Journal:
I slept
reasonably well, despite seemingly being under the
flightpath for Edinburgh Airport, and wasn't
disturbed by any of the locals. I got up at
7am and was walking by 7:45am, with the aim of
reaching Broxburn for breakfast. My route for
the whole day pretty much involved walking on canal
towpaths and I soon reached the Union Canal at Lin's
Mill Aqueduct which carried the Canal high above the
River Almond. The engineering and vision for
building this kind of infrastructure back in the
19th Century always impresses me. The
calculations and surveying they must have done to
get all the levels right is mind-boggling.
There are pros and cons of
canal towpath walking. On the positive side,
the walking is flat and it's possible to maintain a
good speed and cover log distances. On the
negative side, the footing is often hard and the
scenery can be monotonous if the vegetation is high
along the canal sides. Having your foot fall
exactly the same way every time on the even hard
surface is a recipe for sore feet and mine became
quite sore and tired during the day.
Broxburn seemed to be a
socially-deprived small town, with plenty of boarded
up shops and people lounging in the main street.
I reached there about 9:15am and found a cafe where
I ordered breakfast. After considering my
options for the day, I decided to walk to Linlithgow
for lunch and Falkirk for the night, without really
knowing how far each was. I rejoined the canal
towpath, which had no canal boats at all, and set
myself to walk to Linlithgow. A kilometre or
so out of town, I passed a gypsy camp, a collection
of caravans and motor-homes parked on an industrial
vacant lot adjacent to the canal, and shortly after
some huge old orange slag heaps. There were a
few other users of the narrow towpath, and I was
surprised a few times by cyclists coming up behind
me, but generally I had it to myself.
It was humid and the
temperatures mild and I felt pretty grubby after my
night camping. Looking forward to a shower.
I can get BBC4 on my radio again, after a few days
out of range, and that gave me something to listen
to on a day which was becoming quite arduous.
I plodded on, counting up the bridges over the canal
which are all assigned numbers, but that didn't seem
to make the miles go any quicker. A lot of the
time I was in a sort of green tunnel, but I also had
periods where I could see out across the rural
landscape to the many towns and villages, factories,
construction sites and in the distance to the north,
the Firth of Forth and the Highlands. The
canal was close to a rail line, the main
Edinburgh-Glasgow link, I think, and trains were
whizzing by regularly in both directions.
It took longer than I
hoped, but I eventually reached the busy tourist
town of Linlithgow, where I had a quick look around
the ruins of the Palace before finding a pub for
lunch where I could watch some of the World Cup.
I left there about 1:45pm for the walk to Falkirk,
reputedly a large town, where I hoped to arrive soon
after 4pm and be easily able to find some
accommodation. The afternoon passed slowly,
and my feet became sore and tired, but I trudged on,
counting up the bridge numbers. I have found
the BBC radio station which broadcasts all World Cup
games live, so I have been listening to that.
Not as good as on TV, but still interesting to me.
Another high aqueduct took the Canal over the Avon
River before I eventually reached the outskirts of
Falkirk around 4:30pm. Before heading into the
centre of town, I decided to complete the section
which took the Union Canal through the 631 metre
long Falkirk Tunnel. It was quite an
experience, with dim lighting, and water falling
from the rocky roof in many places' making it dank
and eerie. At the other end I left the Canal
and walked a kilometre into the centre of Falkirk,
where it took me a little while to eventually find a
hotel offering accommodation soon after 5pm.
I spent time after dinner
trying to book some of my nights for the next week,
including my four days on the West Highland Way,
which I hear is very busy at present. I still
have a few nights to sort out and may end up camping
a few times. I also finally managed to connect
with friend, Ian, skipper of the yacht we used in
the UK Three Peaks Race back in 2004, who lives near
Glasgow. He's going to come up and join me for
the last two days of the West Highland Way, which
will be fun.
I'm a bit ahead of where I
need to be and will, therefore, have a few easier
days coming up which my feet will welcome.
Tomorrow is mostly canal walking again and the
weather forecast to be more of the same.