This outing was a long time coming, originally conceived in late 2020 when we weren’t allowed to stray more than 5 miles beyond our district boundary for exercise. The key rendezvous point was the triple point meeting of Borders, East Lothian and Midlothian on Soutra Hill. It would allow a limited number from the three districts to gather and release a 79 square mile circle of terrain for Covid-managed exploration. Most of this historical confinement was now redundant. We still had the protection of a Scottish Athletics-based risk assessment and a surplus of qualified Covid control gurus in case we were stopped by random Covid compliance inspectors.
Nineteen of us formed a diverse gang (subdivided into Cycling Scotland approved sub-groups where necessary). We were equipped with the full range of modern bicycle mutations from old banger through fat bike and gravel bike to carbon fibre thoroughbred. The Soutra windfarms were addressed with the determination of Don Quixote. Gio helpfully pointed out that we were cycling through a maze not a labyrinth, as the Leader was already getting verbally dis-oriented by the whirling blades in the strong south easterly breeze. After reaching the summit of Quixote country we descended a very loose, rough and very steep track into the pretty Kelphope Valley-of-Numerous-Fords. The OS maps show this as a DANGER AREA (no guns today).
Richard W, despite his gravel bike, was not happy about the wrong kind of river bottom gravel at the fifth ford and took to the steep hillside instead. All fords cleared with all feet soaked, we climbed back onto the Lammermuirs plateau to join the drove track down to Carfraemill, losing our hard-won height for the second time to enjoy a pleasant sunny lunch break at the friendly and welcoming hotel.
Across the A68 we started our third big climb to our second wind farm, helping a distressed ewe and her three lambs escape the road and return to their grazing. Near the abandoned Clints farmstead a very friendly shepherd showed us photos of the snow he struggled with a week ago (at 360m.) losing quite a few of his lambs to the cold.
Then, another long steep descent to the Armet Water with the last ford of the day. The long road climb back towards Soutra was beginning to stretch the peloton. We left the road to re-cross the Armet Water bridge and start the last steep climb up the Southern Uplands Boundary Fault onto Dun Law, with a navigational split by part of the group mysteriously drawn to the old Roman Dere Street where it descends to Soutra Aisle. A brisk traverse through wind farm No. 3 brought us back to the now busy A68. Only one other person (the shepherd) was seen on the hills in around 4 hrs. – quieter than the Pentlands. Cool, mostly sunny with the odd shower.
Team: Andy, Gio, Joanne, Jon W, Kathy, Keith, Lorna, Marion, Mark J, Martha, Neil, Nicki I, Nicola D, Rachel and Will, Richard W, Trevor, Sharon, Willie M.
Keith Burns