On Saturday 8th October we took the bus to Nine Mile Burn and began the second leg of our journey, this time with just Duffy the Dog in tow. Mojo stayed home with the girls and his heart condition. 😞 I hope we weren't responsible for that. He's 14 and has a heart murmur. Now every day is a battle to get him to take his heart meds (sigh. It generally involves sausages, famously great for the heart of course, him having rejected the chicken and fish options). But we still have him, 6 weeks after the vets were vehement that we should have him put to sleep. And he's in amazingly good spirits. Long may he reign.
We are using an app, Komoot, to plan our walking routes. Komoot (inspired name) has the whole of the UK and beyond mapped for walking and cycling. So where that other well-known mapping system would take us along the highways, the straightest routes, Komoot sends us off the roads, meandering through the countryside wherever possible.
After the bus dropped us off at Nine Mile Burn we walked along an old Roman road to Carlops.
We had a brief spell on the main road then swerved off and headed to West Linton where we had a tasty lunch at the Olde Toll Tea House and filled up our water bottles in anticipation of being away from 'civilisation' by the evening. A kilometre out of West Linton we picked up the Cross Borders Drove Road and headed towards Romanno Bridge.
The afternoon took us through a forest where we came across masses of fungi including puffballs and fly agaric and many others that we were less certain of.
The forest then opened out onto moorland and the rolling Meldon Hills, soothingly beautiful and autumnal.
Beyond the hills we went through a second forest, even more abundant with fungi, an incredible visual example of how trees communicate with each other via networks of mycelium, the Woodwide Web, as forester Peter Wohlleben has dubbed it. Or it was the work of fairies...
After 6 hours of walking, I was shattered, not being used to carrying a heavy backpack, and we started looking for a place to camp as the drizzle began.
Doofus couldn't believe we were going to sleep in a flimsy-looking tent and after we shoved him 'indoors' he had a minor freak out, shaking like a leaf, until we cuddled up and he went to sleep in a nest of my brand new sleeping bag, still stinking like the shit that he had persistently rolled in. Robert had tried washing him in puddles along the route but that was a task fit only for Sisyphus.
After we'd set up the tent, Robert, bless him, still seemed to have the energy to heat up our fish curry whilst I cosied up to the stinking dog. As Robert turned on the Primus, a tiny newt crept out of the grass under the stove.
As darkness fell and the temperature dropped dramatically we were warmly zipped up in our sleeping bags by 8.15pm (my earliest bedtime since childhood) with just the noisiest of tawny owls (practically in the tent with us) and night jars for company. At least we think they were night jars, could have been aliens. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOAGUfBFcvM
Next morning, we continued following the Cross Borders Drove Road for another two hours, reaching Peebles and completing our 19 mile journey. On our way we encountered a Peeping Ewe. Yes, Ewe!
We took the bus back to Edinburgh, which is a great way of seeing just how far we've come. Our future trips are going to take some planning as we'll need to be sure of returning from our end points, via public transport. We think our next journey might be Peebles to Hawick, will pick that up next Spring and hope for some warmth in March....watch this space.
Here's a self-indulgent picture of the canine croissants to finish as we go into winter hibernation (though in reality it's unnaturally warm right now....)
Pic 6 shroom looks like a cep. Were exactly was this wood then ;)
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