Thurs 13 April (0740-1455) (Jedburgh to Melrose)
Distance: 17.5 miles (Tot: 444.5)
Weather: some sun, some light rain, much warmer than yesterday
Leaving Jedburgh on the Thursday morning we found that there were quite a variety of routes that headed the same way as we were going:
To the River Tweed we went, where the most memorable five minutes of the trip occurred. We had stopped to don waterproof jackets (completely unnecessarily as it turned out, the drizzle stopped as soon as we had them on) when I caught sight of some movement out of the corner of my eye. One adult otter and two pups fishing just a handful of metres away from us.
Here’s a cropped and zoomed version of the adult. I did take some video, which looks fine on my computer but in the small format on You Tube doesn’t really work.
A while later the Eildon Hills came into view. They stayed in view until late the following afternoon! At the time that I took this photo I expected that we would walk between the right and and the middle lump. When we got there, we decided to go over the top of the one on the right. A good decision, methinks.
Before we got to the Eildon Hills, we walked a while down the River Tweed (where, stopping for the lunch we had bought in Newton, I had my first experience of a Macaroni Cheese Pie). A while later I was so taken by the blossom that I failed to notice a tree root in front of me and caused Mick’s eyebrows to raise, and maybe a mumbling about watching where I was going, as I stumbled.
Reaching St Boswells we had to wonder whether the council offices there win the prize for the least attractive building in Scotland.
As a complete contrast, everything looked good from the east top of the Eildon Hills, where I sheltered behind the cairn from the brisk wind.
There were clear paths up to the other tops too, but we didn’t investigate them.
Instead we made a meal of navigating our way the short distance into Melrose. One hundred and thirty three wooden steps featured as we made our final approach.
Abbeys were feeling like they were ten a penny at this point.
The original blog post for the day can be found here.
So jealous of that otter! I caught a glimpse of one whilst we were in Orkney, but until I've had a view like yours, I still won't feel like I've seen one.
ReplyDeleteWe might have seen an otter last year, but it was such a fleeting glimpse that we couldn't be sure. This little family was kind enough to hang around for about five minutes giving us a thorough display. I'm smiling just at the recollection!
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