Day 88 The Falkirk Wheel

Today’s most pressing problem was food. I had passed a bakery and a nice looking cafe on my way to the hotel but they were both half a mile in the Wrong Direction. As I had a 16.5 mile day I didn’t want to add any extra mileage. I had to rethink my route.

Happily, if I headed to the John Muir Way, I would pass Sainsbury’s, and join the canal further along after walking beside the River Avon (and underneath a viaduct) without adding extra mileage. Sainsbury’s, I’m sorry to report was disappointing. The only sandwiches they had were turkey club on white bread and, horror of horrors, they had run out of mini pork pies. I had to buy a full size pork pie. 454g (that’s 1lb). I don’t think I’ll manage it all but at least I won’t go hungry. Not going hungry is a bit of an obsession of mine.

Bravely shaking off my disappointment I headed for the River Avon, and enjoyed the softer ground underfoot until the path climbed up to meet the canal at another aqueduct.

The countryside is definitely more industrial round here and the canal was a bit dull.

There was however a promise of more interest. First there was the Falkirk Tunnel and then there was the Falkirk Wheel, the world’s only rotating boat lift.

The tunnel is 630m long and is quite fun. There is a towpath (now with a railing) and it is lit so that it’s never completely dark.

The top is just roughly hewn rock with a couple of air shafts-at least I assume that’s what they were, no light came in through them. I had the place to myself. It was great. When I emerged, it was raining so I stopped at the mouth of the tunnel to put on my backpack cover and my anorak which had the effect of temporarily banishing the rain. There was more tunnel excitement to come. There is another tunnel, the Roughcastle Tunnel (180m) before the Wheel.

The Falkirk Wheel is very impressive. It was a millennium project, and you can take a boat trip up and down. I didn’t. I ate my lunch in, if not exactly a howling gale, certainly a hold onto your hat and sandwich wrapper wind, then headed off in search of a cafe. By the time I had navigated the Ladies’ (you try managing social distancing in confined spaces with a backpack -which you then have to take off and put on again-and a mask) I felt I had had enough and set off for Castlecary, pausing only to look back at the Wheel one last time.

The rest of the day was a bit of a slog on the sore feet-inducing tarmac towpath. The canal wasn’t that interesting although it did run along the course of the Antonine Wall (a more northern and less impressive version of Hadrian’s Wall) for a while and there was a Roman fort as well

After what seemed like a very long time, I left the canal, negotiated the M80 interchange and reached my hotel. 16.8 miles, two very achy feet. More canals tomorrow.