Walking 1000 miles from Lands end to John O'Groats in aid of The Air Ambulance (starts april 7th 2024)

Tuesday 26 August 2014

Day-22 long haul!

Bit of a late start sees me negotiating tiny farm tracks and more elusive os map black dotted paths! These ones not too bad, after a longish drag uphill to Wester Shieldhill it's 9.30 and I'm really just starting this is where I push to finishing catching up with the first day I need to claw back from Alfies return home... Going to be a long one!
The whole of the rest of this mornings route is on road threading through curvaceous farm land, and rough boggy land with only the company of farm animals expecting feed and the chirp of flocks of birds to distract me, pleasant but fairly anonymous landscape after the mountains, by lunch i'm at Blackridge and the first food stop of the day and a chinwag with home.
A couple of kilometers and I'm in Harthill briefly then over Polkemmet moor with the tall slag heaps of past industry and new woodlands of the pasts replacement. Provisions purchased at Fauldhouse and the road south west takes me past more huge slag heaps, South East and over the A71 at Headless Cross who's name is far more exciting than the reality! Just a farm bearing the name.
Traffic dodging up to the top of Black Law hill and the impressive array of wind turbines in the picture at my count is 52!. Down hill to Forth for end of the day food and a further push of about 1km sees me past my planned stop and now only one day behind schedule. After a 20+ mile day I'm well happy! Obviously a big feed is needed now to maintain this then sleep :-)