Day 26 - Edinburgh - Eddleston

Yet again, good intentions were there to wake early but it just didn't happen, luckily Karis rang up at the unearthly hour of 8am, I was confused as i had forgot ton that Becks had put her sim card in my spare phone (yes 3 phones is a necessity) Karis thought i was Becks and apparently i went along with it, I was too tired to know what was going on! I handed the phone to Becks and Karis told me to stop impersonating people! However we were up and walking by around 10am, which for us is actually pretty good! 

Getting out of Edinburgh was never going to be easy as there was loads of roundabouts and main roads we had only been walking for around half an hour when I was having problems with the chaffing at the top of my leg (due to being so bored on the union canal my body needed something to do) so we stopped on a bit of green and administed some first aid, first aid done Becks went to put on her bag........... 'Beck, I think you have poo on your bag' I was in stitches and found the whole situation really funny, however at the same time i tried to act concerned as if it had happened to me, i would have frankly, been narked off! There was a big clump of dog poo attached to the bottom of the bag and the buckle, it was sneakily disguised as wet grass as the green had just been mowed, It looked like beck was going to use her hand to wipe it off, i was horrified! BECK, STOP! Luckily leki pole was in hand and i managed to scrape off the clump, but it left behind a skid, we then got big leaves and tried to wipe off the rest of the evidence, Becks then tried to do a not so funny poo psych, and psyched me that i had it on my bag! Not at all funny. So far this simple but funny situation has been the highlight of the walk so far!

Anything now wrote just can't compare to the poo story, however we were supposed to be walking a long a disused railway track but as usual it didn't really exist and no one knew where it was, we luckily met a very helpful lady in Sainsburys Petrol station who gave us very good directions to get us to a town called Roselin, we must have bee walking for about 3 or 4 hours but actually only covered about 2 miles! It was ridiculous we were walking but didn't seem to be getting anywhere! We finally got to Roselin and needed directions to get to Peebles, we walked in to a pub, one of those where you open the door and everyone inside stops what their doing and turns around to stare at you.......very intimidating as it was full of men! We went to the bar to ask for directions and they all kept giving us different ways of getting to Peebles, when we got outside we were pointed in the right direction, we had them somehow gathered an audience, as we put our bags on and sorted ourselves out everyone from inside the pub had came outside for a cigarette! 

Yet again people lied to us and told us Peebles was only 13 miles away. Wrong. It was 18, and Scotland being Scotland, it rained. There was really loud thunder as well  and the sky looked really angry! We have walked for 8 miles or so and came across a very inviting cafe/restaurant which had pot of tea wrote all over it, yet again we used and abused the facilities i think i even stole a whole roll of toilet roll - the trip has turned me in to a thief! Hayfever was getting bad and being caught out with no tissue was not even an option, we also plugged in all electrials and made sure everything was fully charged :) Mum would have been proud! 

Peebles was about 10 miles away and i didn't really feel like i had 10 miles left inside of me as my ankle was almost unbearable to walk on - i had been limping all around Edinburgh the previous day. I mentioned to Becks that i hadn't seen any gloves on the road today, since starting at John o Groats we had noticed that Scotland is just littered in gloves! Gardening, industrial, latex, everyday wear, they were everywhere! Scotlands hands must be cold! We noticed the first glove as Becks thought it was a hand sticking out of the ground! The glove mention could not have come at a better time.......100m down the road we saw what can only be described as the biggest glove in the world. It was absolutely huge and as Margret described it - a shrek glove! It was the mother of all gloves, i had to pick it up off the floor with my bear hands as the sheer weight and size of the glove was too much for my lightweight carbon leki pole! It was big things were living inside and under it! (Pictures on facebook) I made Becks walk back to have a picture with it, I would have carried it home but it would have slowed me down! We found the glove absolutely hilarious and I must have been laughing for about 3 miles. 

We started looking for a place to wild camp, there were so many inviting lush green flat grassy fields but whenever we knocked on any of the farm houses no one answered! Luckily we bumped in to a couple who were just on a walk and they recommended a bit of common land in a small village where they lived called Edderstone they said we would be able to set up the tent and no one should mind, he owned a field opposite and said if anyone had a problem with it them we could bunk in the field with the sheep! As we got the tent set up he came back over to us and said if we needed to use the toilet just knock on the door - of course we were going to take him up on this offer, people should now realized if they offer us something, whether they mean it or not, we will probably take it. Becks was a dum-dum and didn't put the matches in a dry bag, so dinner was looking doubtful, she went to the house and they gave us a brand new box! Life savers!


We went back to the house to use the toilet and do our teeth before bed, we were hoping 10pm wasn't too late, he invited us in to come and sit in the lounge with him and his wife, it was so cosy! They made us a cup of tea and fed us chocolate biscuits we were watching the news and reading the paper! It was all very civilized! He told us to come back in the morning and we could use the toilet before we went, so it turned out to be a very lovely evening!