Miles: 0!
We both woke up feeling so much better today, thank goodness, but still weak after not much food yesterday and me walking 17 miles when feeling rubbish! While still cosy in my sleeping bag I checked the weather and it was forecast to be a wet day so I took the executive decision to take an impromptu rest day so we could both regain our strength. Definitely the right decision. We might have been able to walk but it would not have been fun.
Our fellow campers (I say ‘campers’…they were in campervans), thought we were mad as we were sat out on our picnic bench (what luxury!) in our waterproofs, drinking tea in the rain. We were very happy but I think they took pity on us, as they left they brought us some apples and bananas!
After a couple of cups of tea we wandered into Melrose with our maps and found a gorgeous little cafe at the back of a wine shop. We installed ourselves there for a couple of hours, making our way through coffee, tea cakes, jacket potatoes and cakes. Clearly our appetites are getting back to normal! We looked at the route for the next few days to see if we could make up time somehow. Thankfully there were some shorter days ahead and as we are happy wild camping we have managed to re-split the route into fewer days so we can get back on track. Phew!
In the afternoon, by which time we felt we had probably taken as much advantage as we could of the cafe and their wifi, we went for a gentle wander through the town and the Priory gardens and orchard, past the beautiful abbey and back to our tents via the Co-op for a bit of food restocking. We had a quiet relax in our tents, hot showers and prepped to head off in the morning. An early and delicious dinner (rib eye steak for me, yum!) in Burt’s Hotel (it looked like a safe option…) and we are back for an early night, ready to get going again tomorrow! It’s such a relief to be feeling a bit better!