Hike to the Dunes: A Wee Bit of a Sad Ending

Joe and I just came back from our hike, and it was quite the walk...I estimate we walked 6 miles from our cottage to where we were in the dunes. Joe took some pics, so you could share a bit of the hike. We didn't find Bobbi, but the area of the dunes is exremely vast, and we could only cover a bit of the distance, because of my legs. Here is the hike. Hope you enjoy it.

As I said in my previous post today, since we couldn't use the styles, we had to take the longer hike through the forest that diverted the styles and would take us to the dunes. Here is the forest we entered.

As we got to the end of the forest, we came to the gate that would lead us to the dunes. As you open the gate, it is a bit like Dorothy would have felt when she first entered Oz. New Lake was in front us, and I felt like Dorothy entering an enchanted place. It was cloudy and misty, but quite lovely.

Suddenly, we saw a horse. It was a brown horse like Bobbi, but he was not wearting a winter jacket, as we knew Bobbi was, so of course it was not him. I was a bit disappointed, but hopeful that if I saw that horse, Bobbi would be somewhere around

We saw the dunes in front of us, and there was the first one that we had to climb. As you can see, they are rather steep. I had my cane with me, which would help me with the climb, and up we went. All the time calling for Bobbi.We saw a few other horses, but Bobbi was nowhere to be seen. There are many horses out here in the winter, so we were not surprised. We passed by some lovely streams, and there was so much green grass and lovely fields surrounding the dunes. The is the best place for horses in the winter....As I said, there is a lot of shelter, and so we just took in the scenery.

It started to rain, and Joe left me at the field to rest after we climbed the first dune. He climbed the next dune to see if he could see anymore horses, but when he came back, I knew he hadn't found Bobbi. We could have found him if we had proceeded further, but to get to Tramore Beach ,which is at the end of the dunes and a total of 12 miles, was impossible for me now.

We walked back to our village, which we could see in the distance. Both of us were disappointed, but we will have to wait till the weather gets a bit better next week where we can spend longer at the dunes and hopefully find him. He has lots of company...tons of horses, good grass to feed on, lots of shelter, and he is much happier there, but I will sorely miss him ... giving him his carrots and oatcakes , petting him and talking to him... but this is so much better than the smaller fields he was in, where the grass was no longer growing. He has miles and miles of freedom. Maybe, next time, we will find him.

PS: In response to Cheryl's comment, I thought I should add this. Bobbi is not lost. He was purposely put in the dunes area for the winter feed, as there is tons of grass by the dunes. We just wanted to find him and visit with him a bit. At the end of the winter, he will go back to the smaller fields near town. Anyways, hopefully we will find him to just get to say hello and give him some wee hugs.