Saturday 15th October

This week I had a look at the Warden's Walks on the government website and printed a few off to try on our Saturday walks. When Dave arrived we consulted them and decided to head to the Stoney Mountain walk as, Dave thought there was an event on in Ballaugh.
We parked in the car park in South Barrule and headed off. The weather was a bit grey but, no rain yet. We walked down the road and track and headed into Stoney Mountain

It remained grey and misty through the rest of the plantation but, as we came to the path round the far side, the view over the south of the island presented itself

We carried on down the path with the sun bright over the south - maybe that's where we should have gone!

As we carried on round the edge of the plantation, the track became increasingly muddy and rutted due to pushbikes. It made it so that we concentrated more on the path than taking pictures but, had to pause for some pine cones

Eventually the track led back to the main road and we crossed over back into South Barrule Plantation. Here we saw some glimpses of Autumn colour

The path meandered around towards the car park. It is a nice plantation to walk through - paths are broad and well maintained - much better than the quagmire we'd just been in. As we approached the fire pool, we decided to take a look, just in case the sun came out enough for any late dragonflies but, no luck

We headed back to the car for lunch and to decide what to do next. As we sat at the picnic bench, we soon realised it is getting a bit cold to eat outside! We decide to head first to Cringle in search of more Autumn colour and possible reflections then up north to try again for Wallaby.

On arriving at Cringle, we soon realised it was too grey and windy for the shots we were after so soon returned to the car

So, once again we went in search of Wallabies. This week we decided to do the loop clockwise to see if it was any more successful than last week's anti-clockwise venture. On arrival at the parking area, there were two cars already parked up so, we set off with low expectations of seeing anything. so, ¾ of the way round and we'd seen lots of tracks but no animals. Suddenly Dave (who was just ahead of me) started gesturing me forward, there partly hidden by the undergrowth - a Wallaby!! It was unconcernedly feeding and scratching though obviously aware of our presence. After a short while, he started moving and joined another animal further across. Though difficult to photograph due to the foliage, we had good views of them feeding.

After taking a number of pictures, we left them in peace and finished the loop. Though we saw more tracks on our way out, we didn't see any more animals. We headed back towards the car and home wondering - where to go next week?