Aberfeldy to Blair Athol 2/6

From our amazing wild(ish) campsite we descended into Aberfeldy for provisions and a quick look about, glad we did as this town is the place where clan chiefs loyal to the English/British  crown gathered troops to form the Highland watch now known as the Black Watch! To keep clans loyal to the Scottish crown in check.
The B road (again!) To Strathtay meanders along the Tay valley sadly on the opposite bank of the river to the Dewars distillery :( , with high hills either side the view is never dull, and upon reaching Strathtay a quick ice cream powers us up and over the hill to Pitlochry in the next valley over a pub lunch and we head west towards Killiekrankie (oh jimmy where are you now? Tee hee!) Along the lovely Loch Faskally through well tended woodland paths with sunlight now making the leaves glow! A lovely sight.
The path does run out at killiekrankie and we have a couple more hours on the road to Blair Athol a scenic village at the foot of Glenn Tilt where we will head into the wonders of the Cairngorms! If you don't here from us for a few days don't worry, we're heading into the wilds!  Woooohooooo!

Perth to Aberfeldy 1/6

Before I start to go on about today I'm just gonna break a mould I  know that my pet hate seems to be cities but things change ok?
Having had a rest day at Perth with all the usual camp chores finished ie repairs and washing we caught a bus into town on a sunny bankholiday Monday to find ourselves enjoying a quiet but still busy centre, no graffiti , tidy streets and a really pleasing vibe to the place! Plenty of parks and an old but well designed layout to the road system with grand buildings on all sides, you can really tell this used to be a capital city and that its still loved!
The campsite we stayed on had an equally nice vibe the place was spotless the two wardens couldn't do enough for you and it seemed that by the time we left everyone knew us by name with beers being given to us and our neighbours who left while we were in town left us a nice bucket barbie to cook on (sadly left this on site!) Oh the site is called "Noahs Ark" no idea why tho!.
Today!
After yesterdays sunshine todays drizzle is a shame but it is better walking weather.
So a stretch of footpath out of the site led us to a hop over the A85 into Almond Bank then into the pretty village of Pitcairngreen with its huge village green, from here a long long stretch of road walking through farmland past the usual animals and peacock with their haunting cries, to reach a turn onto single track road that runs parallel with Shochie Burn (great name!) This turns into a rutted track up Glen Shee for our first real taste of rough mountains ,tho the Scott's call them hills!, down and back onto roads towards Aberfeldy we pass our planned nights stop at 2pm so carrying on road walking we join one of General wades military roads by a land mark known as white cairn (of which there's neither s cairn or anything white!) The old road (dirt track) soon entered woodland where it degenerated into gooey squelchy bog....not easy or pleasant trust me! After two hours of this we leave the road(!?) Over a 12 foot high deer proof stile and hit tarmac walking past Loch na Craige a sign post pointed to a view point where we set up camp, with the sun setting we had a most spectacular view of the Cairngorms and nearer ranges, (names to follow and pic)

Kinross to Perth

Thought:- the Scottish right to roam seems to me to be a very clever way to stop people wandering, by law you can walk in most places in practice its just not possible what's the point of walking a field if its a battle to cross into the next with no garentee that you can get anywhere if you do !. Grrr
Rant over!
Out of Kinross and by main road (there do seem to be lots of paths along main roads very handy) to Milnathort and with views back over loch Leven and its surrounding hills we take B roads to Glenfarg , a notice board in town mentions that we are now as far north as Moscow ! Thankfully making better progress to this latitude than Napoleon managed!.
At this point it rains some more but really not bothered by rain anymore !
For a short two kilometers we get off road to take the Wallace road (path) over Dron hill to Bridge of Earn , arriving at lunch time alfie works his magic again and gets entry into s posh little restaurant called "The Roost" an excellent three course meal of a great vegetable soup , and shoulder of lamb presented better than I've seen and with good size portions ! Followed by a white chocolate cheese cake with mango and clementine topping , sublime! .
Amazingly this cost only 18 pounds with a pot of tea! I can't recommend this place enough!.
Spirits now on a high we walked the wide pavement along the A912 to Craigend where a footpath past fields of pigs and pigglets went over Kirkton hill and via a foot bridge over the M90 to present us with magnificent views of Perth and the snow capped cairngorm mountains which we will soon pass through.
Downhill through Buckie Braes a maze of twisting footpaths and into the suburbs of Perth and to Noahs ark caravan park for a pitch of two days with lots of rest ! Ahhhh!

