Braving the cold

With the arrival of the snow this week, walks that were in my mind had to be shelved. I've been itching to complete my final two stages of the Borders Abbeys Way but even I had to admit that persevering through the snow would've been silly. Jedburgh, Hawick and Selkirk will always be there for me to walk between them.

The Munros too, will always be there. Although I'm taking part in a winter skills course at Glenshee next weekend, the events of yesterday at Glencoe are a humbling reminder to us all that we cannot beat the weather.

With that in mind I've focused my efforts on getting out and about as much as possible, walking where I can, and building up the miles so that 96 in one go in March won't feel like such a shock.

Having thoroughly enjoyed the 13 miles on the Water of Leith last weekend, I was always tempted to do it again this weekend. However Saturday took Dave and I to Peebles where we took a snowy stroll at Glensax.

Peebles and the Tweed

The clouds and the sky were doing some pretty amazing things, so we enjoyed the changing views as we strolled.

It was quite slippy underfoot but we took it easy before turning for home. My Granny should offer tea and cakes to passing walkers - we certainly had our fill and were greatly appreciative!

From Peebles we made our to way to West Linton for a week-early Burns Night celebration. Not the last of January's haggis intake, that's for sure!









On Sunday we decided to venture slightly north and take a wee stroll on the Fife Coastal Path. I realised that just like the Borders Abbeys Way I'm building up the FCP in stages, having walked from Crail to St Andrews and from Leuchars to Newport-on-Tay. Today I thought I'd give the first bit a go - or the former 'first bit', starting at North Queensferry. However Dave and I decided to make it even more interesting and park the car at South Queensferry. Neither of us had walked over the Forth Road Bridge before, and today seemed like as good a day as any to give it a go - it was blowing an absolute hoolie!

It was certainly a bracing - and at times terrifying - adventure, full of interesting things to see. Sail boats, rowing boats, trains on the Rail Bridge, spot the Stobart truck etc. There was also the ice-cream headache to contend with - it was freezing!

Soon we reached the other side and made our way through North Queensferry to pick up the Fife Coastal Path.

It was nice to get bielded from the wind for a short time, but it wasn't long until we had the coast on our right and the wind in our faces. The path took us through a nature reserve and past a former WW1 jetty. It was nice to stroll, passing dog walkers along the way.

Soon enough we stumbled upon two houses, not far from Inverkeithing but seemingly in the middle of nowhere. All of a sudden we heard a very loud noise; my first thought was a train. However, in the garage of one of the houses, there was an almighty drum and base dance party going on. At midday....it was unbelievably random, and very entertaining.

We had hoped to walk to Dalgetty Bay and planned to retrace our steps when we got there. We could see it in the distance and it didn't look too far. However...having walked a bit further, we realised the path went massively inland to Inverkeithing before it reached Dalgetty Bay. The path took us past a quarry, and an ugly metal recycling yard. By the time we'd reached the Royal Burgh of Inverkeithing, we were feeling quite uninspired, and weren't inclined to continue walking. I was also freezing, having underestimated just how cold it would be (duh).

So we turned south, and made our way back. Past the loud dance party, and back in view of the Rail Bridge. We also saw a guy in a wetsuit practicing his 100m sprints on a wee beach at the back of North Queensferry.

We made our way over the bridge once more, arriving back at the car 3 hours after we'd left, reckoning we'd done around 8 miles.

I couldn't feel my fingers, and my feet were not much happier. I'll be layering up more next week in the snow!

I'm pleased to have experienced another different walk, and although we didn't make it as far as we'd hoped, three hours in the bracing icy east coast January wind was plenty. After a busy week it has been nice to get some good fresh air and less time on my bum!