Walk by the sea

We had an outing with our walking group on Saturday in beautiful weather (yes, it can happen). We got the bus to Dunbar and then walked along the coast to East Linton, where we had an early Christmas dinner at the Linton Hotel.

There are very interesting rock formations at Dunbar - these seem to be red sandstone, weathered away in parts but resistant in others. We needed a geologist to explain them to us.

It was an easy path most of the way, so the miles sped past as we caught up with the news.

Gorse was still blooming despite its being December.

Towards the end, we came upon a ploughing competition which had just finished. There were lots of elderly tractors and enthusiastic drivers of the same, some of whom were wandering bashfully around with big silver trophies. It was so interesting to see people taking part in this traditional activity, not far from the city. I knew about ploughing competitions but had never seen one.

We walked up the road to the village just as they were all trundling up, belching out diesel fumes and somewhat spoiling the fresh country air. It would have been more environmentally friendly in the days of horse-drawn ploughs.

And then we were in East Linton, which is a rather pretty village

with some traditional East Lothian red rooftops.

Such a lovely day out - though after seven miles we were glad to sit down and eat an excellent dinner.