John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 023 - Innerleithen to Melrose

Day: 023

Date: Thursday, 23 June 2022

Start:  Innerleithen

Finish:  Melrose

Daily Kilometres:  31

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

Total Kilometres:  671

Weather:  Mild to warm, cloudy in the morning and mostly sunny in the afternoon.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Egg & salad rolls

  Lunch:  Tuna & cheese roll/Sweet chilli chicken roll

  Dinner:  Kebab & salad, icecream

Aches:  Both tired.

Highlight:  The early morning climb up to Minch Moor was relentless, but the views from near the top (we didn’t detour right to the top) were spectacular.  We could see a very long way to the west, north and east - mountains and valleys, farms and forests, villages and towns.  Added to the views was the sense of history, knowing this trail had been in use for over 1,000 years.

Lowlight:  As we were going to bed last night, there was some kind of pump failure in the old hotel’s sewerage system and our bathroom was flooded with effluent (sorry if you are eating breakfast!).  Another room was found, with difficulty (it’s a long story), and about 45 minutes later we were in a clean room with a working bathroom.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

As planned, we skipped the hotel breakfast so we could get an earlier start and bought fresh made rolls for breakfast and lunch from a bakery across the road on our way out of the village around 7:30am.  There were a few runners about, but no mountain-bikers, despite Innerleithen being a big mountain-biking centre.

The first few kilometres took us through some of the forested ancient royal hunting estate at Traquair, before we joined the Southern Upland Way for the long climb on the ancient old road up onto Minch Moor (see above).  Our route then mostly followed the crown of a broad open ridge giving us great views in many directions and a sense of having it all to ourselves.  In fact, given we saw no other hikers or cyclists at all during the day, apart from when passing through villages/towns, we did have it to ourselves.  It was a fabulous morning of hill walking and we felt lucky to be there.

Around lunchtime, we descended to cross the River Tweed and then were lucky enough to find a picnic table in the woods for lunch as we climbed back into the hills.  More great scenery followed before transitioning from the sublime to the ridiculous as we passed through the town of Galashiels with its traffic, huge stores and people.

The Southern Upland Way then followed a boring bike path for a few kilometres before a lovely last short stint along the River Tweed to Melrose and our accommodation which we reached soon after 4:00pm.  Yet another really good day.

 

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.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 021 - Linlithgow to West Linton

Day: 021

Date: Tuesday, 21 June 2022

Start:  Linlithgow

Finish:  West Linton (then bus to Biggar)

Daily Kilometres:  40

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

Total Kilometres:  607

Weather:  Cool to mild and overcast all day

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Bacon & egg sandwiches

  Lunch:  Chicken, bacon & mayonnaise baguettes

  Dinner:  Fish & chips/Chicken nuggets & chips

Aches:  Both still a bit under the weather with head colds, tired feet

Highlight:  Getting back into the heath and grass covered hills during the afternoon after a few days of canal towpaths and suburbia.

Lowlight:  Arriving in the village of West Linton at 5:45pm at the end of a long day to find the only hotel in town, which had told me two days ago they had no vacancies for tonight, with a sign outside saying “Rooms Available”.  Instead, we had to wait for 40 minutes at the bus stop outside for a bus for the 20-minute to the next town, Biggar, where I had booked a hotel for the night instead.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We were walking by 7:00am and soon rejoined the Union Canal towpath which we followed for the next two hours to the village of Winchburgh where we bought breakfast and ate it on a bench in the park across the road from the store.  It was still overcast and cool, which was good for walking, but always a bit chilly when we stopped.

After another hour of towpath walking, we left the canal for the last time at the village of Broxburn and, following our navigation app for the next few hours, walked on a series of busy roads, quiet roads and marked walking paths, through industrial wastelands, brand new housing estates, farmyards, historic parkland and farmland.

Our route was taking us around the southern side of Edinburgh and eventually we joined an old droving path that made us feel like we were back in the highlands again.  Not that the mountains were steep, and if we looked back we could see the Edinburgh suburbs and the pillars of the grand Firth of Forth bridge in the far distance, but it felt like we were leaving civilization behind again.  The path, which was quite rough underfoot in parts, gradually climbed up to a low pass where we took our last break for the day before gradually descending towards the village of West Linton.

By this time it was getting late in the afternoon and we were ready for the day to be over as we trudged down the long quiet rural road to the village.  We were disappointed to find we had to wait a while for a bus to Biggar where we had a hotel room booked and it was 7:00pm before we finally checked-in.  We’re now into our last few days in Scotland.  Time is flying!

