After leaving Moffat I spent all day on roads running south parallel with the motorway. There were always wide cycle paths to use, hardly any cyclists around, the few hills were all slight and gradual. So all-in-all, with the weather staying dry, conditions were pretty good for walking. I faced a stiff headwind again, but you expect that when you walk from north to south, Britain's wind blows in from the southwest most of the time.
There was little of interest to see, so to pass the time I started counting how many steps I make each mile using my handheld GPS gadget to measure the distances. It works out to be 2,000 steps per mile at a steady pace on a flat road. That means I've already made three quarters of a million steps on this walk so far.
Lockerbie was the only town of any size I passed through all day. On the way in I saw a huge sawmills, the destination for many of the lorry loads of pine you see being transported round Scotland. In the town centre I was disappointed there was no obvious memorial to the victims of the Lockerbie Disaster, I discovered it's out of town at a cemetery. With rain threatening in the strengthening wind it seemed unwise to make a diversion so I pressed on.
A few miles later I reached Ecclefechan, where I had chosen to camp for the night. There was a big statue of Thomas Carlyle on the road into town, they're very proud he was born here. The English border is very close now. I can almost smell the roast beef and Yorkshire puddings from here.
GPS data click here
Mileage today; 23.07 miles, walking time 5 hrs 37 mins, average walking speed 4.1 mph
Weather; windy, bright spells in the morning, overcast in the afternoon, max 19C
Cumulative mileage; 392.15 miles
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| A statue of Thomas Carlyle in Ecclefechan |
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| You see occasional reminders that a quiet b-road used to be the main road before the motorway was built |
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| Lockerbie town centre |
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