Day 83: Hartleap to Peebles

What an exhilarating day! It was rainy and misty but somehow that just seemed right for the terrain: wild and for the most part, uninhibited. We had detoured from our original plan to seak accommodation at Hartleap, a beautiful B&B which nestled comfortably in its environment. Mein Hosts were knowledgable about the area and gave us advice about how to navigate our way back to the Southern Upland Way by heading out from the back door of their property, so to speak, and following the wee burn in a roughly NE direction following the contours for a way.

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As can be seen from the map, we climbed slowly accross the contours up Moory Haas, and heading toward Altrieve Burn., then around Moory Hass to follow the direction of the burn, gradually climbing higher towards Peat Law. Then as we reached a point where we could cross the Burn, we scrambled down and across, to gradually move around and up Altrieve Rig, heading for the lowest point ( the saddle) between Altrieve Rigg and White Law. As we climbed, the views were spectacular and not done justice by my little phone camera.

On reaching our highest point, we could see, through the mist and to our left, the edge of St Mary's Loch,

and to our right, shrouded in the mist, the glen and Yarrow Water.

We descended down the slope towards the 5km mark of our original to cross the bridge at the bottom.

Before crossing the bridge we crossed farmland and in so doing needed to open a very old and rickety gate. Oh dear, as we went to close it one of the metal brackets holding the structure, simply fell out of its holes. We put it back as best we could and, spying the farmer in the next field, crossed to let her know what had happened. She smiled and said... "Did you hit it with a rock from the wall?" Feeling very self righteous, we assured her that we had not. "Well you should've, that's what I would have done" she replied with a grin. Oh well, you can't win them all! 

After crossing the bridge we were back on track on the Southern Upland Way, and for a while it was a gentle walk up a gradually steepening track, through farmland... Back to gate and style country!

The views of course were wonderful, 

and for a short while the terrain was relatively flat as we left the Southern Upland Way and followed Douglas Burn.

But all good things must come to an end and we left the glen to turn up a forest track, climbing steadily uphill between Bught Rig and Brakehope Rig.

Leaving the track to follow an ildefined footpath, the way became steadily more challenging, more boggy and more beautifull, as we gazed (well that was my excuse for stopping) back across the hillside.

We finally left the bog and trees behind as we reached Whiteknowe Head,

and again paused to soak in the wild beauty of the countryside... Breathtaking!

Forsaking the signposted route, we opted to head down a virtual path that like so many others, existed only on a map, in the sands ( or mud) of time, or in someone's imagination. But definitely not on the ground! We followed Douglas Burn down to the Glen, bumping over grassy tufts, squelching through soggy grass, sinking deeply into the heather, and thoroughly enjoying ourselves (at least in retrospect) and finally reached the glen below. Pausing to look back up from whence we had come,

and forward to the future, we followed an increasingly civilised path, all the way into Peebles. The rain eventually stopped and we arrived at our destination, tired but feeling very satisfied.