 

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 020 - Auchinstarry to Linlithgow

Day: 020

Date: Monday, 20 June 2022

Start:  Auchinstarry (after train/bus from Edinburgh)

Finish:  Linlithgow

Daily Kilometres:  33

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

Total Kilometres:  567

Weather:  Cool to mild and mostly sunny.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pastries

  Lunch:  Tuna & sweetcorn sandwich/Egg & mayonnaise sandwich

  Dinner:  Chilli chicken & rice/Beef & Chinese vegetables & rice

Aches:  Both still suffering bad head cold symptoms

Highlight:  In an otherwise fairly boring day’s walking along canal towpaths, two pieces of canal engineering, one new and one old, were the highlights.  The first was the Falkirk Wheel, opened in 2002, which raises canal boats 35m, replacing eleven lochs (taking a day to transit) dismantled in the 1930s.  The second was the Falkirk Tunnel, 630m long and built 200 years ago which takes the Union Canal under part of Falkirk.  It was dank, fairly dark and very atmospheric with water dripping from the ceiling the whole way through.

Lowlight:  Poor health for both of us took some of the enjoyment out of the walking today.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We woke at 6:00am after another fitful night’s sleep, both with head cold symptoms and not feeling particularly motivated, and left our accommodation around 6:45am.  It was a lovely walk through a relatively quiet Edinburgh on a beautiful sunny morning to Waverley Station where we arrived just in time (running the last 20m) to catch a train departing at 7:15am.  Julie, who was trying cough discreetly into her neck buff on the train, was clearly not popular with the young guy across the aisle and he soon donned a mask.

We left the train at Croy, caught a bus back to the Clyde & Forth Canal where we finished on Saturday, and began walking eastwards.  The weather was perfect and the rural scenery pretty, but the paved towpath seemed to go on forever.  However, we made good time and just before noon reached the Falkirk Wheel (see above).  It was apparent that a tour boat was soon to be raised on the wheel, so we found a bench at a good vantage point and had a break waiting for the action to start.  Eventually it did, with one tour boat being raised while another was lowered using the very clever concept.

We then climbed up to the Union Canal, to which the boat had been raised, and walked through a short tunnel at the same time as the boat.  From there we followed the Union Canal towpath eastwards reaching, after another couple of kilometres, the Falkirk Tunnel (see above).  While we were walking through, a group of touring cyclists with loaded panniers, who had ignored “Cyclists Dismount” signs, passed us coming the other way, only managing to do so on the narrow path because we pressed ourselves hard up against the wet tunnel walls.  Not very polite.  In contrast, we had some very friendly conversations with other walkers and cyclists we encountered during the day.

After more of the Union Canal we detoured off, following the route suggested by our navigation app (Maps.me) for the last four kilometres, to our accommodation in Linlithgow.  In town, coming the other way on the other side of the road, we were amused to see a group of shirtless schoolboys on their way home showing off their lily-white Scottish tans.

We checked into our hotel around 5:00pm and later had take-out Chinese from the shop next door.  Train strike tomorrow.  We would have been in trouble if it had been today.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 019 - Auchinstarry (actually Edinburgh)

Day: 019

Date: Sunday, 19 June 2022

Start:  Auchinstarry (actually Edinburgh)

Finish:  Auchinstarry (actually Edinburgh)

Daily Kilometres:  0

GPX Track:  Click here and here for Julie’s Strava & Photos from her runs/walks today.

Total Kilometres:  534

Weather:  Cool and partly overcast.

Accommodation:  Out-of-season university student accommodation.

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Pastries

  Lunch:  Pastie/Macaroni cheese pie

  Dinner:  Lasagne, apple strudel & custard

Aches:  Both have heavy head cold symptoms - runny noses, blocked sinuses and head-aches, coughing and sneezing.

Highlight:  None really.

Lowlight:  None really

Pictures: No pictures today.

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We both slept long and fitfully in the narrow student bed before Julie got up at 7:00am to go for a short run, which turned out to be more of a walk.

The balance of the day was spent doing laundry, booking accommodation for the next ten days and catching up with correspondence and admin.  Dave never left the room, while Julie couldn’t resist the temptation to go for another short walk in the afternoon.

Hopefully, we will feel better tomorrow when we catch the train/bus back to Auchinstarry and resume walking. 

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 018 - Drymen to Auchinstarry

Day: 018

Date: Saturday, 18 June 2022

Start:  Drymen

Finish:  Auchinstarry (then bus/train to Edinburgh)

Daily Kilometres:  38

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

Total Kilometres:  534

Weather:  Very changeable with some sun, some cloud, some rain and a brisk cold wind.

Accommodation:  Out-of-season university student accommodation.

