Borderline fun

By which I mean “fun around the border”, not “barely any fun”. The border in question was the England/Scotland one, specifically (for the first two days at least) from Cockburnspath in the north down to Berwick-upon-Tweed.

The path runs for 48 km, although no-one online seems to want to quote a height gain for it. It wasn’t as undulating as a lot of other coastal paths we’ve been on, and we made good time for the first 22 km of day one.

We were heading for accommodation at Eyemouth, and the last five kilometres from St Abbs did drag a little bit on tired legs. Prior to that it was lovely though – very quiet, and some nice rocky geography happening for the entirety of this stretch.

Sadly Becs picked up an injury, so the next morning I ran the remaining 21 km to Berwick. This is definitely the less-scenic part of the path, running for quite a long way alongside the railway!

Nevertheless, it was an excellent training run and a nice reminder that my legs do actually still turn over when I really need them to.

After that we had another night in Berwick, exploring the town walls (very nice, but I couldn’t really give my seal of approval as a Welshman, owing to the fact that they were built by Edward I) and going for a sandy wander too.

From there we moved over to spend the rest of the week at Kailzie Gardens, between Peebles and Innerleithen. We essentially spent the entire time visiting a variety of castles/country houses and comparing their tea rooms. I therefore don’t have any exciting pictures I’m afraid. There was just one rainy day, on which I hired an e-bike, which was great fun. I covered almost 50 km in four hours, including getting to the amazing trails at Glentress.

It made me realise how much I miss my e-bike, particularly since Santa Cruz now make the Vala, which is essentially an electric Bronson. I grudgingly gave it back though, aware that I had made a terrible mistake and my life would have been easier if I’d never slung a foot over it. [Update: Reader, I bought one]

Eventually it was time to head home, which was done via Grey Mare’s Tail waterfall (although not all the way because the top was in cloud!).

In summary: we really liked the Borders. Everyone was friendly. Cake was cheap. Bicycling was fun. Huzzah.