Journal:
After a
7:30am breakfast, I left the hotel around 8:15am and
walked down the waking high street of Falkirk on
what promised to be a beautiful day. The sun
was shining, but it was pleasantly cool and I was
looking forward to a shorter day. After a
kilometre or two, I met the Forth & Clyde Canal and
began following its towpath westwards. The
canal surrounds were park-like and there were many
people out exercising or walking to work. On
the edge of town, I came to the Falkirk Wheel, which
marked the intersection of the Union Canal, which I
was following yesterday, and the Forth & Clyde
Canal. The former 25 metres higher than the
latter. When originally built, they were
apparently connected by a stair of 11 locks which
ceased to operate in 1963, when the canals fell into
disuse. In 2002, the canals were reopened for
recreation use and National Lottery funding was used
to build the unique wheel. It was certainly an
unusual piece of engineering and I was fortunate to
see it in operation as they "warmed up" for the
day's pleasure cruises. I hung around watching
for a while, but decided to get moving just as coach
loads of tourists began to arrive for the cruises
around 9:30am.
I then ended up walking
for a steady three hours along the Forth & Clyde
canal without a stop in the warm sun, pleasantly
tempered by a cool westerly breeze. There were
no boats at all along the Canal, but plenty of
people using the towpath for recreation - walking,
fishing, cycling, drinking - many of the men with
their shirts off exposing very pallid Scottish
skins. I left the Canal at Kilsyth, where I
had to walk about two kilometres into town before I
found a pub where I could have some lunch and watch
the inevitable World Cup game. Kilsyth seemed
a bit run down and socially deprived. After
lunch, I found a footpath that took me back to the
Canal for my last 10km of the day to Kirkintilloch.
It was getting pretty warm, especially when
sheltered from the breeze, and I was happy to
finally get to the larger town, also looking a bit
run down, around 3:30pm. I could only find one
hotel, which looked a little pricey, but the manager
took pity on me and gave me a room for £40 instead
of the listed £70, although I could only have a
continental breakfast if I wanted it before 8:30am.
I had a quick shower and
then made more calls and online bookings to finalise
my accommodation for the next five days. Some
places were fully-booked and I now have a very long
day tomorrow of just under 50km, to reach the
Rowardennan Youth Hostel. To give myself a
reasonable chance, I've decided to get a very early
start and skip breakfast at the hotel. I
bought supplies for breakfast and lunch at the
supermarket on my way back from The Wetherspoon's
Pub where I had dinner tonight.
This may well be my last
night of good internet and phone coverage before
John O'Groats in two and a half weeks, so daily
reports may come out in batches, at best. I'm
heading into the Scottish Highlands tomorrow and am
scheduled to finish on Sunday, 4 July.
