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September

 

mushroom

Giant mushroom

Walk leader

Ron

Route

Tweedbank - Stow (by train) - Lauder Road – Girthgate – Threepwood – Bluecairn - Southern Upland Way to Tweedbank station.

Weather

Exactly as forecast. Overcast at first, progressively more sunny and warm.

Walkers

George, Ron, Sandy, Lance, with guests Jeanette and Martin.

Excuses

Ashley - at final Barrowburn ceilidh

Bernie - in Rome

Michael and Michelle - in Spain

Richard and Diane - getting ready to go to Croatia

Julie - in Bradford

Comments

This was the longest group walk for a long time, decades perhaps, at 14 miles.

We started with a short two-stop train journey to Stow on the newly re-built border railway. We saw bantam hens in gardens in Stow. It was a steep climb up the Lauder road out of Stow. We passed a camera-shy Highland Cow and several curious calves. We found a man washing his car by a cattle grid and using water from a trough. Then we turned off the road on to wet and muddy paths.

Lance was in paradise on discovering several huge mushrooms (Sep, Slippery Jack, Bay Bolit), which he collected We rescued a ram trapped between a field gate and the gatepost. However, we realised immediately afterwards that we may have pushed him into a field of ewes – but we had no choice. There was a bird trap nearby.

Our lunch stop was against a wall with an electric fence. There were good views of the Eildons, Cheviot and wind farms. We deviated from our plan after lunch, taking a slightly longer route, but we managed a short shortcut at Blainslie via an old saw mill. We also passed an old telephone exchange with a chimney for a wood burning stove, an alarm and a keypad entry. There was an odd signpost which gave the distance in kilometres, while all the others were in miles.

Wildlife: Swallows, buzzard, butterflies (1 peacock), rabbit, lots of cows and some Jacob’s sheep.

Meal

King’s Arms, Melrose. Nice meal, friendly service.


Photo Gallery

heather

Heathery paths

lance

Look what I've found!

giant

Giant

walking

Through the rough

 

view

View across the fields

 

southern upland way

Southern Upland Way

 

group

Walkers by the signpost

 

way

The way ahead

 

distant

Distant village

 

river

River view

 

 

 

 

 

 

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