I have stayed for nearly 2 years. So we took a bus to Dean Village, which is really close to the heart of the city, and walked the 1.5 miles or so on the walkways built along the Water of Leith to the Royal Botanic Gardens, and from there took a bus home.
Water of Leith at Dean Village:

Dean Bridge, on which the bus travels:


St Bernard's Well (no longer working):

A break at Cafe Nero in Stockbridge:

A nice building for the Pizza Express Restaurant at Stockbridge:



The Hills
For the second sunny day (only it was not so sunny where we went) trip, we ventured a little further to the Pentland Hills again. This time we took a different bus that got us right to the door step of the hills. I wanted to make sure that this time we did not have to walk a mile just to get to the start of the walk. The Capital View Walk took us half way up the hills. We could have climbed to the top of one of those small hills, but we felt it could be too challenging for Ethan.

Easier to climb on all fours:


View of Arthur's Seat:


One of a series of short drizzles:

More of Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crag:

Where we could have climbed up the hill (but didn't):



Feeling the false snow (for dry ski-ing)

The dry ski slope:

View point:

going down:

"My chipmunk wants to see too" - Ethan wanted to take it out, but Jianming convinced him it'd do just fine with the head popping out of his bag:

Allermuir, another hilltop which we didn't attempt:

Chipmunk still looking on:


"I am too tired!"



The Woodland:
And further on to Dalkeith, to walk in the country estate. We started out late - after lunch - and since it closed at 5pm, just took one of the short Bluebell walks which would only be pretty in spring. In summer, it is really nondescript. How were we to know that the 5pm closing time applies only to the ticket office and in fact we could see many people coming in after 5pm (so they need not pay the entrance fee)? Anyway, Ethan had a fairly fun time at the Adventure Playground. We boarded the bus back to Edinburgh at around 6.40pm, the latest so far.

Adventure Playground:

Montagu Bridge:

Bluebell walk near River North Esk:

The observatory near the River South Esk:

Laundry Bridge and beyond:


Dalkeith town:

The clock showing 6.30pm, taken at the bus stop: