Day 14 - Saturday 11th August - Hawick to Edinburgh

Weather - Drizzle first thing and dry but windy later

Distance - 67.8 miles

Camp Site - The Forrestine Centre, Forrester High School, Broomhouse Road, Edinburgh

The day started with fine drizzle as we left Hawick and joined the B711 and then the B709 towards Innerleithen at 31 miles. There was some fine scenery here but it was largely masked by the poor weather with low misty cloud around the hilltops. It was too early to stop here at Innerleithen for lunch so I bought some bananas in a small shop and then just stopped for a drink and a snack further along the road. The route then carried on past the golf course which straddled the road after leaving the small town itself, dodging the golf balls where some of the fairways crossed the road on the way. There were extra hazards on this golf course besides the road passing through the middle. The area was open land with many sheep who seemed to prefer the road and the fairways to the more wild land on either side.

The route instructions then referred to a "6 mile Climb" and I can confirm that it was this long as I kept a check on my mileage as I progressed slowly up the hill. In fact it was by no means the steepest hill we had tackled and I managed to keep cycling all the way up it - partly because for once there was a tail wind! By now of course the daily "training" on the succession of hills was beginning to pay off and I am sure that all the group were becoming fitter by the day. What the route notes did not state was that the hill had a false top in that the road levelled out and then had a fast long gradual descent before a final rather steep climb over the highest point. I think the author of the route notes liked to keep bad news from us as long as possible! The drizzle had stopped before Innerleithen and it remained dry but windy throughout the climb and actually became sunny towards the end of the ride.

As the road passed over the final rise of the Moorfoot Hills there was a wonderful view across the lowlands towards Edinburgh and out over the Firth of Forth. The Pentland Hills appeared high off to the left and Arthur's Seat appeared low in comparison within the Edinburgh area itself. It was only just possible to make out the hill on which Edinburgh Castle itself stands as it appeared quite low in comparison with the others although it is high over Princes Street in the centre of the city. All this was very clear under a dark cloudy sky. Once again the bad weather had improved the views enormously and cleared the air so that the views extended to a distant horizon. Unfortunately the photograph which I took does not do the scenery justice as it was such a wide and distant view.

Then there was the long downhill run into the villages on the outskirts of the Edinburgh area. I was hoping that there would be a pub for lunch very soon now but all these villages were very small and it was not until I joined the A7 near Dalkeith just under a high railway viaduct at 55 miles that I found a place serving meals. I ordered my lunch and decided that I would have the usual sandwich and as I was told it would not be very big I ordered a portion of chips to accompany it. I was soon joined by another cyclist from the group who ordered his lunch and was quite jealous when my chips arrived! People in the bar started to ask us what we were doing and were most interested when we told them the extent of our ride and how long it had taken us to ride from Land's End.

After lunch it was time to negotiate the busy roads into the centre of Edinburgh and it was made very straightforward by the green arrows marking the route. It was busy enough that it would have been very difficult to navigate using the route instructions alone as it was not always possible to just stop in the traffic although it followed a number of very good cycle routes along the way. The local authority seemed to take cyclists seriously as these cycle ways were laid out with careful consideration for the needs of cyclists. The route took us almost through the city centre and then out of the other side past Murrayfield Stadium and eventually we came back into residential districts and then found the Forrester High School and the camp site.

Within the school we had the use of two school halls and two sets of showers and toilets and also showers in a nearby sports centre. The school facilities were not in very good condition and unfortunately the sports centre was only open to us on the evening we arrived. As the weather had not been very good a few people decided to stay inside in one of the halls and two people actually erected their tents indoors. Obviously the tents had to be free standing as they could not put the tent pegs into the hall floor!

As we were to stay here for two nights I managed to do some washing and was able to share a washing line which someone else had put up under the walkway between two buildings. I shared his line and he made use of some of my spare clothes pegs to keep the washing attached to the line in the blustery wind! In the windy conditions and being partially under cover it soon dried.