31st July 2023: Galashiels to Lauder – 16.0 miles
Two things struck me at 4.30 this morning. Firstly, I’m amazed I get any sleep at all at home – I must be very lucky and there must be almost no ambient noise once I drop off, because I’m very rarely woken up dead early in the morning. Secondly, while I’m walking I should probably go to sleep with the bloody earplugs in from the start, rather than, as I was this morning, hunting round in the dark, in the bomb site that is my room, looking for them. The window in my room doesn’t have a perfect fit and there’s obviously a leaky gutter somewhere nearby, as I was awoken by the sound of what I thought was somebody running a tumble dryer filled with rocks, but was actually water from the gutter dropping from a great height onto a tin roof of some sort. Once I found the ear plugs I managed to get another hour or two of mostly undisturbed sleep.
As I was trying to drop back off, a thought occurred to me and I now have a new plan for the last couple of days of the walk. However I won’t go into that now, and we’ll see how things pan out closer to the time.
I have breakfast booked for 7.30 and then I can relax for a little while as I have a good choice of buses to get me back to the point on the path where I finished in Galashiels yesterday. The weak side of my brain did try and convince its stronger counterpart to just skip that bit today and head straight for Lauder from Melrose. However, I think it would nag on my conscience and I’d end up regretting it, if I didn’t start back at yesterday’s finish point. It would be too big of a gap in the GPS tracklog and it would haunt me every time I looked at the map of my long distance walks. The weather forecast says it’s going to rain all day so I might as well get wet for five and a half hours instead of just four hours, it kinda won’t make any difference at the end of the day.
I’ve just finished a reasonable cooked breakfast, it wasn’t a patch on yesterday’s, but there was more of it. It’s fairly obvious (and a shame) that it wasn’t cooked by the chef who was working last night – the gammon and eggs was loads better than the eggs and bacon this morning. Don’t get me wrong, my body is a temple…. in which many pigs have been sacrificed!
Miraculously, the trouser press ‘hack’ sorted the socks nicely! About 7am, I realised that the radiator in my room just needed to be turned on, to produce heat, so I set my boots on top of it and cranked it all the way up, and by the time I was due to leave, the boots were sorted too. I set out in dry socks and boots, and within 20 minutes, my toes were swimming again. It was nice while it lasted though!
I set out into the rain, wearing baselayer and coat, and with my fleece towards the top of my pack in case it got cold during the day. I caught the 9.30 bus back to Galashiels and alighted in the rain at the fire station, just across the road from where I stopped yesterday. I decided to cut across to the Southern Upland Way path, cutting a small corner off the path, but not a massive cheat, and one I could live with. I had a little faff in the bus shelter, starting my GPS recordings and packing away the Kit Kat Chunkys I’d purchased in the Spar on the way to the bus. I reckon I’ll be drenched by the time I arrive at my B&B, so my plan is to try and eat when I arrive in Lauder, then go the B&B at 4pm and then basically stay there, in bed preferably. I’ll have the Kit Kat(s) as an evening snack if I get peckish.
The first mile or so of the walk was on the pavement beside a very quiet lane, slowly leaving Galashiels behind and heading for Melrose. I passed a sewage works (I think there’s always at least one sewage works on every long distance path I’ve ever done) and then walked beside the railway for a short distance and crossing the Tweed, which looked like it was running very full. Once I’d left the train station and some office buildings behind, the path dropped down to the riverside and became thin and slippery, but a bit more appealing. I was adopted by someone’s thin, whippet-like dog, the owner being a long way ahead on the path, head down and going strong, while the dog was having his own interesting sniff at everything he passed. As I walked past him, he trotted along happily at my side. Together we soon caught up with his owner and for a few yards the dog kept following me, until the guy called him back to heel. I was kinda glad, I wouldn’t subject anyone (or anything) to what I was about to do – walk for another 13 miles in the pissing down rain and cold wind!
The path is quite scenic as it skirts the Tweed, passing fisher folk, up to their crown jewels in the cold grey water, fly fishing or other bedraggled folk dutifully walking their dogs. I could have taken a short cut and hacked off a huge mile or so of out and back along the river, but that seemed like too much of a cheat to me. I know it probably all sounds a bit arbitrary – some short cuts are OK but others are not – I can’t quantify it either, I don’t apply a specific calculation, it’s just that some short cuts are a cut too much, and this was one of them. I soon reached the Chain Bridge, which is the object of the out and back and I crossed to the other bank and cut back along it for a little way. All too soon I was joining a road and then cutting directly north, climbing up a long steady farm track. From mile 4 to mile 12 the walk today felt like a Cheshire ramble – lots of fields, lots of farm tracks, the occasional farm yard and nowhere to sit. You get these days on all the big long distance walks, they normally take you from one good section to another, so hopefully tomorrow will be better.
