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Journal: |
I had a bad night, waking a number of times with pain deep inside
my bad right knee. I must have given it a hard time descending
from Eildon Hills yesterday. Paradoxically, it continues to be
more painful when I'm in bed than when I'm walking. I got up
at 6:45am and left the hostel at 7:15am with the goal of walking to
Galashiels, about 8km away, and finding something for breakfast and
buying food and drink for the remainder of the day. Rather
than follow the rather fiddly guide-book suggested path, I chose a
route that was a mixture of roads and a bike path on a disused rail
line, and reached Galashiels around 8:45am. On my way into the
centre of the town, I passed a Super Tesco store which boasted a
cafe and decided to get my breakfast and supplies there. I
felt quite alien wandering around the aisles of the large
brightly-lit store with my backpack and more than a little out of
place in the very quiet mezzanine cafe where I got a "Scottish"
breakfast at a reasonable price.
From Galashiels, my route followed the Southern Upland Way which
climbed westward over a range of mountains on pleasant pathways
passing through conifer forests and along treeless ridges, much of
the latter over 400m with just fantastic views in all directions.
There were also some well-marked mountain bike trails which looked
enticing. The climbs weren't too steep and I made reasonable
time and decided to stick with my plan of making it a long day and
aiming for Peebles where I would have more accommodation options
and, hopefully, mobile and internet coverage.
I left the Southern Upland Way at Traquair, where I passed
Traquair House, supposedly the longest continuously inhabited house
in Scotland (more than 1000 years and visited by 27 kings and
queens). The guide-book now suggested some complicated
off-road options for getting to Peebles but, since they didn't visit
anything special and were longer and harder than the road option, I
decided on the latter. There was a bit of traffic on the road,
which made it a bit unpleasant at times, and walking on tarmac for
12km can be tiring for the feet, but there were views and things to
see and I made good time.
I arrived in the attractive Tweed River-side town of Peebles soon
after 5pm and, after walking up and down the main street, picked the
cheapest-looking hotel with accommodation I could see and got a
room. I had dinner at a nearby pub, bought some food and drink
for tomorrow (no resupply options along the way), and returned to my
room to watch the Italy v Paraguay match while updating my diary.
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