Today we left Moffat and headed to Abington
Today we had no-one walking with us and Jon was helping with the logistics.
As we left Kirkpatrick-Juxta, having been dropped off where we stopped yesterday, the sun was rising and some of the clouds in the sky were quite spectacular. Today was another day on a single road and for a goodly period this morning the last picture above was pretty much our only view.
The A74 was originally the only dual-carriageway route from Scotland to England. It was a low-standard dual carriageway that carried large volumes of traffic while having many intersections with both other major roads as well as farm tracks. It also had bus stops and houses along its length. A new motorway – A74(M) – was constructed parallel to the existing road, leaving the old road to be used as a local access road and one of the carriageways turned into a cycle-path. Today it is amazing to think that all the traffic on the six-lane motorway just a few metres away was once carried upon the empty tarmac that is now the B7076.
With the Mainline Railway on one side and the A74(M) on the other, the valley is home to a large number of streams that eventually merge into the River Clyde.
As we progressed towards Crawford, where we would take a few minutes rest and have our lunch, the valley opened up with rolling hills on either side, plenty of wind turbines, and the River Clyde running through. There was even an interesting shaped forest on view!
The River Clyde ( Scots: Clyde Watter, or Watter o Clyde) flows into the First of Clyde. It is the ninth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third-longest in Scotland and runs through Glasgow. Historically, it was important to the British Empire because of its role in shipbuilding and trade. To the Romans, it was Clota, and in the early medieval Cumbric language, it was known as Clud or Clut.
Today, despite being the same road, was totally different from yesterday. The road was sufficiently far away from the A74(M) and the railway to mitigate the noise and it was refreshingly void of traffic. Even the road surface was smoother to walk on – although the uncomfortable camber on curves was still present. With the nice weather (walking north means the sun is always on our backs) and the slightly shorter day it was a much more pleasant experience overall.
Tomorrow we head to Hamilton on the outskirts of Glasgow.
We have now been walking for three weeks, with just one rest day, and looking at the map it is still amazing at just how far we have walked:
Hi oh are doing brilliantly! It is very awe inspiring to see how far you have come, not so far left to go!
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