A Walk on the Wild Side

Day Three - 9:15am, 3 January 2019

Slightly earlier start today. Uneventful walk along, where I am only aware of a few people out and about. However, the road is considerably busier, so much so that it is impossible to hear the running water until you actually stop on the bridge. Even then, each vehicle that passes temporarily drowns out the water. But the cars come and go and, in the fleeting heart beats in between, the water's melody is able to reassert itself.

Today's photo stop is a prelude to the main event. A walk up Arthur's Seat with family and friends. We take the car, parking up by one of the mini lochs. No sign of Nessie, but plenty of seagulls, frightened that the swan is getting too much attention (i.e. food) from the young families passing by. 

We wind our way to the summit. The cars are soon forgotten behind us and we seem estranged from the city over which we now tower. As we climb, a tourist passes us on her way back down to the gentler slopes, wearing a face mask. It seems incongruous, given the lack of traffic.

We all make it to the top. Whichever way you look, the views are fantastic, across Edinburgh and beyond. You forget what a privilege it is to live here, with nature on our doorstep. Here, nature is silent: the hard Ignatius rocks, the mud liberally spread across the side of this extinct volcano and the long grass that the wind has pinned flat to the ground appeal to our other senses. It is noisy nonetheless. There are more people up here than you think will ever fit the narrow summit. But somehow they do, calling to one another eagerly as they pose for selfies at the very top. Everyone seems happy and good-natured (if you excuse the pun), moving aside to let others pass on firmer footing.

From the accents surrounding us, it is likely that the photos that are being taken here today will, within seconds and thanks to social media, make their way across much of the globe. People from places we might never go to, might not even of heard of, are in this way unwittingly linked to us in this brief moment of time; who and where they are, we will never know. Yet, in liking or loving the contemporary snapshots, their online selves serve as many silent witnesses to our having ticked another item off our family bucket list. Perhaps, one day, if we are lucky, we will get to return the favour.