Total miles: 20
Elevation gain: 786 ft
Time walking: 9:30am – 7pm
Miles to date: 1026.7
Today was one of those days that you think is going to be easy (ish) but ends up being quite tough! Randomly closed and/or unsignposted paths made for a few unanticipated extra miles and long flat walking on tarmac paths made for achey feet and tight calf muscles! On the plus side, the weather stayed mostly dry despite rain being forecasted all day and I reached Glasgow, a massive milestone on my journey.
After heavy rain last night (although thankfully not the stormy winds which had been predicted) and a few raindrops still pattering on the tent this morning I thought we were going to be in for a wet one. Amazingly, and unpredictedly (and yes, I know that’s not actually a word but I like it!), the rain somehow stopped sometime between me waking up and me finishing packing up inside the tent so when I emerged blinking into the new day my waterproof was only required for warmth, not dryness! We got the stove going for tea while we took the tents down, wet after the rain but quickly and temporarily wrapped up in plastic bags ready to be aired out at the hotel. For breakfast we ate our remaining dehydrated meals as we knew we had a longish day and didn’t know if we’d stop for a proper lunch. Anneliese had chicken curry and I had mushroom pasta…those well known breakfast dishes!! Rounded off with an avocado and some chocolate. I tell you, you eat some random things when you’re walking!
We headed out of the campsite feeling optimistic about the day ahead, the wardens’ best wishes ringing out behind us (they said if they’d known we were walking for charity they’d have waived our fee (there’s a lesson for me there!) but instead gave us a donation for our charities). Our first challenge was to pick up the path again, which looked easy enough on the map. Haha. Something about lessons… The ‘path’ (not signposted) apparently went pretty much straight over a busy slip road coming off the motorway, under a bridge on the edge of a massive roundabout and along another slip road that led onto a dual carriageway. Hmmm…something not right about that! We spotted a bridge that looked like it spanned part of the roundabout and tried to figure out how to get to it. For some reason we thought clambering up and following a pathless overgrown bank, between a new-looking wire fence and the campsite fence, was a potential route to the bridge. Obviously it wasn’t, as we realised when the wire fence went on forever into the distance, between us and the footpath we wanted! So back we headed, wondering what passing car drivers would be thinking of the two hikers walking along a busy roadside bank, spotting along the way that the path actually came up to the bridge from the other side, having passed under the bridge first. Well, that made much more sense, and after doing a loop the loop we made it onto the bridge. Another loop the loop at the other side, a brief stop to remove waterproofs, and we’d finally made it to the other side of the busy intersection, about half an hour after setting off. The campsite was all of about 200m away!
Heading up one of the smaller roads towards Bothwell Bridge we found where the actual path should have come out, where a sign apologised that “this section of the Clyde Walkway is closed”. No indication of why, or of an alternative route! But at least that explained why we’d found it hard to pick the path up from the other end. Never mind, our onward route followed a cycle path for a way, sheltered from the busy road by a hedge before leaving the busy road for a smaller road past an industrial estate. About a quarter of a mile past the industrial estate I looked at the map, confused, realising we had walked past the point the path turned off the road onto a footpath down through the woods. We walked back and found the right spot. Tall, spiky, padlocked metal gates stood across the overgrown path, big concrete bollards in front. Litter had collected at the feet of the gates and it looked like they hadn’t been open in a long time. There was no other way through, but no sign indicated that the path was closed, in fact there were no signs at all. I checked the map…the gps…and yes, we were definitely in the right place. Hmmm. Confused, I did a bit of googling and found an information leaflet I’d not seen before which mentioned something about maybe finding it difficult to walk through this section. Helpful! It did suggest an alternative if you “didn’t want to try” the Craighead section…well, I wanted to, just couldn’t! Bizarre. Anyway, reassured that at least I wasn’t going crazy but disappointed that we would miss what looked like a nice wooded section in favour of roads and housing estates, we headed back down the road for the second time, following the suggested alternative route. As we came out along a busy road we suddenly spotted a Lidl, looked at each other and almost simultaneously asked “shall we stop for a pastry?!” We felt we needed a break after the rather haphazard start to the day! Lidl does amazing pastries and we ended up buying two each (too much choice!) along with a big bar of crispy chocolate and some bananas. We then visited the snack van where the kind man gave us our coffees for free when he heard what we were doing, and took our goodies to a step in the sun (not the one with the bottle of wee on it…!). We promptly wolfed down both pastries, the coffee and the entire bar of chocolate, concluding that we’d clearly needed it, especially when we realised we had walked 3.5 miles but only ticked off 1.5 miles of our total day. Argh!
