Hello

I’m back – did you miss me?

As you know we’ve been up in Scotland having a bit of a tramp around the place.  We walked lots of miles and I was very lazy and preferred drinking wine and reading good books in the evenings to shouting at the internet, which was very slow.  So I didn’t write much!

I thought I’d just do a summary here of the walks I haven’t blogged about and then hopefully I’ll get back on track and catch up.

We stayed in a little village called Tyninghame in East Lothian and had a lovely cottage called Sawmill Cottage. From here we tramped about around East and West Lothian and also ventured over the Forth Road Bridge to Aberdour and the RSPB reserve at Loch Leven.  It was all splendid and we even had dry weather for most of the time.

So….here are some pictures and a few words on our walks.

Enjoy

Rickety rambler xxx

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Aberdour and Loch Leven (5 miles)

Aberdour is a little town on the coast across the bridge; we visited the castle with its pretty gardens and then walked along the Fife Coast Path a short way before heading back to the town for lunch.

Aberlady (3 miles)

Aberlady is one of our favourite places in East Lothian with its estuary views and also the Scottish Ornithology Club at Waterside House (www.the-soc.org.uk/) where you can sit and watch the birds from the comfort of the library and where there is always wildlife art on display.

Kelso (7 miles)

We did an exhausting 7 mile walk around Kelso, following the beautiful River Teviot and even spotting an otter!  On this day, we did get caught out in the rain and spent a bit of time putting waterproof trousers and coats on and off!  And near the end we took a wrong turning and ended up walking a mile down a busy road before finding our way back to the beginning.

The Pentland Hills (10 miles)

This was a mammoth walk for me!  It was actually 7 miles although it felt longer, but we’d already done a circuit of West Linton, a village just a little way off and, as we walked loads of miles I haven’t recorded I’ve rounded it up to 10!

We loved walking here, we started off alongside the reservoirs passing fishermen and being passed by cyclists.  We looked to our left and saw walkers ascending a massive hill, and breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t us!  Little did we know that we were heading for that hill from the other side!  We had our picnic on a collapsed stile halfway up a hill and then continued climbing, not just this one but 3 very high hills – each one appearing as we neared the top of the one before.  It was exhausting and hard on the feet going downhill, but great fun and just at the bottom, a lovely pub – the Flottistone Arms where we revived ourselves before heading back to the cottage.

East Linton – 5 miles

This was a much flatter walk in the countryside around East Linton, a lovely village in East Lothian.  The amazing Miss RR joined us and we had a lovely day – including lunch in the garden of the Smeaton Nursery Tea Room (well….half the lunch was in the garden and then the heavens opened and we retreated indoors).

Gullane Bents (3 miles)

This was our last day and we only did part of the walk as the weather was so lovely that we just gave up and laid on the beach soaking up the sunshine.  However, we managed to find some driftwood for Mr RR and wandered about the beach, part of which is a nature reserve.

So – that’s it for Scotland for now.   I hope you enjoyed this quick look at where we went.  Normal service will be resumed now I’ve recovered from all those mountains I climbed (and all the wine and cake!)

Total miles walked this year – 500!! Hooray – half way there!