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Breakfast sandwiches

  Lunch:  Tuna & sweetcorn sandwich/Cheese, mayonnaise & onion sandwich

  Dinner:  Scotch broth, Chicken & bacon pasta bake, Cheesecake

Aches:  Both have head cold symptoms and not feeling great (did I say that, currently, it is estimated that one in thirty Scots has COVID!).  Both have tired feet.

Highlight:  None really.

Lowlight:  None really.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We left our hotel around 7:00am and picked up some food and drink for breakfast from the village store on our way out of town.  Unless breakfast is supplied as part of our accommodation deal, our preference is to walk for a couple of hours before taking a breakfast break.

The early walking was the most interesting for the day.  Initially, our route followed a very quiet country lane giving excellent views over the surrounding rural countryside, and then it joined a long footpath that seemed to follow a long-buried pipeline through more bucolic scenery.  Around 11:00am we stopped at the village store in Strathblane to buy supplies for the rest of the day and, shortly after, joined a very long rail trail.  Apart from the last few kilometres, which was dug up and closed (ignored by us), the trail was paved.  Although we made good time and the farmland, backed by grassy hills, was attractive, it became a bit of a trudge with both of us keen to get to the end.

From the rail trail, we joined the Clyde & Forth Canal towpath with more flat paved path walking on tired feet.  We were happy to reach Auchinstarry around 4:20pm, in time to catch a bus, then train (feeling very guilty every time we coughed) into Edinburgh where we are booked into university student accommodation for two nights, arriving around 6:00pm.  Originally, Julie (and maybe me) were going to run a race here, The Seven Hills of Edinburgh, tomorrow, but now that is not happening.  Julie didn’t enter in time and, as it turns out, doesn’t feel great anyway with her head cold.  She will still probably go for a run (try stopping her), but I’ll have a day of catch-up and rehab.  We stayed in Edinburgh four years ago and had a good look around then so I feel no pressure to sightsee.

John O'Groats to Land's End - Day 017 - Rowardennan to Drymen

Day: 017

Date: Friday, 17 June 2022

Start:  Rowardennan

Finish:  Drymen

Daily Kilometres:  23

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

Total Kilometres:  496

Weather:  Overcast and raining most of the morning and mostly cloudy and windy in the afternoon.

Accommodation:  Hotel

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Buffet continental breakfast

  Lunch:  Ham & cheese sandwiches.

  Dinner:  Scotch pie/Macaroni pie (shared)/Sausage roll, icecream.

Aches:  Dave - tired feet.  Julie - nothing to mention.

Highlight:  The views from Conic Hill out over Loch Lomond and beyond, as the rain cleared in the early afternoon, were spectacular and a just reward for the steep climb up from Balmaha and a dreary morning’s hiking.

Lowlight:  The smoke alarm going off in the hostel at 2:30am woke everybody.

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

Dave got the best deal in the hostel, sharing his male dorm with only two others, leaving plenty of room, while Julie’s dorm was full with little room for belongings or packing.  The whole hostel was woken at 2:30am by the loud smoke alarm, with most residents (but not Dave) making their way downstairs to assembly points, but it proved to be a false alarm.  The reason for the alarm was not explained, but I suspect someone was smoking somewhere.

Julie and I met in the dining room at 7:30am and ate our fill of the excellent continental buffet breakfast before getting our gear and leaving the hostel at 8:30am.  It was quite a miserable morning, with low cloud and steady light rain.  Some residents had already set themselves up in the hostel’s beautiful lounge overlooking Loch Lomond looking like that was where they were staying for the day.  It was appealing.

Less appealing was going for a swim in the Loch, as were two guys as we left the hostel grounds.

It was another day of two halves.  There was low cloud and light rain all morning as we followed the West Highland Way (WHW) along the loch through dripping wet and very green woods.  The trail was puddled and, in many places, like a stream underfoot, but there were good views of the loch and its shoreline, including some lovely little pebble beaches.  Nearer Balmaha, when the primary goal of the WHW seemed to be to keep walkers off the parallel road, we spent more time walking on the road, which was easier and drier.

At Balmaha, which we reached at 11:30am, we took our first break in a pretty shoreline reserve eating our lunch at a picnic table in continuing light drizzle.  It was quite dreary.  However, as if by magic, as soon as we finished our lunch and began the steep and long climb away from the Loch up Conic Hill, the rain stopped and the clouds lifted and began to break up.  A lot of day trippers had the same idea and we had plenty of company on the climb.  The views were great and well worth the effort.  The WHW didn’t go to the very top of Conic Hill, but close enough and the very top was cloud-covered.

From there the crowds disappeared as we walked eastwards on the WHW for the balance of the afternoon, before detouring to our accommodation in the village of Drymen at 3:30pm.  We were both very happy to have an early finish after our last two very long days, and we have a nice room in which to relax.