Monday October 12th

First thing this morning, Mathew opened his Birthday presents! After breakfast, we set out to St. Abb’s Head via Eyemouth on the Berwickshire coast, which is just in the Scottish Borders. In Eyemouth, we bought a couple of interesting looking “Empire Biscuits” to eat later.

St. Abb’s Head was a 3 mile coastal walk where I wasn’t sure if my new walking shoes were good enough. My feet usually ache at some point during a walk, and I have usually worn Saloman walking shoes and crocs, both of which are brilliant for my feet. If I wear one in the morning, then crocs in the afternoon, its like wearing a new pair of feet – its wonderful! One hour into this walk and my feet were hurting. I started to think about possibly buying some walking shoes by crocs. Perhaps I should invest in a pair!

After many coastal photos later and admiring the rugged coastline, we ended the walk, had lunch and went on to Tantallon Castle, which was VERY fun, even though it was a ruin. Tantallon Castle was built on a site which supposedly could have been the origins of King Arthur’s Camelot, and was destroyed in 1651 by Oliver Cromwell’s army during his battle with the Scots. There were plenty of passageways and staircases to investigate, and by the time we for here I had put my crocs on and everything was magically pain free!

When we had finished, we moved on to Dirleton Castle, which was also a ruin, and just as fun with all the passageways and stairs. Built in three phases, this Castle passed ownership between the Scots and the English several times during the 1200s and 1300s, and was eventually slighted by Robert the Bruce after the Battle fo Bannockburn in 1314 to prevent its further use by the English. It had large gardens which were very nice to walk through, before we came to the Castle itself which we really enjoyed exploring.

We had almost finished exploring, when I went into this passageway I had yet to go in, when……….I fell over!! I hadn’t fallen over my own feet, as is usually the case, but I had gone from a light place into a dark place, didn’t let my eyes adjust, and although I could see there were two steps, I didn’t see the very first shallow shelf of a step before them, and my right ankle rolled underneath me and I landed heavily on my foot. I sat down on the step, and I heard Mathew coming over – I had shouted out as I had fallen, so he knew something had happened! I wasn’t in too much agony, but it was aching for quite some time – until we got back to the Cottage anyway. When I took off my sock, I discovered a graze on the front of my ankle, and the right side of my foot had swollen, although not too much.

When we got back to the car, we ate those Empire Biscuits, which was quite nice – they were like Viennese Whirls – two slices of shortbread with jam in between, topped with icing and a cherry. Very nice! Mathew also got a call from his sister which we had decided to meet on Wednesday at a part of Hadrian’s Wall in between where we are staying and where she currently lives in the north of the Lake District. She called mainly to say Happy Birthday to Mathew , but also to confirm that we’d both be able to get to our meeting place.

The journey back was fun – a long, windy, twisty and bumpy road through the Lammermuirs of Scotland. The Lammermuirs are very much like Moorland – no trees, lots of heather, rolling hills, and lots of sheep. It was a very nice drive and in some places we could see burning heather – done as a conservation measure to promote new growth and to prevent the heather from growing too bushy. We got quite close to a patch of burning heather, so we decided to stop and take a photo. When we got out of the car, it was very eerie – there as no birdsong, traffic, and it was so incredibly quiet. But thinking about it, there wouldn’t really be much on a Moorland for many birds – plus it was late in the day.

After the Lammermuirs, we were still in a similar landscape, but it gradually turned into small farms along the country road. We got home and sat down for a cup of tea and I had a closer look at my ankle, The graze looked fine, and the swelling wasn’t too bad. A bruise was fast developing near the graze, on the front of my foot, slightly to the right where the actual impact was. I elevated my right foot until we went out for dinner.

Mathew didn’t really feel like going out for dinner, despite it being his Birthday. We’d had a look around Duns and didn’t find anywhere we thought would be a special place to eat, we found very little in the way of cosy looking country pubs and restaurants. In fact, as we rode around today, we kept out eyes peeled for a nice looking country pub but there didn’t seem to be many around. I often wonder why is it, when you’re after something like this, you cant’ find what you’re looking for. And when you aren’t looking for it, there are LOTS of them,…or is it just us….?!

Anyway, while in Eyemouth earlier, I suggested that, if he wanted, we could just go and have fish and chips – and the mention of this got him salivating!! We went to “The Ship Inn” in Eyemouth, and both chose the “Fish Medley” with chips and vegetables, and finished off with a delicious white chocolate and raspberry brulee cheesecake. We were stuffed!!