Ramble in March

The local ramblers group meet on the second Sunday of the month and we usually join them although we would prefer it if they met on Saturday as we like to get to church on Sunday. However it is a good opportunity to meet different people and to go to places it would otherwise be difficult to find or get permission to access.

During the summer we have mostly been to beach destinations so families can come along but in March we had a hill walk. It turned out to be a beautifully clear and sunny day. We drove westwards along the main road towards Mount Pleasant and then headed offroad through Riverside Farm towards the mountain range, skirting our way up beside a large stone run.

These are a very strange geological feature here formed in the ice ages and are like rivers of angular rocks. I will blog more about them another time when I can find some better photos.
We then walked up to a rocky outcrop called Church Rocks.
We scrambled up the boulders behind the outcrop to have our elevenses on the top.The small bushy plants at the front of this picture are diddle dee which is widespread here. It produces tiny red berries which are very sour and fiddly to pick, but can be used to make jam and jelly. The bright green mounds are balsam bog, a plant which has tightly packed branching stems which form such a tight mass you can stand on them and it makes no impression. From the top there were some great views of the mountains and the inlets to the north.
On our way down from Church Rocks I was shown my first snake plant although it was only a small example. This unusual plant only grows in the stone runs of the Falkland Islands, snaking its way up between the boulders with stems several feet in length.
We then followed the ridge around and crossed the boundary fence into Bluff Cove farm, heading up to another series of rocky outcrops called The Cliffs. We had been warned not to touch any strange objects we might find as there is still ordinance from the conflict in the area but we didn't see any.
Lunch was had on this peak although it was hard to find shelter from the wind which had picked up considerably by then. We then skirted our way back around the hillside to the cars, picking our way through the stone runs.