Day 49 (20.4 miles)

Melrose to Innerleithen
– Another windy one

I woke to bright warm sunshine, which was good because it had been quite cold in the night in my tent. It took me a while to get moving and packed up because I think I was still quite tired.

Today I’d be using the ‘Southern Upland Way’ to take me west towards the West Highland Way. My morning stroll on the banks of the Tweed was very pleasant, I even had to take a layer off as I was getting quite warm.

Once I’d passed Galashiels the ‘way’ takes you up in to the hills and through pine plantations then after crossing the Tweed for a second time the climb to Three Brethren trig (464m) begins. Zigzagging up through the forest protected me from what I’d be faced with at the top…

At the top I found it difficult to breathe, let alone take a photo, the wind was that strong. On the descent it was difficult to walk on the loose rocky path whilst being blown around.

I think I had to walk about 3 miles in the open hills with no protection from the freezing wind, and as I began the climb up Brown Knowe (523m) the real test came, hail. The hail was almost horizontal (this is supposed to be June) – not fun. I thought that if anything happened to me here I could be in real trouble.

Reaching the next plantation gave welcome relief. The map shows forest all the way to Traquair but on the ground some of the trees have long been felled. I was now on the Cross Borders Drove Road and walking north of the summit of Minch Moor, which gave some protection where trees didn’t.

I was very keen to get to my accommodation the ‘Traquair Arms Hotel’ which turned out to be in Innerleithen (adding another 1.3miles to my day). But once there I was rewarded with a massive room, I had a sofa, an arm chair, a massive double bed and in the large bathroom, a bath. ✔️

Some stats:
Mileage count: 846.9
Pint count: 187
economy: 36.2mpg
Malt Whisky count: 11