After a good nights sleep in the rec room, I am up and packed my stuff away before anyone else needs to use the rec room. A pop in to the kitchen and order a few bacon butty sandwiches. One for now and one for breakfast tomorrow morning in the NWB campsite. I linger around St Drostan's for a bit with no real hurry to get going. Today is a long day in terms of mileage but not very strenuous but it does have lots of road walking. I settle up my tab with Alvar, giving a bit more for a donation.
Kevin Everett and I are ready to go about the same time, so we walk down to the Glenesk Folk Museum together for our pre-paid breakfasts. The place is actually packed with Challengers most of which stay on the sports field in the middle of the village. Breakfast was a hectic affair but it was sorted out, so were the two packed lunches that I pre-ordered as well. I admire and appreciate the Folk Museum offering this service both to try and help Challengers and to grow their own business, and I want to support local business people all across Scotland, while I am here, but I don't think that is something I would do again.
Leaving the village, I always admire the yards of flowers and the great ascent colors Scottish people use on their houses.
The scenery walking along the road is not too shabby!
Reaching the bridge across the River North Esk. There used to be several but after several years of storms, there is only this one remaining.
another candidate for cutest cottage.
More lovely views. You can tell from the skies that rain is coming. It has been threatening all morning, but we will surely see some today.
Hi Girls.
I read the sign below but I wanted to change it to Slow Peasants in the road. To better match our hiker trash look at this point.
The Rocks of Solitude. This forest walk has some amazing rock formations cut by the River North Esk in this area. I would never have known it was here without other Challengers pointing it out a few years ago, it is not prominent on the map or promoted much elsewhere.
The gorge has waterfalls and large cascades of eroded rock formations
The path starts disappearing the closer we move toward Edzell.
This does take us to exactly where we want to go. This is a view of the damaged bridge from the East side. This is the side we want and would not have been able to cross over from the Edzell side.
It starts to rain and rain heavily. We stop briefly for rain gear and then carry on. This is the weather we normally see when starting on the West of Scotland, but this year it was reversed, hot and humid in the highlands and rainy on the East coast
After leaving this farm area, you come back on the road and their are no shoulders (verges) here. The traffic is heavy and persistent and it is raining, so you have to be vigilant that the cars can see you. It is about 4 more miles to go, until we reach North Water Bridge campsite and once we do it is a race to check in, set up the tent and get into some dry clothes during lulls in the rain. Some Challengers mingle in the check in/rec room area, others just stay in their tents. Not a glamourous ending to the penultimate* day, but I have enjoyed every day on this crossing and this was no exception.
*penultimate was not a word I had in my regular vocabulary, but Alan Sloman did and he liked to use it. I use it here to remember and thank him for all the help and friendship he gave to me before and during every previous Challenge I have participated in.
Catching up to several Challengers. This is a very popular route for the last two days of the Challenge.
It is amazingly beautiful once you leave the road
The highlight is the deep and swift gorge
Evidently, it used to have some kind of bridge across it.
The first part of the Rocks of Solitude walk ends at a mysterious place called the Blue Door. In fact the entire walk is known as the Blue Door Route. In reality it is not so mysterious, simply an access door onto the road bridge, but it is painted blue and today we see that it has received a brand new coat of paint!
This is where you cut over from the east side of the river, which we have been on, to the west side and continue along the scenic path into Edzell. In Edzell you can eat good food, get ice cream and stock up for dinner and the follow day. This year the most recent storms have damaged the swinging bridge that would take you out of Edzell and on your way to North Water Bridge. The proverbial "the bridge is out" excuse is the reason I have planned to carry so much pre-made food. The obvious choice, before we arrived here, was to walk the road (yellow) till we could regain the blue dashed line below.
I had been leap-frogging with another Challenger today and even had lunch in the same spot along the first half of the Blue Door Route. Her name is Sabine and she is an extremely well traveled and experienced walker. In addition after emerging from the Blue Door, and walking just across the road I also ran into two additional Challengers; Stuart and Alex, also extremely accomplished. A plan was hatched, mostly spurred on by Sabine, if I recall, that we should explore the vague path on the East side of the river (red line above) and see if it would take us to a rendezvous with the road out of Edzell.
After a quick debate we decide to all set off and try out luck!
The ruins of Gannochy Tower (above)
Looking back at Sabine and Stuart. Alex was forging ahead at this point.
The path starts disappearing the closer we move toward Edzell.
When the path runs out, we detour down to the river bed and can see just how high the water had gotten during the storm and flooding. We would not have been able to proceed if the water was still high
Back on course now, without ice cream... what a crime! We pass through a farm named Arnhall. When I say pass through, I mean it. you walk right between two of his buildings with farmers working away all around. This was one of the very first times it really hit me, how you can walk almost anywhere in Scotland.
Beautiful horse playing in the rain
After leaving this farm area, you come back on the road and their are no shoulders (verges) here. The traffic is heavy and persistent and it is raining, so you have to be vigilant that the cars can see you. It is about 4 more miles to go, until we reach North Water Bridge campsite and once we do it is a race to check in, set up the tent and get into some dry clothes during lulls in the rain. Some Challengers mingle in the check in/rec room area, others just stay in their tents. Not a glamourous ending to the penultimate* day, but I have enjoyed every day on this crossing and this was no exception.
Today's Route
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