Thankfully after we’d had our break and made a fresh start things got better. We found our way back to the path fairly easily at Blantyre and it was a pleasant walk through woods along the river, crossing at a tall bridge by a weir where a nice old man stopped to chat and gave us a generous donation. We were sheltered from a rain shower by the trees, and the smell and the colours of the autumn leaves took me back to university days, walking along the banks of the river in Durham to lectures. We had a short climb up to red-stoned Bothwell Castle – ruined but imposing on the hill above the river – before dropping right back down again.
Just before Kylepark the path crossed over then left the river to enter into a brief spell of what felt like proper countryside. We had a heavy rain shower and paused to don waterproofs, although in the end it only lasted a few minutes. A slight misturn (according to the map, but the way markers disagreed!) and retracing steps along the road took us along a further road section, the first bit quite busy, the second bit much quieter and down over Rotten Calder (love that name) then up the other side. It was quite a long stretch of road walking which is never fun but it was a nice countryside break before the city. We hit the first signs of city life at Newton where there were big new housing estates, then joined a cycle path which although pretty was the start of the next tarmac stretch which lasted all the way into Glasgow. Gradually the sense of coming into a city started to grow – bigger buildings, more people, trees giving way to industrial parks – but I was impressed at how green it stayed. The cycle path hugged the river so there was always a bit of nature around.
The first few miles from Newton went fairly quickly with the good path and our eagerness to get to Glasgow, but the constant pounding on tarmac was tough on our feet and the miles gradually seemed to get longer! It didn’t help that the helpful cycle path signs gave the distance to Glasgow centre but we had an extra mile and a half to go after that! We also grew increasingly conscious of how conspicuous we looked…I don’t think many long-distance hikers venture into the centre of Glasgow! We saw more and more dog walkers, then runners, then people who were clearly on their way home from work, all in lovely clean clothes! The path comes into central Glasgow through a pretty park by the river and we stopped for a final rest to people-watch for a bit, already feeling slightly overwhelmed by all the activity, the busy-ness. What fascinated me were the pedestrian crossings. It felt so strange to have to stop at a road and wait for the green man to be able to cross! I wasn’t used to my speed being so determined by something beyond my control!
The last mile was tough, our feet were aching and my hips were feeling it, going down steps felt particularly challenging! But Glasgow was pretty by the river, lots of striking bridges and a mixture of old and new. Remarkably, the rain had held off since the brief heavy shower and it was a pleasant evening. Finally we saw our destination – the Premier Inn across the river from the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre – and we learned that our friend Eunice was there outside waiting for us. We hit 20 miles just as we drew up outside the hotel, really pleased as Anneliese had been determined to break 20 miles at some point!
And there we are. We reached Glasgow! I can’t quite believe it! Tomorrow I have a rest day and then I am pausing for a couple of days to attend the U.K. Annual Arbonne conference which I have been aiming for. It will be amazing to catch up with friends and have some inspiring training but it is going to be strange to be in the same place for 4 nights when the longest I’ve stopped before is 2! And all these people…! A bit of a shock to the system! It’s also where I say goodbye to Anneliese which will feel really weird, and rather sad. The good news is I have another friend, Lisa, joining me for the next 5 days walking, so I’ll have some more company. But for now, lots of food to be eaten and rest to be had…not to mention drying out my tent in the bathroom…!