East Calder to Falkirk
After a lovely stay with Claire, she dropped me back off in East Calder, for me to continue my journey.
I started by walking through Calderwood Country Park. It was a lovely path, through paved woodland. It was really lovely to see all of the different wild flowers that were out.
I then joined the canal towpath, which would take me all the way to Falkirk. The sun came out and it was a lovely peaceful walk along the canal.
I saw some swans with their cygnets. The grey fluffy babies were so cute.
The Union Canal is the canal between Edinburgh and Falkirk. Along the way, signposts told me the miles to different towns. It was nice to tick the miles off as I walked along.
The canal was really varied with beautiful green trees, followed by views across open fields. The changing scenery made the walking pass by quickly.
As I walked along, I met a group canoeing down the canal. There were two instructors, with two participants, in a catamaran canoe (the two canoes were connected to each other, side by side). We did at one point have a mini race! I just about won!
I was very excited to find a field with two donkeys, and a horse. I stopped to give the donkeys a stroke. There were two worn paths from the tow path to the fence, so I think the animals must be used to getting lots of affection!
I followed the canal into Linlithgow, where I was meeting some of the local Rangers. We had arranged that they would walk a section of the canal with me. I was a little early, so I stopped and had my lunch at the canal basin. Unfortunately, this was where the weather turned, and there was a hail storm!
Thankfully, it dried off a bit by the time I was meeting the Rangers and it was only light rain.
The Rangers joined me for about half an hour, which was lovely, then their leader joined me until the Avon Aqueduct. The Aqueduct takes the canal over the River Avon. The view from the top was beautiful, and thankfully it had dried off a little!
As I continued along the canal, the weather did a mixture of downpour, then sunshine. The sun shone for just long enough to dry my coat, before I got wet again! Although, I can’t complain, it was much better than continual torrential rain!
As I walked along, and got closer to the busier Falkirk, I chose to listen to some of the BBC Scotland Outdoors podcast. This is my favourite podcast, and they cover all sorts of outdoor topics in Scotland. Often listeners message in about where they listen to the podcast. The podcast I listened to was an interview with listener Marian Burrows-Smith, who had been listening to the podcast in Nepal. It was so interesting to hear about how her trekking adventures in Nepal, led to her creating a charity that builds toilets in Nepal. It was really inspirational to listen to a woman who had been on her own adventures and used it to make a positive difference in the world.
On my way into Falkirk, I came to the Falkirk tunnel. This is the longest canal tunnel in Scotland, at 630m long! It was really cool to walk through. There was a really good echo too!
The tunnel brought me almost to the train station, where I finished my walk for the day.
For the next couple of days, I am staying with Moira and James, who I know through walking events in Girlguiding. It’s been so lovely to stay with friends along the way. I’ve been able to see friendly and familiar faces. I definitely think it has helped me to cope with being away from home.
In the evening, I went to visit Moira’s Guides. It was lovely, the rangers came along too, as well as some other leaders that I know. It was really lovely to tell them all about my journey and answer all of their questions. It definitely felt more nerve wracking doing it for people that I know, but everyone seemed to enjoy it, and I had a brilliant time.
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