North Queensferry to Kinross

Up nice and promptly with only a slightly thick head from last nights wine, and we are off leaving the costal path, very quickly we get lost in the suburbs while looking lost a chap named Patrick and his son Jack gave us directions, following these we nearly get arrested by saying four words " does Gordon live here?" Yep we'd found the ex prime ministers house! The armed guards were quick to move us on! Oh and the big black cameras were sure to have filmed our little brush with politics!
As we left town a car screeched to a halt in front of us, thankfully not the police but Patrick and Jack again with some food and a 20 pound donation ! .
This next section of the walk was allways going to be a bit too practical rather than pleasant and apart from a good chin wag with my sis during morning break , it lived up to this this was until we reached Kings Seat , here the planned path was along an old railway then via a forest road to Kelty it didn't quite work out, the railway was almost impassable but stuborn me got through , then on the forest road we came to a no entry sign , now with Scottish rights to roam this normally means no entry to vehicles so we climbed over and carried on the path and the forest quickly vanished to become a working, open mine, with one kilometer to go I wasn't turning back thinking it would be shut on a Saturday ......wrong! Luckily not a day for explosions! And as we reached the exit (passing a supervised area sign and cctv camera oops!) we made good our exit passed workers leaving for the weekend! Some odd looks came in our direction understandably !
Going into Kelty you can really see that this is a mining town the place felt hard as nails ! So we got out quickly, in doing so we met a chap named Bill (i think, sorry if I'm wrong!)  really friendly and interesting conversation.
Carrying onwards towards Kinross once again the plan went awry where we hoped to walk an abandoned railway again this time it was impassable so we stayed on the road for a foot crunching 8 kilometres, along here Bill passed in his car beeping and waving hello! Cheered up a tough bit of walking thanks.
Camp for tonight is at Gallowhill farm just west of Kinross.

Carlops to North Queensferry 29/5

A late start of 8.45 was nice especially with a full fry up inside ,we left our refuge from the storm and set of in bright sunshine up into the pentland hills.
A nice easy stretch of hill walking through curvacious hills then down again into Buteland , quite heavily populated area this with our path heading into wilkieston we set of along the road to newbridge pleasantly there was a pavement all the way. Passing over the M8 we followed an abandoned railway (pleasently rural!) to Queensferry accross the maginficent Forth road bridge and into North Queensferry a pub meal later, we tried our luck with a not so wild camp 2 minutes walk out of town.
Luck was really on our side here wuth stunning views of the Forth rail bridge we set up camp, to be greated by a local Jeremy Hawkins who mentioned that our pitch was an old barrage ballon site used to protect the railbridge in WW2.
Now Jeremy is a really top chap he returned later with a bottle of wine which we sat and drank looking over the Firth of Forth, as Jeremy told of local places of interest.

Innerleithen to Carlops 27/5

Setting of through the early morning activities of Innerleithen, we walk down to the river path along the tweed, after a bit of hair raising road walking we enter the golfing village of Cardrona where the old railway station has been converted into a shop/cafe never one to pass a feeding opportunity, tea and a cheese toastie boosted our breakfast, talking to Linda the owner it seems that J.P also stopped here.
Passed the ruin of Horsbrugh castle a stretch of woodland had been cleared and an odd youth art/village had been constructed.
Briefly into peebles for provisions then out again to Hamilton hill , with mountains around us we descend to an old drove road which takes us along Eddleston valley.
With huge banks of black cloud scudding towards us ,threatening and then delivering our first soaking of the entire walk we drag our soggy selves into the hotel at carlops where we were able to get a room (dog too ! ) and a meal to end the day .

Melrose to Innerleithen 26/5

Out of Melrose we took a more direct route than planned avoiding Galashiels with a back road uphill through farmland to a path marked on the map sadly not marked on the ground! Out comes the gps and we follow as best we can till a barbed wire fence beats us and we divert around a section of woodland and on to a b road descending back into the Tweed valley , crossing the river via the A707 bridge we pick up a river walk not marked on the map saving 2 miles of road walking, over the bridge towards Yair we pass the high road of the southern upland way (walked this in 2000) to follow a combination of tracks and tiny b roads into Innerleithen campsite.

