Day 26:
Day 26: it's half nine and I'm lying here in the Stagshead B&B, South Queensferry, admiring the Forth rail bridge (the red one). I can see all the way up the Firth out to sea. The beach is under the window. It's a beautiful day and I made it. I left Innerleithen at 09:00 and walked along a disused railway track for 5 miles to Peebles. From there I found the Old Drove Road that went into the hills, arriving at West Linton at about 3 after some decent climbs. I then walked up into the Pentland Hills, pink with heather, crossed them, and by 5 I had my first magnificent glimpse of Edinburgh and the Firth of Forth. Sadly the excellent trail died in the bog which I had to extricate myself from and walk up the nearest A road till I found Kirknewton. By then I'd walked about 30 miles yet there was no accommodation to be had anywhere due to the Edinburgh festival. But I had summit fever by then. Despite her best efforts Sarah could not find me a place to stay so I thought I'd just walk all the way to Queensferry with the intention of sleeping rough. It was only another 9 miles, I felt strong...it would mean I could complete this section of the walk in 3 days instead of 4...why not? But she didn't give up, 4 miles to go and I had a room (I turned up at 11 pm). That made the effort worth it. Thank you Sarah! Stats: 39 miles, 14.5 hours, 3 o/s maps. 1 full Scottish breakfast with 2x butter toast, 1 can coke, 1 can iron bru, 2 bottles coke, 3 litres plus 500ml water, 1 medium choc shake, 2 x SIS recovery shakes (100g protein/carbs), 1 medium fanta, 1 pint lemonade, 500 ml orange juice, 1 cereal bar, 1 double cheese burger, 5 sandwiches, a lot of choc peanuts, 1 bun, 1 ice cream and Carlisle to South Queensferry in 3 days - get in!
DAY 27
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| Peebles. |
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| Highland cattle near Romannobridge. |
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| The Pentland Hills. |
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| Harperrig Reservoir. |
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The trail disappears into bog.
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| You can just make out the new Forth Bridge and the red Forth rail bridge. |
A note about the blog
I must be the only LEJOGer without a smart phone. This means I don't have the ability to update this blog when I'm on the trail. My support team back home kindly offered to update the blog for me, so this will be communicated by text message and written up on my behalf. It will therefore be brief and without photos. I will expand on this when I get back from my journal entries, dictaphone recordings and photo journal. The detailed account will be published as a book which will be available on Amazon.
Charity
Thank you to everyone who has made a donation to
Helping Hands for the Blind, a respectable local charity. You can make a donation
here. Using Gift Aid, the charity is able to claim an additional percentage of each donation from the government as part of the
Gift Aid scheme.
While I am not tracking how much has been raised, the charity themselves may wish to do that; leaving a note with your donation such as "LEJOG" will help them do that. To be frank, it's more important that they receive donations than it is for me to take credit; they're actually doing something important whereas I am going on what could be described as a holiday.
My books
Lastly and leastly, I am an independent author. Writing is a pleasure even if reading it isn't! I will write an account of my LEJOG journey in the form of a book which hopefully will encourage other people to give LEJOG a try (and probably discourage many more). If you want a copy, the first batch will be given free of charge. Ask and you shall receive...
My other books are available on Amazon:
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