Day 1 - Kirk Yetholm to Harestanes

Day 1 is in the books. The last 5 km were not easy, but Ben finished strong, which forced me to try and keep up.  We are in the tent resting and eating, and will be headed to bed soon.

Day 1 - The Scottish National Trail

There was a little bit of everything today - sun, rain, wind, repeat.  The views right off the hop were very beautiful.  Huge rolling hills, lots of sheep and cattle grazing, and little villages sprinkled around.  This part of the SNT follows St. Cuthbert's way - I read the history but forget it right now.  It does piss me a off a little picturing old St. Cuthbert walking what we did in his sandals and a robe.

We stopped at a little town called Morebattle  a third of the way through and had a drink at the Templehall Inn.  Ben had an Irn Bru, I had a half pint of Bellhaven's Best.  Jojo, sorry but I am not going to lie, it tasted delicious.  At about the halfway mark there were the remains of Cessford Castle.  We couldn't go in but were able to see the 4m thick walls from the outside.  Hard to believe it is still standing.  The last few kilometres was along Dere Street, an old Roman road that runs between Hadrian and Antoine walls.  We are now camping  just south of the River Teviot, under a big tree in an open field.

Day 1 Wild Camp

Lessons learned from today:

Stop and eat more food!!!

The pack covers were a good idea (Thanks Mandy!)

You can battle thorns in Scotland as well as France. (Sammy, you would have laughed!)

Veggie haggis is not that bad!!

Thanks for reading, everybody.  We are off to Melrose tomorrow where we will be staying in a campground.  Night night!