LEJOG Day 48 – Innerleithen to Gorebridge 20.03 miles. Cumulative 869.01miles

With a stormy night forecast we decided to upgrade our tent pitch to a camping pod. It was a wise decision as it came in very wet and windy by mid evening. We are banned from visiting Innerleithen in future as we always bring bad weather, when we visited in 2016 there was a thunderstorm that flooded the town.

After the storm had passed a sunny start to the day, but still quite breezy. The breeze turned into a strong wind at altitude.

For the last three days we had followed a similar route to when we did JOGLE, so it was good to strike out in a new direction.

We set out to follow NCN route 1 again, as marked on the map, however after less than 2 miles we found a sign advising it re-started in 13 miles, because of a busy road. However, the cycle route did continue as the Coast and Castles Route from Edinburgh to Newcastle. As it happened the road wasn’t that busy, we probably saw more planes going in to land at Edinburgh Airport than cars on the road.

The road climbed steadily up a wide valley for most of the morning, passing through a golf course and stunning scenery. We found a sheltered spot for lunch just before reaching the head of the valley. shortly after re-starting the view opened up ahead to the Firth of Forth with Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh in the distance. We left the Scottish Borders and entered county number 15, Midlothian.

We continued along the cycle route to Gorebridge, where we caught the train to Edinburgh where we are staying for the next three nights. No, we aren’t having a rest we will be catching the train back to Gorebridge in the morning and walking back to our accommodation.

On reaching Edinburgh, our first stop was Cotswold Leisure where Steve bought a new pair of boots. We then made our way to our accommodation at Edinburgh City Suites.