Feeding the Ducks

When I was a boy, I used to visit my Gran and Aunties house every Saturday. From the end of their road, a footpath led down to Kilmardinny Loch and we would always take my Aunts dog for a walk. I remember I used to beg my Gran for some slices of bread to take with me so that I could feed the ducks on my way around (although I think I used eat as much of the bread as the ducks did!)

Today I was visiting my Aunt who still lives in the same house and I took her wee dog out for a walk around the loch with my dad (SuperGrampa) and my brother-in-law (who has now been renamed SuperUncle). Much as it was nice to go out for a walk and a chat, as ever I had an ulterior motive, there was a cache just off the footpath around the loch, Suburban Sanctuary.

Kilmardinny Loch was once at the centre of the estate surrounding Kilmardinny House. After being owned by a succession of Glaswegian merchants and the Glasgow MP Robert Dalglish the house was donated to East Dunbartonshire Council. Today it's a centre for arts and culture and the loch is a public park and nature reserve. Although part of a designed landscape, the loch itself is believed to be a natural feature formed as the ice of the last ice age retreated. It's shallow with four islands and is a haven for wildlife and a popular location for fishing due to it's abundance of perch and roach. The surrounding park land boasts a variety of different habitats in which species such as otters and bats have been recorded as well as a number of rare plants.

This is a lovely place to come for a short walk at anytime of the year and an ideal place to feed the ducks with the kids. The path around the loch is flat and accessible (although at the time of writing this there is a collapsed tree blocking the route).

If that doesn't sound like enough of a reason to pay the area a visit, an excellent play park has recently been built and, of course, there's a cache hidden here too!

Talking about the cache, it was a simple find. Following the footpath around the loch brought me level with the cache coordinates and I soon spotted the second part of the clue. Leaving SuperGrampa and SuperUncle behind, I scrambled up the short slope and spotted the first part of the clue. My first reaction was "oh no it could be anywhere!", but my cachers instinct took over and a lack of moss on a certain item screamed out "look under here!".

This is cache number 166 for the SuperCollectors, number 3 for SuperGrampa and 1 for SuperUncle (hopefully the first of many??).

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