July 28, Dryburgh to Kelso

Since I had walked from Melrose to Dryburgh yesterday, I needed a taxi to take me to Dryburgh so that I could complete the last fifteen or so miles to Kelso. I did not sleep well at all last night due to excessive worrying that the taxi might not show up at 5:30 a.m.  It did.  At 5:50, we reached  Dryburgh Abbey and I was ready to get going.  But there was a problem.  A big one.  One might even call it a crisis!  Access to the path was blocked by a locked gate because the abbey does not open until 9:30.  I could not believe it.

I uttered a number of expletives.

I scaled the wall.

Then there was the worry;  what if I cannot get out at the other end? Fortunately, I could. (I cannot believe I scaled the wall!)  

After a bit, there was a choice:  Go the strict BAW along the edge of the barley field:

Or go crazy and walk along the river, after checking the map carefully, of course, to make sure that the river route connected with the barley route farther on.  It did

The price you pay for this is listening to the voice telling you every 30 seconds, "The route is 110 feet to your left.  You are not on the route.  The route is 120 feet to your left..."  Of course, I could stop the navigation, but these apps are so temperamental, that if you fool around with them you can mess things up.

The thing about today's walk is that it was excruciatingly boring.  90% was on "quiet, country roads," code for asphalt.  

I so think that a lot of my training is for situations such as this:  being able to deal with long periods of tedium.  Also, it was rainy, and muggy, and not rainy but still muggy.  Whileplodding along, I was so so relieved that I had decided to do that circular walk yesterday because— I don't know if I could have tolerated another five miles—and those first five miles were the hardest.

View of the day.

At last, Kelso!  First introduction to the town was the racecourse.  Then there is a golf course.  There is a building that houses curling, ice skating, roller skating, and some other kind of skating, I think.  This is a prosperous town, and probably the biggest one I have been in so far.

You remember that 60+ year old woman hiking the Appalachian Trail a few years ago who stepped off the trail to pee, got disoriented and ended up dying becaue she could not find her way back to the path?  Well here is a story about a hiker that is pretty freaky....only it has a better outcome.

I am staying at a place called The Old Priory (built in 1796) , in a big, old fashioned, gracious room, lovely woods and fabrics and draperies a nd rugs, all maybe overdone but just marvelous, and  there is a gorgeous garden, and I totally love it!