A departing look at Jedburgh Abbey, which, as you can see was quite grand:
The boys coming to greet me:
Walk today was pleasant in every regard. One did have to keep sharp AT ALL TIMES not to miss a turn, and there were many, but other than a few returns to the previous marker, and some insecure forays across large fields, and eating a clementine at a particularly confusing intersection of vague paths, or non-paths, as the case may be, hoping some dog walkers would show up to offer consejo—which they did!—it was a good day out in the countryside:
I did not have to brake for I saw nary a one:
Reacquaintance with the Teviot, after ignoring Hornshole Bridge but before passing Cocklecooty Cottage (a place on the map, I swear, but not in view):
Just love Bank House, the place I am staying in Hawick! Elegant, discreet building that used to be, would you believe, yes, a bank! This is the front door:
Mirror in the front hallway:
After going up the wide, red-carpeted stairs, one ascends this private, handsome staircase (1857), to a gorgeous bedroom that has two easy chairs, a big bed, tables to put things on and a nice large window:
The woman who owns/runs the place is extremely nice and let me check in at 12:45 when I arrived. She told me tales of people who got terribly lost walking the walk I did today—and I can see how that could happen; miss one turn and you are screwed—but it made me feel very accomplished!
It was such a treat to have a cup of tea and something to eat, take a shower, walk about town and shop for dinner at Morrisons instead of the usual CoOp, and RELAX. Yesterday was the nadir of exhaustion. Feeling much better today. 14.75 easy miles, no rain, barely a hill, little anxiety, piece of cake!
Hated to leave, but off at 6:00 a.m. to Selkirk, penultimate destination of the Borders Abbey Way.
Farm:
Whorsie deciding if he wants to walk, too!
In another field were horses with the longest tails ever:
Came upon some very fresh lumbering and thought, "Ya know, there should be a diversion here," because for about 1/4 mile had to navigate log jam, which was reminiscent of boulder fields back on Arran Island; they, however, were much more challenging. Here, you had, for help, a non-electric fence whose wires you could hold onto, the top layer was barbed, but you could use the area between the barbs, and there were posts every so often. It was slow, but not horrible. Anyhow, at the end of this unexpected challenge was a stile into a field and a notice ON THE OTHER SIDE that one should follow the diversion (unmarked) while logging was taking place!
Hay:
Selkirk is a town that has many many cars going up and down the main street, but none are stopping for anything, this being Sunday, and, consequently all shoppees closed. ¡Muy raro! Where might all these vehicles be headed? But speaking of shops, there seems to be, in this area overall, an abundance of stores selling carpeting and stuff like that. No store where you can buy replacement hat, but if your floors are looking shabby, why, you will have lots of choices.
Selkirk does have a little museum that tells of life here yesteryear. A person does have to be reminded de temps en temps that the goode olde days were not so good. This was a master bedroom:
Shoes. Until recently, Selkirk produced a lot of shoes because available were plenty of animals that provided hides and oak trees whose bark was used in the tanning process:
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