Drow 'n' Smirr

The big day! 29 miles of the Southern Upland Way, 10 hours, 1100m ascent

An early start since the event kicked off at 7am. David had stayed overnight in a tent, as had Elaine’s sister. When the rest of us arrived the the Navy contingent were already making breakfast.

St Mary’s Loch was hidden in mist and though the ground was wet it didn’t look like rain.

A great day. We milled about in the crowd at the start receiving the uplifting speech from the organiser and at 7.15 am we were on our way, making such good time that folk were warning us not to go too fast. The runners were supposed to set off at 9am but there were people running past us right from the beginning.

When we got to the top of the first minor hill, a shoulder of Hawkshaw rig, there were a couple of soldiers recovering by having a cigarette. I had thought that the army groups taking part would stick together but we often passed guys on their own, presumably left behind because of being too slow?

By now of course I was forewarned that Traquair was not at the bottom of the hill so I arrived in good fettle to find our support team, have a sandwich and change socks. We had quite a long rest and by the time we were away again I think we were fully recovered.

At the three Brethren we met a film crew who interviewed Joanna. The walk was going swimmingly well as far as Gala after which we were walking a route we had not tried before. The organisers decided to use psychological warfare against us during the final 5 miles.

We passed a chap who smiled, waved, congratulated us and said we had just 5 miles to go. Fifteen minutes later another said exactly the same thing. We walked past a sign saying Melrose 2 miles and 10 minutes later another saying the same.

By the time we finished, I was finished, unable to do anything more. A great achievement. I had worried that I would not be able to complete the challenge in 12 hours but managed with plenty of time to spare.

The Three Brethren

12.7 miles 4 hours 50 mins   523 m

Three miles of ascent at the beginning really does take it out of you, but there are many miles of downhill to recover. The hill from Yair then gets you at the end. I think that the climb up Minch Moor will be slower on the day having done 4 hours before getting to it.

Retrospective:

The second recce for Hearts and Heroes, along the Southern Upland Way. Much better weather than our first outing. We parked at Traquair and got a taxi back from Gala at the end of the walk. The climb up Minchmoor was still a challenge and as usual I lagged behind, not helped by having tied my shoelaces too tight. I was, however, able to come up with a game plan of a two stop strategy for this section on the actual H&H day.

Two things stick in my mind from this walk, both on the section of the Drover’s road down from Broomy Law. Firstly meeting a couple with some very big dogs that came bounding along the path towards us. Elaine was out in front and must have been annoyed for some reason. She told them that David and I, someway back, were very frightened of dogs so the owners came running along trying to stop them.

The second was an elderly chap with a wide smile, a ZZ top beard containing the remnants of breakfast, a massive rucksack and a brightly coloured golfing umbrella, who told us that he was intending to walk to Innerleithen then to the West Highland Way. We asked him if he meant the Southern Upland Way, which he was on, but no, he was going to walk to the WHW, a good 60 miles away. He was sleeping in bothies.

The path up to the three brethren looked steep but surprisingly, once on it the walk was not too arduous. In truth I think this is because it isn’t actually steep, just some kind of optical illusion.

Mike and David at the point of resolution

This was the first outing for the bright red top that Lynn had bought for me. You will see that the camera’s sensor couldn’t cope with it properly. The picture is taken at the “point of resolution” near Minchmoor. The circles are in fact ovals that appear to be circles from that particular place. If you look on Google earth you’ll see the real shapes.

18.3 miles     time 6h 30m

Well that wasn’t easy. See the  elevation  to see why. Good walk though. 

At least the second, still to be done, half has a better profile.

I’m sorry Mike but I (Elaine) refuse to believe we only walked 18.3 miles.  It was a bloody challenge in itself, not really looking forward to doing 29 now:-(  Perhaps you only measured it as the crow flies – I’ve told people we did around 20 miles!!!

Mike – the uphill miles were hard going and judging by our times we must have been going some in the downhill home straight to make up for my pauses up to Minchmoor. From what I recall we took 3 hours 55 mins to Traquair (3.1 mph), lunched for 20 minutes then did  6.3 miles in 2 hours 15m (2.8 mph)

Retrospective:

This was our first recce of the route we were to walk in Hearts and Heroes later in the year. Part of the gradual increase in miles needed as our training. The original plan had been to walk from Tibbie Shiels to Traquair but David, a hard task master as befits his navy background, felt we needed to be pushed harder and had decided we would head for Yarrowford instead. This would be the longest walk I had done for ten years.

We arrived at St Mary’s Loch at about 10 am. I remember the temperature was 6 degrees and this was obviously cold because I was wearing a thick fleece under my coat (unusual for me except in very chilly weather). This route follows the SUW along the south bank of the Loch with David clacking along with walking poles because of his dodgy knee.

David with the sign he repaired

Morale boosters (jelly babies) were deployed at Dryhope and the path then climbed gradually to Blackhouse. I well remember coming to the signpost at Mid Hill and being shocked that it was still 5 miles to Traquair, and our sandwich break.

Traquair itself was a psychological challenge. As the path descended from Blake Muir we could see a village which we presumed to be Traquair. My mind went into “almost there” mode. Soon we could see a bench that seemed a likely spot to rest. But it turned out the bench was in Kirkhope cemetery, so that didn’t seem an appropriate place to stop. Traquair was another mile along the road. A very long mile it seemed.

After lunch on the bench in Traquair we headed up Minchmoor, a steady pull up 350m which served to sap my energy to the extent that I became very quiet (even more so than usual).

By the time we left the SUW to head down towards Yarrowford the temperature had dropped further and we tramped on in silence.