John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 022 - West Linton to Innerleithen

Day: 022

Date: Wednesday, 22 June 2022

Start:  West Linton

Finish:  Innerleithen

Daily Kilometres:  33

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  640

Weather:  Cool to mild and partly sunny.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Full Scottish breakfasts

  Lunch:  Pastie/Mexican chicken roll

  Dinner:  Pizza

Aches:  Dave - tired feet.  Julie - still suffering with the head cold.

Highlight:  Julie was keen to see some last Highland cattle before we left Scotland, but it didn’t seem likely today.  Then “lo and behold”, not only a field full of Highland cattle, but our route turned to actually go through the field so we could get up close and personal.

Lowlight:  None really, though we were a little disappointed that buses were few and far between so it took us longer than we would have liked to get back to West Linton in the morning.  We didn’t start walking until nearly 9:30am. 

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We slept in a little as breakfast, included with the price of our room, was not available until 7:30am.  We ate well, then had to wait until about 8:50am for the bus to take us back to West Linton.  We bought a few things in the very old village and then, after a few kilometres of backroad walking, joined the Old Drove Road for the remainder of our journey to Peebles where we intended to have a late lunch.

It was a lovely walk, gradually climbing into the hills through sheep pastures and then descending through a beautiful pine forest before a final climb onto the side of an open ridge with spectacular views down to the town of Peebles.  The weather was clear and warm enough for us both to be hiking in T-shirts and shorts.  Along the way we met Simon, just 35 days into his journey from Lands End to John O’Groats.  We had a nice chat and he was keen for our views on the John O’Groats Trail.

Many houses and streets in Peebles were decorated in red and white bunting and flags as, apparently, it is their annual Beltane Festival.  We didn’t quite grasp what it was all about, but it lasts a week, has been going for more than 100 years, and was definitely being embraced by the local population.

We bought a very late lunch in the historic town and ate it on a park bench in the sun near the River Tweed.  Perfect.  From there we walked our last 11km of the day on grassy trails and bike paths following the river downstream.  Along the way we passed the fine-looking Cardrona Golf Course and crossed the river several times.

Finally, just before 6:00pm, we reached our hotel in the small village of Innerleithen with tired feet but having had a great day.  The landlady asked us not to eat take-out food in our room, which was a bit irksome, so we bought a pizza and ate it in the bar as she had suggested.

Continental breakfast is included with our room price, but is not available until 8:30am, so we might skip it so that we don’t have another later start.