Day 4 Morebattle to Yetholm, 11 km

Today feels like we are on holiday during our holiday. We had a late, made-by-us breakfast, so it was manageable! Didn’t leave the flat until about 10:45. Another quick stop at the community shop, and we were finally on our way around 11:05.

The first greeting of the day was from a woman gardening: where ye off to today? You doing the whole way, are you? A woman a bit further on, after the usual walking questions, told us we were lucky to get Mark Carney for PM. He did a good job at the Bank of England, she said. I’m guessing she is not a Labour supporter. She also made me wonder how many people in small Canadian towns would know who the current governor of the Bank of Canada is (E had to remind me) or if the UK had recently had an election!

As soon as we left the village we were passed by a man, a woman and a man, and another man within the first few minutes, all with full packs. So, I thought we would be seeing people all day, but we did not! Just two people whom we saw up ahead at one point, but then they disappeared. They reappeared later from the opposite direction while we were eating lunch. And that was pretty much it until just before the village this afternoon.

On the road, the distance between Morebattle and Yetholm is 4 miles to the northeast. The path we followed starts southwest for about a mile and then goes northeast over 3 or 4 big open tops and takes 6.7 miles to get from one village to the other. The hills aren’t huge — but the climbing went on for about an hour and a half, up one, over a bit, up another. It was overcast and windy but a perfect temperature for walking! I kept my jacket and gloves on all day and kept my hood up for a lot of it. Lots of very steep downs that had my knees talking back at me.

Once you are at the top, the whole view to the south and east is the Cheviot hills. They span the border, with the ones on the English side in Northumberland National Park, land of Vera! (A favourite British mystery series - book and tv.)

(For the zooming peregrines - I think these are the hills where Alan - I’m forgetting his last name, but he’s the wonderful writer who goes to Spain every fall — walks his dog.)

A quick lunch in between two stone walls, out of the wind. And then down to the road and into Yetholm. We chatted with a man working on his huge allotment. He’d done a masters degree at Guelph many years ago and goes back to Canada regularly.

Tonight’s room is excellent. There was lemon cake waiting for us under a glass dome. Teas and cookies. Oat milk in tiny packages, which I have never seen before. Fast phone chargers! An already-warm towel rack. I love everything in the house - the furniture, the floors, the stairs, and, especially, the curtains. At home no one has curtains any more. These almost make me want to learn to sew.

Dinner at a pub in Kirk Yetholm, the nextdoor village, about 10 minutes away. It’s where the Penine Way path ends and where the Scottish National Trail begins. We also cross through it tomorrow. Everyone else having dinner had their St Cuthberts Way guidebook on their table with them. We don’t have one, though it would be fun to know more about where we are walking. We google things every so often instead. While we were up on the tops today I was also missing a paper map - though it would have been impossible to open, it was so windy.

Very nice to have such a short day! Tomorrow will be 20 km through the hills to Wooler, which I think is a bigger town.Read more