the lazy day – 25 sep, 2018
Day 47 Land’s End to John O’Groats – Douglas to New Lanark
Distance: 20km
Cumulative distance: 1197km
It was pretty damn cold at 2.30am when I woke up, and that meant I didn’t get back to sleep for a couple of hours. So I was a bit sluggish in getting away this morning, but no one came down that forestry road so the campsite worked out pretty well in the end, even if the ground was a bit too rocky. I noted the night before that there was place in Douglas I could stop at for brekky and a coffee having not been to a cafe for a little while now.
I rejoined the A road and took it down into town, only to find the cafe didn’t open until 10 o’clock. That was no bother, I did some shopping and sent off some postcards in the meantime. Then when the shutters were rolled up at the Scrib Tree in Douglas, I was straight in. It was a nice little coffee shop with plenty of local produce and artwork for sale, and a fantastic menu. I ended up having two coffees there before finally leaving town around 11.30am, not before politely declining a ride back to Lanark offered by three lovely, elderly ladies. I was only going about 20km today to New Lanark where I’d have a day off tomorrow, so I could afford to be a little slower this morning. Plus my toe was still a bit bent and out of shape.
Douglas was a pretty historic little town. As I left I walked past a towering monument to a chap called Angus, then past a Polish Memorial Garden. Several Polish folk who had fled their homeland in WW2 settled in Douglas. Just outside of town along the banks of Douglas Water I found a ruined castle, but there wasn’t too much left of the original building. I crossed the river and followed a path that took me all the way to the thundering M74, which proved a bit of an obstacle because there wasn’t an overpass for at least a mile or two meaning I needed to walk parallel to it for awhile through more forestry land. I could have taken it on if I really wanted to, but didn’t fancy jumping a fence and trying to skirt across six lanes of urgent traffic.
Once I was able to cross it I ended up on a delightful country road and soon enough the motorway was just a distant memory. A few miles along I needed to relieve myself, and just as I was about to step up a little side road a police car drove past. I waited until he was out of sight, then took a quick pee before turning back around and noticing the policeman was back and slowing down to draw level with me. Instead of telling me off for urinating in public he asked what I was up to and was only happy to shake my unwashed hand when I told him I was walking from Land’s End to John O’Groats. I mentioned I was heading for Lanark that night and he told me that was his station, and that I should call in if I needed anything at all. What a top bloke I thought as he drove away into the distance to continue his beat along these deserted Lanarkshire country roads.
I eventually turned off down a driveway with the aim of picking up the Clyde River. I was looking for the majestic Falls Of Clyde, from where I planned to follow the river for about 50km after my rest day, all the way into the heart of Glasgow. Before any of that I had to negotiate a super muddy driveway, jump a gate and walk across a field and down to the banks of the river. I spied a fisherman as I picked up the waterway, and a little bit further downstream I was able to cross over at a hydro-electric building (I think) just upstream from the Falls. From there I had about two and a half kilometres ahead of me along a magnificent gorge which harboured several outstanding waterfalls through some thick, green forest. The highest of these waterfalls is roughly 25m and there are plenty of viewpoints along the walkway to view them all. I also walked past a signpost pointing to a cave which William Wallace hid in many moons ago.
Unfortunately, this historic stretch of the river is under threat – the government is considering a proposal by a company to build a quarry on this land which would devastate the beautiful stretch of river, not to mention the 400,000 tourists that come to New Lanark every year to view the waterfalls. Fortunately there was a little place set up campaigning against the quarry, so I took their advice and wrote on the back of a postcard voicing my opposition to the proposal before sticking it in the little mailbox to the side. The rest of the walk into New Lanark was well maintained, and rather educational with signposts describing each tree and suggesting which animals to look out for, such as badgers and otters.
New Lanark was a massive surprise when I emerged from the forest, it looked like an old regimented boarding school with stone grey buildings set out in an orderly fashion. My hostel was one of those on the top side of town, so I passed a bunch of school kids on an excursion and went and found my room. This is one of the strangest little towns I think I’ve ever seen, but the hostel is fantastic!