Jedburgh to Melrose 25/5

After a peaceful rest day in Jedburgh we are on our own again John (j.p) has carried on with his route and our best wishes go with him , has been great listening to johns knowledge of fauna and flora, see you on the east coast mate!.
Walking north out of town we take a route signed the Dere street dash, very handy as after 2 kilometres we're back on said Roman road ,sort of the path winds it way along the banks of the river teviot to an impressive looking suspension bridge think this needs some repair as it bounces and sways alarmingly! Both relieved to reach the other side!.
Still winding on the path goes through the wooded grounds of Monteviot house where the route finally straightens out on its proper NW bearing over Ancrum moor the site of English / Scottish battles and the Lilliard stone where both sides came to make peace at various times.
Walking into St Boswells we followed the river Tweed , up into newtown st boswells to Eildon and between the major peaks of the Eildon hills for a panoramic view to the rear back to the Cheviot and to front over Melrose where after a brief descent we stopped for the night .

Byrness to Jedburgh 23/5th

After getting a DIY breakfast from the Youth Hostels honesty shop (love this trust in folk) of macaroni cheese ,high carbohydrate start to the day we set off in persuit of the Aussies who had 15 minute headstart on us ,the path soon became serious with an at least 45 degree ascent up Houx hill to about 1100 feet, there it levels out to a more managable path over "ravens know" and around to Chew green an old Roman border camp, with the blue sky and gentle breeze the walking is ideal.
With Dere street (a Roman road) underfoot we said our farewells to the Aussies who sang there goodbye to us as we crossed the border, sweet people :)
The Roman road now a slight path ran precipitously round Blackhall hill to leave us with a breathtaking view of Watch know and in the valley an inapproprietly  named farm called street house.....no street in sight!.
Down hill and out of the cheviot proper we forded a shallow river , past another Roman camp which we couldn't see, the path then keeping to Dere street followed the top of more linked hills past the five stanes stone circle, an old iron age hill fort (plenty of these around here!) To then join with a country road to then leave Dere street at a farm named Shotheids (found this name funny with a liberal abuse of the Scottish accent!) Roads all the way to Jedburgh (with a scarecrow competition in evidence) and we followed a path into the middle of town with views of the imposing ruin of Jedburgh cathedral. With a pub meal inside us J.P. Alfie and I settled into the pretty little campsite at the north of town, where J.P. will carry on with his trek as Alfie and I take another rest day.

The Boarder crossing into Scotland

(sorry!)

Bellingham to Byrness 22/5th

With Alfie getting free breakfast from a group of squadies of sausage and Bacon (lucky chap) we and J.P hit the local bakery for breakfast before heading off north out of town for an uphill route to allow us to sit on the hill and watch the Aussies walk up hill to join us on our moorland ridgeway walk to paddon hill then down to the boggy vale below it , catching our breath we had another walker pass us with a quick hello , this chap turned out to be another lejoger named Tommy Allan walking for help for heroes (pic).
The walk today then went downhill through forestry commission roads into Byrness valley then following the pretty river walk passed the church to the now closed "last cafe in England" now no more sadly, but as the Aussies were booked into the youth hostel we followed along, now this hostel is no longer in the Yha but it certainly benefits from this with a much greater understanding of walkers needs, with a two course meal for 8 quid and amazingly an honesty shop with everything you need . A supurb stop called "Forest view"

Twice brewed to Bellingham

Up today for a fryup at 8.00am with a surprise visitor, J.P. of lejogplod fame!  
Finally got too meet after walking 40 days ! J.P started the day after us and our paths never crossed till now!
Breakfast inside from the campsite cafe we went via road through Hadrians wall and with more great views we followed farm tracks through the hilly land north of the wall, then into forestry land for about 5 miles were we met a group of Aussies that J.P had met before, lovely group who donated to our cause! Walked all day with them and I could repay there generosity by route finding.
Regular pennine way route to Bellingham and now off for dinner with the gang!