Soutra Summit

22 miles from home, looking back to East Lothian from Soutra Aisle. I was on my way to Peebles for the weekend to ride with some friends and have a bit of quality time. I arrived dead-on 55 miles, camped and showered and had some chat and headed out to find some wifi to Blip. And have a beer of course! I ended up in the bar of the Eastgate Theatre, where there was a Lonnie Donnegan tribute concert on! Bizarre.

Big Bikestop.

I hadn't bargained for how bloody hard the route would be to be honest. Although I'd mapped out a route that avoided the obvious "wall" west of Gorebridge, the route still went up, up, up. Obviously really, since I live at the coast and I was going over the Moorfoot hills.

Anyway, I didn't get off and push once, the bike worked really well and I feel great for the experience. I was really lucky with the weather - the wind was easterly, so behind me, and the roads were wet but I was dry, so the rain was being blown away ahead of me. If I'd left on time instead of farting around I would have been soaked! Perfect.

I did stop for a Traquair Bear Ale in the Traquair Arms in Innerleithen, which was the best beer in the world at that point, with just 10 miles to go. Dinner of bacon and salad in ciabatta, cooked on my Trangia meths stove. Luxury!

Tomorrow I'll ride the red route, and maybe the black. I'll move into a wigwam for 2 nights and my friends Ross and Tessa will arrive Monday. Happy days.

Then the return route on Tuesday... To look forward to!

;)

By the way, Soutra is dead interesting. I always presumed it was religious, a church of some kind, but it turns out to be an early hospital with loads of medicinal plants and lots of related history. Whilst I was there, there was a talk going on which I listened in to and very interesting it was. For some reason there was a bloke with a huge sword and a simple bow & arrow, I have no idea about that! Anyway worth stopping off if you're in the area.

This is a Snapseed edit of a panorama from the TZ30.