A Little Bit of the John Muir Way

We were invited to stay for the weekend with John and Sandria in Edinburgh so while the girls went shopping John and I walked 6.5 miles of the John Muir Trail from Portobello to Musselburgh. It was a reasonably nice day and an excellent walk along a route I had never been before. We waited 5 minutes at Preston Lodge Bowling Club at the end of our walk and got a bus back to Sandria's house in Portobello. Linear walks are very enjoyable when you can get a bus back so easily. The photo above is the start of the walk at Portobello beach

This is Fisherrow Harbour near Musselburgh 

The river Esk as it enters the Forth

The sports pavilion at a famous Edinburgh Public school called Loretto.

Edinburgh in the distance and Arthur's Seat 

This arrow was here to assist trainee bomber pilots to line their aircraft up for targets in the Firth of Forth during the Second World War.

A Tale of Two Burns

Our Wednesday walk today took us to the Parish of Canonbie and two of its more famous Burns the Byerburn and  the Rowanburn. It was just a 6 mile section of The Canonbie Walk from the Langholm & Eskdale Walks Booklet. It took in the Fairy Loup which was in spectacular form today as the burn was in flood. 

The Fairy Loup 

My little bauld patch showing on this photo

The road up through the Fairly Loup was well carpeted in autumn leaves

From the path above Rowanburn Head farm the Langholm Hills in the distance were well covered in snow.

Tom crosses the Rowanburn and is still managing to walk with a tea cosy on his head.

A Buzzard keeps an eye on us from a tree near the path 

In a field next to this cottage at Rowanburn were these sheep. I am not sure what kind they are but they were very friendly.

This hen followed us and eventually Tom fed it with some small bits off his Apple. It looks a fine example of a free range hen in excellent condition and very friendly. We had a coffee at Lang Sandy in Rowanburn and then followed there old railway line down to Rowanburnfoot and back into Canonbie but my phone camera battery had run out so no more photos. We ended up in The Buccleuch Centre for lunch.

An Autumn walk from Keswick

It was only Tom and myself available today as the others are either abroad or unavailable so Tom decided we would go a bit further afield and do a walk from last weeks Cumberland News near Keswick. The weather was perfect and we set off and parked at the Theatre by the Lake car park at the exorbitant rater of £7.50 for 4 hours parking. Sheer daylight robbery. The walk however was superb and the instructions given by the author Vivienne Crow was excellent. We went the whole walk without falling out once over directions so they must have been good. Tom is walking along a flood protection embankment for the river Derwent. 

The river Derwent from the suspension bridge.

Almost at the half way point. The smoke in the distance was from a group of volunteers cutting gorse on the banks of the Newlines Beck. The river bank has been overgrown with gorse and these volunteers have a tough job on hand getting rid of it but they are doing a great job. 

Derwent Water in the distance

Walking down the road to the village of Stair. 

An old Bridge over the Newlines Beck

A gamekeeper has been busy getting rid of vermin 

This is a new bridge just completed over the Newlines Beck and they have made an excellent job of it. It's good to see there are still some craftsmen about. 

During the course of the walk we were buzzed several times by Trainer Jets, Fast Jets and just as we got near the end of the walk this Military Cargo Plane which was the only one I managed to photograph.