No kick about with Mick!
Gloster Javelin XA825
(Distance covered = 10.0 mile/Ascent =564m(1850ft))
The first Championship of 2017 is the UKA Championships held in the Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh. There's not many crashsites I know of within range of this one and as I'd found out the week before the higher hills were still covered in snow so I had to settle for visiting one I'd already been to.
The Moorfoot Hills are not far down the road from Edinburgh and as I'd passed them on the drive up I knew they wern't still covered in snow. I had considered walking in from the opposite direction to what I did on my last visit but after reading a couple of walking reports online which suggested the going wasn't very pleasant from that side, I opted to walk in along the South Esk Valley again.
Blueberry Esmerelda Muffin II parked up beside Gladhouse Reservoir.
The weather was in one of those moods when it couldn't quite make its mind up what it was going to do, but at least it wasn't raining and at least there was no snow.
Breakfast time at Moorfoot Farm
Another advantage with walking in from this side again was I knew the farmer/gamekeepers were freindly as I'd spoken to them on both my previous visits here, and indeed it was them who directed me to the other parts of the Javelin which lie below Jeffries Corse. I was also kind of hoping I might get another kick about with Mick the Border Collie.
Through the other side of the farmyard with no sign of Mick!
Walking along the track between Moorfoot Farm and Gladhouse Cottage I was passed by a Gamekeeper on a quad bike, who; judging by the commotion as he approached the buildings around Gladhouse Cottage; was on his way to feed and exercise the gundogs.
The ruins of Birendean Castle.
For the next two mile along the South Esk Valley it was a case of dodge the frog, as there were hundreds of them, intent on laying their frogspawn in the puddles on the landrover track, not the brightest thing to do considering the first sign of the sun or indeed a landrover and all their efforts would be obliterated.
above and next three photos:-2 mile of dodge the frog along the River South Esk Valley.
My walk today did have some purpose as on my previous visit I had missed the area of wreckage on Emly Bank where the Javelin had first hit the hill. I knew it was there but as often happens I had walked within feet of it but failed to spot it because I was slightly below it so it was concealed from my view by the heather. There was also an object visible on satellite imagery near to the wingtip wreckage below Jeffries Corse that I could check out.
Above and below:-At this crow's house I had to decide whether to do my
intended route
clockwise or anti clockwise.
My plan from the far end of the Valley was to visit the wreckage below Jeffries Corse then head further west before turning south into the western end of Bowbeat Windfarm, I could then follow the access roads around and onto Emly Bank to have another look for the bits up there that I missed last time, then head north down the hill to end up back where I was. Or the reverse of this.
above and below:-Heading off up towards Jeffries Corse after
eventually deciding on
the anti-clockwise option!
After having a good root around for the mysterious object that was visible on the sattelite imagery I deduced it must have been removed, blown away or most likely it had just been remnants of snow, that had now melted.
View across to Emly bank in the centre
distance with Bowbeat Hill over to it's right.
The gully below Jeffries Corse where the wingtip wreckage lies.
Above and below:-Wonder what caused that damage?
I initially thought that the Javelin may have clipped its wingtip here before continuing on to crash a mile to the south but a more likely scenario is that it lost it in the air while trying to pull out of a dive.
Pure conjecture on my behalf about what could have happened to the Javelin
but it is known it was flying south carrying out a dive test from 40,000
ft. Of course I am no expert and this may not be correct but it's one possibility as to why the wingtip wreckage is one mile away to the north of the rest.
Approaching the western end of Bowbeat Windfarm.
View west from one of the access roads in the windfarm.
One of the propeller tips of this turbine was out of line and creating an impressive noise and equally impressive contrail, unfortunately it was very difficult to capture on a photograph!
I thought it was about to break off but it would seem all three tips are
meant to turn to act as an airbrake, so it wasn't about to fall off it was just stuck!
Walking between Jeffries Corse and Bowbeat Windfarm I had spotted something through the binoculors on Bowbeat Hill above the location of the Javelin's engines, this may have been wreckage so I made a detour from the access road to check it out. It turned out, as I'd kind of suspected, to be more remnants of snow.
View north along the River South Esk Valley.
After my unecessary detour, instead of heading back to the access road I continued along the side of Bowbeat Hill before crossing the gully where the tail wreckage lies to eventually arrive at the area where the Javelin impacted.
View back to the western end of the windfarm.
Crossing the tail's gully.
above and next 8 photos:-Found it this time! The arrow above is pointing to the gully below Jeffries Corse.
Another good example of the varying corrosive properties of different types of metal
View north from the Javelin wreckage.The location of the
gully where the other wreckage below Jeffries Corse can be found is again arrowed.
After dropping down off Emly Bank back onto the Landrover track in the River South Esk valley I was subjected to the only downpour of the day, which although quite heavy didn't last very long, it was then a case of frog dodging the two mie back to Gladhouse Cottage before passing through Moorfoot Farm again where dissapointedly there was still no sign of Mick.
Gladhouse Reservoir with King Athur's Seat and Edinburgh off in the distance.
While back at the car getting changed I received a text from the Meadowbank Stadium to tell me Heather had pulled a blinder in her first champioships of the year, finishing in third place in the Line up in both the Championship and Premiership competitions.
Heather (no 808)and Emily with their trophies from the UKA Championships.
