Day 83 The Borders and the Blisters continue

Today we had sore feet. I know, I complain about that often, but they are the most sore they have been for a very long time. Moreover Sue has bad blisters-despite an easier day yesterday. We decided we would again shorten the day and booked a taxi to Traquair.

The weather forecast was dire. Thunderstorms and rain most of the day. Nothing daunted we set off in our waterproofs but the rain stopped within five minutes so we took them off again. We saw-but unfortunately didn’t have time to take a photo of-a red squirrel. Hooray, it’s the first one I’ve seen

We took the Cross Borders Drove Road, up and along a ridge. The clouds were threatening but there was no rain for some time.

The walk was lovely. The views were good until the rain came. I felt the wind behind me. Thought-I’d better put on my waterproofs in a minute -and the rain hit. It wasn’t quite as heavy as Day 48 but longer-lasting. The path didn’t just turn into a stream, it turned into a torrent. It was very wet indeed. Eventually it tailed off and we were rewarded with views of Peebles below us. The beauty of a drove road is that the gradients aren’t too steep-after all you don’t want your cattle injuring themselves.

We stopped for a brief standing lunch, it was far too wet to sit down, in a sheltered spot before our final descent.

The rain had pretty much stopped as we made our way into Peebles across the Tweed and along the busy (it was so nice to find places that were open) Main Street to our hotel where we are booked in for dinner