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Journal: |
After a 7:30am breakfast, I left the hotel around 8:15am and
walked down the waking high street of Falkirk on what promised to be
a beautiful day. The sun was shining, but it was pleasantly
cool and I was looking forward to a shorter day. After a
kilometre or two, I met the Forth & Clyde Canal and began following
its towpath westwards. The canal surrounds were park-like and
there were many people out exercising or walking to work. On
the edge of town, I came to the Falkirk Wheel, which marked the
intersection of the Union Canal, which I was following yesterday,
and the Forth & Clyde Canal. The former 25 metres higher than
the latter. When originally built, they were apparently
connected by a stair of 11 locks which ceased to operate in 1963,
when the canals fell into disuse. In 2002, the canals were
reopened for recreation use and National Lottery funding was used to
build the unique wheel. It was certainly an unusual piece of
engineering and I was fortunate to see it in operation as they
"warmed up" for the day's pleasure cruises. I hung around
watching for a while, but decided to get moving just as coach loads
of tourists began to arrive for the cruises around 9:30am.
I then ended up walking for a steady three hours along the Forth
& Clyde canal without a stop in the warm sun, pleasantly tempered by
a cool westerly breeze. There were no boats at all along the
Canal, but plenty of people using the towpath for recreation -
walking, fishing, cycling, drinking - many of the men with their
shirts off exposing very pallid Scottish skins. I left the
Canal at Kilsyth, where I had to walk about two kilometres into town
before I found a pub where I could have some lunch and watch the
inevitable World Cup game. Kilsyth seemed a bit run down and
socially deprived. After lunch, I found a footpath that took
me back to the Canal for my last 10km of the day to Kirkintilloch.
It was getting pretty warm, especially when sheltered from the
breeze, and I was happy to finally get to the larger town, also
looking a bit run down, around 3:30pm. I could only find one
hotel, which looked a little pricey, but the manager took pity on me
and gave me a room for £40 instead of the listed £70, although I
could only have a continental breakfast if I wanted it before
8:30am.
I had a quick shower and then made more calls and online bookings
to finalise my accommodation for the next five days. Some
places were fully-booked and I now have a very long day tomorrow of
just under 50km, to reach the Rowardennan Youth Hostel. To
give myself a reasonable chance, I've decided to get a very early
start and skip breakfast at the hotel. I bought supplies for
breakfast and lunch at the supermarket on my way back from The
Wetherspoon's Pub where I had dinner tonight.
This may well be my last night of good internet and phone
coverage before John O'Groats in two and a half weeks, so daily
reports may come out in batches, at best. I'm heading into the
Scottish Highlands tomorrow and am scheduled to finish on Sunday, 4
July.
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