Day 41- Three Brethren and Two Cousins

 

I was following the Southern Upland Way all day today, another long distance path. This one runs for 214 miles from Portpatrick on the south west coast of Scotland to Cockburnspath on the east. I've never heard of either place and will definitely be avoiding the latter. The section today, from Melrose to Innerleithen, crossed high moorland but was well way-marked and the weather was much kinder than the forecast.

The first few miles followed the River Tweed before running alongside a railway line. I passed by Tweedbank Station, the end of a line with a deserted platform. It was somewhat disconcerting to suddenly hear King Charles' voice boom out wishing me an enjoyable journey. I've not been reading any papers or watching television, so it was only by chance I heard on the radio this morning that this message was being relayed throughout the country, otherwise I may have thought Suzanne had had a word with His Majesty to provide a special request.

I soon reached Galashiels, walking past the famed Gala RU ground. Indeed, there have been impressive rugby stadiums in each of Jedburgh, Melrose and Gala but I have lost track of how the Scottish RU system works. They certainly don't have their results on Grandstand anymore.

I was meeting my cousin, Peter Hands, in Galashiels. Peter lives near Lockerbie now and had started his journey at 6.30am, parked his car at Innerleithen and then caught a bus to Gala to meet me around 9.00am, an effort that was greatly appreciated. Neither of us could remember when we had last met up outside of a family funeral. Fortunately, I was dressed in black so he had no problem recognising me.

We had plenty of ground to cover, both physically and metaphorically, and we set a cracking pace, despite plenty of climbing. We were chatting so much, it was lunchtime before I took any photographs and I hadn't given a second thought to the sights we had seen along the way. We paused at the summit of Three Brethren, marked by the three large cairns above, taking the oppotunity to catch our breath whilst talking to another couple of walkers. 

With a few undulations, we stayed high on the moors for most of the day, although the mist cleared in the afternoon. A perfectly timed bench appeared for lunch, where we could hear the unmistakable sound of the cuckoo, my first of the walk so far.

By the time we were on the forest track down to our destination, it was a bright, sunny day, not the deluge predicted by BBC Weather. I have found their forecasts to be unreliable, bordering on useless, during this walk. I don't know what technology they currently use but I'm sure forecasting was more accurate when Michael Fish counted the number of cows sitting down on his way to the office or John Kettley telephoned his grandma to see how her knees were.

The highest peak was Minch Moor (567m), where Edward I led his army in 1296 as they 'rampaged through Scotland' a little like Peter and I were doing. By 3:15, we were sat outside the van having a cup of tea, having covered 20.5 miles and 965m of ascent. It makes a big difference having a walking buddy - you don't notice the hills half as much when you are chatting - it was great to see you, Peter!

I'm on a Cross Borders Drove Road for most of tomorrow, when thunder and lightening are predicted. Shorts and t-shirt for me. 

                                                                        Minch Moor

Whilst we didn't take many photgraphs today and I have only found out this week that I can post videos, I thought I would add the one below from Day 34, when Rachel and I were climbing up Cauldron Snout.