Day 68: Peebles to West Linton (13 miles)

 I set off at 9am with breakfast starting at 8. Ideally I would have liked to start earlier as I thought this could be a long day. Having checked out the maps I realised that the digitised route was following one that the End to End book no longer followed - instead it took the Cross-Borders Drovers Road. The old route went over the Meldons with a fair amount being pathless - I decided there must have been a good reason for the change so I would also follow the Drovers Road. I’m glad I did - it was an attractive route with some stunning scenery of the Southern Uplands.

Before I’d gone 100 metres, I was stopped by a man who had cycled LEJOG and wanted to give a donation. We chatted for a bit and then he called over a woman he knew who also gave me a donation and chatted a bit longer.

The route took me by a Premier store where I bought my lunch and headed out of town - an elderly lady with a gentleman struggling to get into his wheelchair called out a very cheery good morning to me - what a friendly place this seemed!

The track climbed to a grassy knoll where I paused to admire view and a horse with a farmer and her friendly female sheepdog stopped her quad bike for a long chat and putting the world to rights. She told me the Meldons were terrible for ticks and causing them real problems with their sheep - they had done all the lambing indoors this year and would only start turning them out now they were bigger. But it was a much better year than last which had been tough with all the rain ….. still they were looking forward to the rain coming through at the weekend!

I then met Danny who had been walking from JOG since 16 April following the same route as me but heading south to avoid the midges! He had made the same decision to use The John O’Groats Trail and Great Glen and enjoyed them although he did warn that The John O’Groats Trail was “different”. When I questioned him further it seemed for him it was the nearness to the cliff edge that bothered him rather than the fences which he said were easy to climb over.

It was a relief to contour up to some woodland for the shade as the sun was hot, and so couldn’t believe it when I then met someone else for a chat! This time, a lady on pilgrimage from Iona to Lindisfarne, staying at each for 3 nights, book-ending her walk. So a very sociable morning and I wondered how my progress was going.

However, I felt very relaxed, and didn’t feel the need to rush. The views were too lovely to hurry. I entered a deep forest plantation as I climbed over the ridge to Corhope.  Grey moss smoothed the rough edges of the ditches to either side of the path and the sunlight filtering through the branches shifted as a gentle breeze passed through. Rather than silent, the woods were filled with chaffinches singing.

I emerged at Corhope and the half way point for the day just before 13:00, and having worked my way through some more woodland on a narrow path, stopped for lunch above the small brook of Flemington Burn, listening to the chaffinches and willow warblers. I revelled in the warmth knowing that in a couple of days the changeable weather would make dawdling a less attractive proposition. I set off again at 14:00, but couldn’t resist settling back down for awhile at a wooden bench overlooking the Meldons. It really felt as though I was in the heart of the Southern Uplands - beautiful - and I felt very much at peace.

I continued up along the Burn through the pasture, noticing the shale outcropping at the ford. A grassy path gradually brought me to some more mixed woodland and the top of the ridge before dropping down to Romano ridge and the final couple of miles to West Linton at 15:45.

At this point the Drovers Road does a rather strange and pointless deviation, and I opted to simply follow the road into the village, which looked like it would cross some interesting semi-stained marshland. Sure enough I heard and saw sedge warblers on reeds along the way. Then I heard a strange racket and couldn’t work out what it was. The ChirpOMatic app came to my rescue - grey heron. This was confirmed when a pair flew up and out of the trees above me.

I arrived in the village at 16:40 and did some shopping at the Coop (clearly still having supply issues following the cyber-attack) for tomorrow’s breakfast and lunch before checking in at Gordon’s Arms. A very comfortable room but rather strangely the inn doesn’t do breakfast.