It hadn’t stopped raining since I stepped out of my hotel, but as I approached a stile under some trees near the wonderfully named Deadwife’s Grave, I took a short break. It was very muggy here, almost warm and the trees kept the worst of the rain off, so I had a couple of Tunnocks and a glug of juice. I didn’t stop for long, the flies were pretty incessant and the only way to shift them seems to be to out pace them, so I was off, faster than a fly.
The next few miles were pretty uneventful, just a series of long, straight, farm tracks or field side paths. The rain would sometimes ease off a bit and other times it came down like stair rods. My Terrapants (thanks autocorrect, but I’m not wearing terrapins!) don’t shed the water for long but they are supposed to dry out quickly, the rain today however, had completely overwhelmed them and they were sticking to my legs, making them feel quite cold.
About 10 miles in, I bagged the trig point at Fordswell, the first item of interest, other than an unusual gate latch, since leaving the Tweed. I knew that a little bit further along I needed to keep an eye out for the 11th Southern Upland Way kist. I knew this looked like a pair of boots, Roman legionary’s boots in fact, so I was looking for the metal Ultrea plaque on a marker post. Problem is there weren’t any marker posts, just SUW blazes on gate posts. I eventually spotted it, but the post had obviously been toppled at some point and when it had been righted, the Ultrea plaque wasn’t orientated with the direction of the path, so I didn’t know if the kist was ahead of me or behind me. I hunted along the wall for a while, in both directions from the post, but didn’t find any boots. The rain was in one of its leathering it down moods, so I couldn’t be arsed hunting for too long. I was a bit annoyed, as I’d now been foiled on the last two kists, despite having my hands on the last one and not realising it until someone told me the secret later! I have 9 of the 11 so far, with two more to find before the end.
The path gets interesting again at the 12 mile point, where it turns right above the very picturesque valley of Herriot Side. From here there’s stuff to look at other than sheep or grass or puddles – the valley dropped away to my left and the path hugged the upper right side and although it was treacherously slippery in places, it was the best path of the day and even though it was chucking it down, I managed to get a couple of pictures of it.
From there is was all downhill, both figuratively and literally, into Lauder. I followed a thin track into a small car park and then along a lane and out into the town square. It reminded me of Moffat, a similar feel and a similar layout. It was 2.20 and I went into the first pub I saw – it may well be the only one in the town for all I know. I was told they were still serving food (just – I’d beaten the cut off for lunch orders by 10 minute) so I ordered a steak and ale pie and a pint of Black Sheep, as if I was in Askrigg or Hawes!
The pie had a floater crust, but let’s not be too judgemental, it was actually very tasty and I had a second pint of BS to wash it all down. At 4pm I headed for the B&B and a hot shower! I kinda like the attention you sometimes get when you present yourself to a traditional B&B, absolutely drenched and looking very sorry for yourself. Margot gave me the exact response I was hoping for – she was all sympathy and did everything short of hug me when I arrived, dripping on her doorstep. I was all self deprecating, ‘it’s been a bit damp, but I’m fine, just need a shower’ and so on.
I have two radiators and they’re both pumping out heat, so the room smells like wet socks again, with added hints of wet boots and the unmistakably subtle taint of wet underwear. I should have dry socks and boots for another 15 minutes tomorrow! Things just don’t get any better!
I don’t dare look at the forecast for tomorrow. I’ll leave that treat until the morning. In the meantime, here’s a quick body update…
Feet are fine again. After feeling very battered from the long, fast road walk at the end of day 1, the soles are feeling fine again now. The outside heel on my right foot twinged very slightly this morning, but I’ve not really felt it much today. I’ve left the boot loose at the top and secure across the rest of the foot and that seems to have sorted it.
I have a very small blister on the underside of the pinky toe on my right foot, where its neighbour toe pushes it into the side of the boot, but that’s from walking in wet feet all day every day, and it’s no worse today.
My shoulders were a bit sore yesterday afternoon, although the pack wasn’t as heavy as it had been on day 1 or day 2, but aches and pains do tend to surface after 3 or 4 days. They felt fine today, so no worries there.
I’m not in bed yet, but I will be soon!