Pics from the bottom up - Wet start in Moffatt; Damp morning in the borders hills; first view of the Clyde River.
Day 34 - Friday May 8th. The weather forecast was for heavy showers and rain in the morning, becoming increasingly windy during the day, and it was bang on the nail! This turned what we thought would be quite a tame walk into a bit of a battle with the weather as we struggled against a north-westerly head wind for much of the way: very tiring. After a very nice breakfast, which included haggis, we set off just after 9am through a rain-swept Moffat, then keeping to a minor road at first that was very quiet. John's leg was a bit sore but not getting worse as long as he kept to his own pace and we made good progress. All of the streams were running fast, and the wind was swaying the tree tops, but it wasn't too bad for us at this point. There was a short stretch on a farm track which became less defined as it wandered into the grassy hills, but it wasnt too long before it took us up to the A701. A minor road left this and took us between dark pine forests over the hill tops and it was rather a nice change of scenery for a while, with the sound of the wind in the trees in the background.
Our route then descended gradually into valley that contains the M74, main rail line and the old A74 which has become a bike route as well as a B road, and the noise grew as we got closer. The wind also grew, and from that point on, walking alongside the M74 was at times very hard work, with a head wind pushing us back and buffetting us, and longish rain showers, mixed with hail at times. Not very pleasant. Around lunchtime, the rain started to clear and we got some sunshine, but the wind picked up so it was sometimes quite difficult to walk. However, we both made steady progress along the cycle track. The first part of the walk up the valley was gently uphill, and the sides were covered in pine plantations, but as we entered Lanarkshire, these petered out and we started to go downhill with high bare hills with big valleys going off to the east and west. We had at that point come over a col into the Clyde Valley, which we will follow into Glasgow now. The Clyde is a young river here, fast flowing and shallow, through a countryside with wide open views.
After 15 miles, Crawford was the first settlement sitting between the motorway and the river where local services were signposted. However, this is a village that has not gained business from passing traffic as the the two hotels were closed, there was no fuel, but it did have an open shop where I bought a pie to keep me going. It was a couple miles more to our destination, Abington, which has a bit better set up, with an open hotel and situated in a wooded valley. The hotel is nice enough but was very quiet, so in the evening I spent an hour or two practising Scottish songs instead of playing for others.
Sadly the weather forecast for tomorrow isn't very good.
TOMORROW it is our first wedding anniversary and Lindsey is coming up for us to celebrate togther at New Lanark, so I'm have a DAY OFF!!! Hooray! So no post for Sunday.
John is going to walk on to Glasgow on Sunday and spend monday relaxing in a very good hotel, then we'll meet up on Tuesday morning to start the West Highland Way.
No comments:
Post a Comment