Day 8 – 23rd April

Once again I had a lie in this morning. The view was so spectacular it was too tempting to just lay in my sleeping bag and take it all in. And the sun was warming my cold tent nicely.

Striding Arch

This area is where the ‘upland ‘ part of the Southern Upland Way comes into play. It was a real slog climbing the hills and I’m clearly unfit but I made it to the top of Benbrack with its Striding Arch sculpture. The scenery continues to be fantastic – moorland, rolling hills, pine forests. The startling thing is that it’s totally empty – there is literally nobody here.

just a contour or several

I set up camp at about 6pm last night high on a hill next to a SUW post. No one came past and I haven’t seen a single person all day.

popping the smalls out to dry

I have only walked 9 miles (with a  big climb) but the Polskeoch bothy (sometimes called The Chalk Memorial bothy) was too good to miss. This single room has been decorated by a local artist and it’s full of character. It has a woodburner and a burn running by. I took the opportunity to wash a couple of shirts knowing that if they didn’t dry in the sun I could hang them in front of the heater. It was a nice treat to find some comfy leather chairs too.

bliss

Bothy art

This is wonderful and all for free. Thank you to the Mountain Bothies Association for all the hard work put into maintaining these buildings for us.