Day 5 - Glentress to Lauder

Steady rain and mists cloaking the hills as we peered out of Glentress Hotel's conservatory window. It was a coffee as opposed to a tea morning I felt.

Breakfast was funtional, cereal, yohurt and a fry-up but no choice of an lighter option, a fry-up can sit heavy on the stomach and has a habit of repeating itself especially if the morning involves some decent climbing.

Today we had a climb up Minch Moor which is part of the Innerleithen Seven-Staines route. After yesterdays long ride through wilderness territory we discussed todays route over breakfast, making contingency plans incase the weather got any worse. It was decided that we could take the low-road route if necessary, but for now we'd stick to the planned high-route over the moors and along the ridges maintaining a height of about 500 meters.

Kieran was a bit worried that he had a spoke missing on his rear tyre, probably the rest of some of yesterdays swift descending on rocky ground. He's riding the only hard tail on the trip so his rear rim must have taken a bashing, read into that what you will!

I made a quick inspection of KT's rear wheel and detected two more spokes that were knackered so there was little choice but for him to get it fixed. Christine from Trailbrakes arrived and a plan was hatched for Kieran to get his wheel fixed in Peebles whilst Andy, Ian and myself headed up Minch Moor. Kiearn would then make time by riding from Peebles to Melrose and meet us in the valley.

So it was that we headed out around 9:30am as the wet weather abaited a little. We headed across the Tweed and out to Traquir before beginning the long climb up Minch Moor. As we looked back into the Tweed Valley we were treated to some dramatic weather - dark clouds, heavy rain and bursts of bright sunshine simultaneously filling the valley producing some stunning views including the rainbow pictured here.



We turned off the Southern Upland Way and onto the Red Route climb up Minch Moor which provided some protection from the weather as the majority of it is through forested areas. I had a burn upto the top and sure enough if was windy and miserable at the summit, it nearly always is in my experience! After a quick photo stop we descended on Red Route which is like a roller-coaster, fun and bermed before rejoining the saturated grassy track that is the Southern Upland Way.


Depsite the rain we were in quite high spirits, I was having a little sing-song to myself as we glided through the puddles then a mini-disaster struck in that my chain snapped. It took a little while to fix as my fingers weren't working properly due to the cold (no gloves ofcourse!) but Andy and Ian (the hardy mountaineers that they are, luckily!) provided assistance and after a 20 minute break in the pouring rain we were on our way again. We chanced upon a group of huge red mushrooms and despite my chain setback the boys still had enough good humour to pose gnome-like for the pic on the left ...

It was onwards and upwards from here, riding along the Old Drove Road ridge, over Brown Knowe and Broomy Law and finally to The Three Brethren, three large stone monuments which represented the top of the climb. We met a chirpy solo-walker up here who described the land marks we could see, including the Cheviot mountain range separating Scotland and Northumberland.



The descent from The Three Brethren was excellent, non-technical but rapid, with a few jumps you could catch if you could see them coming. Best of all the rain had abaited.

We cruised through the Yair Forest and instead of staying on the SUW we went right through the forest and muddled our way through Sunderland Hall before fortuitously meeting Kieran on the bridge where the Tweed meets Ettrick Water, which we had seen the source of about this time yesterday. Marvellous.




We pedalled leisurely along the Tweed until reaching Melrose. The aim here was to find the famous pie shop which Christine had sold to us this morning and finally grab a good cup of tea.KT and I had a 'Melrose Longboat' which is a foot long pasty of distinction. Pictures are of us tucking into our food, KT eating and tweeting, and Mr B and Andy B looking like a married couple just not quite getting on!

After a lovely cuppa in Melrose's pretty square and after terminating a couple of pesky wasps and chasing after an old lady who had forgotten her walking stick (Sir Andy!) we cruised past the Abbey and over the river via this lovely foot bridge before yet again climbing, this time up a mettled road that turned into a gravel track after a few kilometers until we had summited Easter Hill. Ooof, the Melrose Longboat was threatening to set sail back up my digestive tract at this rate!



We were on the final stretch and after a few undulations and a couple of big puddles to splash through we finally entered Lauder (prounouced 'Lodder' not 'Louder' apparently). The sky was a milky pinky/blue as Kieran and I took a stroll down the high street. There seemed to be a lot of blokes out drinking and hardly any women, strange. I managed to fall downstairs at our accommodation which was the Eagle Inn whilst trying to place my stinky boots I'd just washed out of a communal balcony window. As luck would have to I landed square on my back into a wall and no damage was done to myself or the wall luckily! This after falling off a rock whilst having my lunch near Ae Forest a couple of days earlier. KT saved me on that occasion, and after my stair diving came running to see what the commotion was.

We found one pub that served real ale (Avalanche, TT Landlord and Deuchars IPA) and decided if they cared about their beer they cared about their food. After tapping up a local chap and being told the food was very good we were joined by the two Mr B's and tucked into some excellent fayre at the Black Bull. Definately recommend that place. Had a few sherberts back at the Eagle before retiring to bed, tired, happy and full.