A very wet walk

Despite it being 5 degrees, a strong wind with rain threatening, Ailie and I drove up the valley beyond Alwinton. The single track road was full of deep potholes and it took us 45 minutes to get to the parking place. The first hill (you can see it on the right) is a bit of a killer but after that, when we reached the wood you can just see in the distance, it wasn’t far down and up to the dirt road which goes further into the Cheviots to an isolated farm. By this time the rain had become heavy and persistent. We hung a left and soon had to leave the easy track for a muddy quagmire. When we came to the shelter of some trees we got even wetter having our sandwich.

The farmer had locked the gate but there was a bit further up the hill to climb the fence so we didn’t stop to look at the stone marking the place where Robert Lumsden killed Isabella Sudden over 400 years ago in 1610. His punishment - a month in jail and excommunicated from the church. He got away with murder.

From there it was an undulating walk but we had to be careful as it was so wet and boggy across the tops. I took the photo of Allie very wet. The other photo looks across the valley to the wood we went by on our way up. It was a steep slither back down to Barrowburn and the car.

I was straight into a hot bath to warm up. Tonight is WI. I wonder if I’ll like it.