Day 54: Traquair House

Distance: 18.2 miles

I'm disappointed that none of our blog readers were able to find Waldo yesterday. Or maybe you did, but were too shy to comment. Or maybe, like Margaret and Larry, you're all "tell us about the sheep and the beer and the sore feet, and cut the crap" and didn't even look for Waldo! For some reason, we've noticed that Waldo is called Wally here in the UK editions of the books - no idea what's up with that.


During the first few weeks of the walk, I was worried that I must be falling apart physically. People kept asking me, "you all right?". I'd say to passersby, in my best brit accent, "hiya", and they'd reply "y'all right?". In the colonies, you would only ask someone if they're all right if they obviously weren't, for example, if they were bleeding profusely or stumbling drunk. For weeks I thought I must be looking terrible, and maybe the walking is taking a toll. But then around Manchester I realized that people here say "y'all right?" the same way we might say "how are you?" - just a polite greeting. So now I'm less worried.


In fact, physically I think we're both doing pretty well. We have some aches and pains. My left shoulder was achy for a week or two, I think, believe it or not, from reaching around the side of my pack every 10 minutes for my camera. That's worked itself out, but now the left side of my back is a bit sore. Nothing major. Dawn's had sore feet the last five miles the past few days, and has some new tender spots beside her knees. She's worried about the long miles we have in store the next couple of weeks, but I think she'll be fine.


Our rubbish weather continues (that's how they talk here). The sunshine of Shropshire feels like long ago. Today was the usual: grey, cold, and rainy. The rain comes and goes, but today it was more coming and less going. We did get lucky at lunchtime. We'd brought along our usual picnic lunch: bread, Cheddar cheese, apples, and posh crisps (sea salt and cider vinegar). Just as we were getting hungry, the rain stopped, the sky brightened a bit, and to our amazement, there in front of us a picnic table appeared! The rain held off just long enough for us to have a nice leisurely lunch. It was great!


A picnic table out in the middle of nowhere was a surprise, but not as big a surprise as it might have been a couple of weeks ago, in England. The Scottish really know how to take care of their walkers. The waymarked paths here are first rate, marked as well as the Cotswold Way, even on less major paths like St Cuthbert's Way and the Southern Upland Way. But the big difference is the benches. We can't get over the number of benches along the paths here! In towns and along the rivers, you can practically just leap from bench to bench. But what's really striking is how the Scots put benches even out in the middle of nowhere. Today, we were walking over a hill, a couple of miles from the town, up almost a thousand feet, in a little wood, and there it was ... and did we ever appreciate it!


And there's more than just good signposts and benches. We came down off the hill in the hamlet of Yair a little early for lunch, but feeling like we could use a bite, and almost stopped to get something from the pack, but instead we hit the Airy Fairy self serve cafe. We each had grape juice, and Dawn had a fat marshmallow cookie thing, and I had a caramel biscuit. Mmmmm. Thanks, Airy Fairy!


As you can see from the pictures, the Scottish Borders is a beautiful gentle landscape. We like it very much, even with the rain. Our walk today was in three parts: along a bike path, then a traverse from the Gala Water up and over to the River Tweed, and then along quiet paths and lanes to Traquair House, the oldest inhabited house in Scotland.


It's a huge mansion, with an amazing colorful history. There's been dozens of kings and queens who have stayed here over the centuries. The place is filled with portraits and antique furniture. They let out three rooms for B&B, and tonight we are the only guests. It's out of town, but we have extra bread, cheese, and chips, not to mention Mrs Crimble's macaroons, so we built a fire in the sitting room and ate and hung out there. They brew their own ales here at the house, so the sitting room comes complete with a cabinet full of beer!


In the front hall are antique curling stones. They look basically like the ones my Mom and Dad use, except with a rusty handle.


A little farther in, on the wall is the first known painting of people curling. How cool is that?


Just over from the curling painting are the bells for summoning servants - just like Downton Abbey! And I learned something new about bells like this. I learned that each one is a different pitch, so that servants who couldn't read could still figure out who needed extra clotted cream with their tea.


Tomorrow we have a short walk to Cringletie House. I think it's the fanciest place we're staying in Scotland. In their super fancy restaurant, we will celebrate the beginning of the final month of our three month adventure!

Location:Avenuehead,Innerleithen,United Kingdom