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San Andreas or bust....

Bam

Bam

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Hi guys, just a quick update for now, that's us now in Newburgh. Have done 30 miles or so, some road, some track and some 'off piste'. 10 miles from Dollar to some plantation. Where some lovely folk who were marking out a horse endurance race gave us a pointer to camp. They also gave us an address to post them an OS map that they would mark up loads of trails for us. Day 2 was said plantation to Glenfarg where we resupplies and headed on to the old railway tunnels. We found a tiny wood where we set up and explored the first tunnel this morning. It's a place the missus fancies so I'll be back with her. Then on to Newburgh, only 8 miles and some on road which helps gobble the miles but not so pretty. At a large waste processing plant we passed, we managed to forage a couple of breakfast wraps, they were 'flipping' huge and it took us a while to get our speed back up. Fortnately shortly after that we were on tracks again, then forest paths until the final descent into Newburgh. We're having a bit of a 'Bear Grylls' night as I'm camping in the back garden of Smurf's girlfriend's house and he's been in getting all the perks 😂

Tomorrow we start on the Fife Coastal Path and we'll see how far we get. The plan (well hope) is St. Andrews, the place where we both grew up. We'll play it by ear, we're just enjoying the walking at the moment and we're not going nuts.

Will add to this (with phots) when I get a chance....
Ciao 4 now.
 
Evening folks, ended up going 'full Bear Grylls night' tonight.
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We did just shy of 13 milesto Balmarino, the last 5 in the pissing rain. I had a waterproof cover on my rucksack and that had soaked through on the top and we were both pretty sodden. There isn't even a bus shelter in Balmarino so we sheltered under a sign and rang a hotel then taxi. A shower, gear hanging up then off to see what the local flora and fauna could produce.....
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Braw! Back to the rooms, I've got a load of dhoby to do then some rouge to get through, hopefully that will set us up for tomorrow. The weather is supposed to be a bit better, the debate is do we 'miss a bit', press on and make it to San Andreas or go back and carry on. Either way I'll complete it at some point.

Anyway... the sooner I get this dhoby do e, the sooner I can crack a bottle. Slainte (in advance) chaps.
 
Cheers Mark, back to where we were picked up today to continue the walk tomorrow. 2 days should see us to San Andreas, another 13 miles tomorrow then a 10 into town. No poi T ha ging around to socialise so we'll probably jump on a bus back down the road. Wee Jimmy has put a dampener on the boozers eh?
 
Bopdude said:
Fair play to you both, nothing more demoralising than the prospect of lots more miles in the rain, a good plate of food helps though.
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Cheers Al, you're right. We could have sat miserable in our tent and tarp just for the sake of it but as we were doing this for 'fun' then I've no regrets that we spent a night in a hotel. In an ideal world it would have been under nylon all the way but we're past these "I said it so that's what I'm doing..." vows, one of the perks of getting older is being a bit more flexible about stuff and also having the spare cash for a hotel when needed. ;)

That's me home now, tried to upload a picture of the 'Welcome to St. Andrews' sign when we got there but it was 'too large'. I'll try and load the pictures I can, took a fair few as I was going round with the forum in mind.

Since the hotel, we got dropped back at Balmerino and after a fairly slow start headed along to Wormit and Newport, we both seemed to be pretty slow, you could have played a tune on my calf muscles but we plodded on. In Newport we managed to resupply with some isotonic drinks and get our mojo back. We picked up speed from there and picked up the miles, we hit Tentsmuir forest and managed to pick up the pace further, we did the 13 miles we wanted to and made it to the car park. I hadn't been there in over 30 years and there were a lot of improvements. There was even a crepe van that was still open so we managed to get a feed, it saved cooking. :) The toilet block was open too which was a surprise, what with the whole covidy thing going on, guess they weighed up the risks against the amount of random keech's and bog roll littered about what is a pretty popular place. We set up about a hundred yards from the bogs so we could 'John Wayne' it if required. We had a relatively late night, we sat up talking to about quarter to 9 and then speared in. We were both up early (me for my John Wayne saunter at about quarter to 7 in the morning) to some cracking views, we squared ourselves away and headed on for the last 10 miles. We smashed the first five in pretty quickly, we were both in an area we knew well and had a break for 5 minutes, we knew we were stopping again in about another mile at a wee shop for a 'proper' breakfast of a roll and coffee. Then that final hurdle of knowing you're just about there. Four miles to go, again on a road that we knew very well (well a new path at the side of it). It was raining, not heavy but pretty consistent so it was just a case of head down and nash on. We got there about half twelve and it was a bit of an anti climax, Smurf was getting a lift later in the day and I just headed across to the nearest bus shelter to get the bus back to my end of Fife. A bit of a pity, we'd done something we set out to do and then.... no point, bar's shut unless you want a drink outside in the rain... its not like we'll not see each other soon enough at Devilla or wherever, still, a bit crap.

I'll try and upload phots tomorrow with a bit of a 'blurb', right now I'm chilling with a glass or three of the rouge. Slainte guys and I'll try and catch up with the rest of the forum now. 🍻
 
Well done the pair of you,
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the hotel was a good move too, as they say " Any fool can be uncomfortable". Look forward to some photos when you rejoin the world..
 

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Cracking write up of a brilliant hike.....thanks for sharing with us Andy. :thumbsup:
A few of us did the same on one of the Scotland trips to the "Bridge of Orchy".....booked into the Hotel for a feed and shower.....good nights sleep before the long drive home the following morning.
How did the kit hold up on the walk......is there anything you want to change or do differently next time?
It is a shame you could not sit and relax...... have a nosebag and a couple of beers together afterwards :(
Like you say......you will meet again at Devilla again soon......catch up on the Rouge then :rofl:
Hope you manage to get a few pictures up :thumbsup:

Nice post mate :)
 
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