Monday 21 December 2015

Into the Valley - the Carnethy Great ESKape



Under cover of darkness, I climbed over the wall and entered the church grounds.  It wouldn’t be the last wall I’d climb that day.

It was around 7.45am on Sunday morning and, rather than searching for copper or lead to plunder, I was looking for war memorials.  If push came to shove I’d accept a war grave.  First stop after leaving the car at my Mum and Dad’s in Portobello was St Phillip’s.  Nothing doing.  Not a huge surprise as it doesn’t have a graveyard.

Next up was St Mark’s, which seemed promising as it had the green Commonwealth War Graves sign on its fence.  But in the absence of a large central memorial, and lacking a torch, I couldn’t make out the inscriptions well enough to find a relevant headstone.  Bellfield Street church drew a similar blank.

Trotting along the Prom, I saw a familiar figure approaching – Peter, on his way to Musselburgh from Leith.  He agreed to run back with me to check out St John’s on Brighton Place (nul points) before moving on to the large cemetery on Milton Road.  Despite the sun now being up, our having a good run around it, and Peter ringing the bell on the lodge house to ask for directions (we got none as the only folk in were workmen sanding the floors), we came up empty.

Ah well, onwards to Goose Green Crescent for the start of the Carnethy Great ESKape.  A social run from Musselburgh to Carlops, following as close as possible to the River North Esk, from its mouth to its source.

We arrived just in time for the mass start, and having clocked around 5 miles each which, with the advertised 25 miles of organiser Willie’s planned route, should see us hit the required 30 miles for this month’s Tynecastle Bronze run.  Although we still needed a suitable memorial.

Our first obstacle of note was a six foot high stone wall near the A1.  My left thigh cramped badly on the way up and over, and I managed to put my hand on a nettle sitting on the top before rubbing it close to my left hip.  Not a great start.

Further obstacles were to follow throughout the day and, while a number of them seemed wholly unnecessary and included simply for the perversity of taking the most challenging course available, there was no denying that they added to the experience.  And as Neil pointed out, the opportunity to contract leptospirosis from the water flowing under the new Borders Railway line is not something that is presented to you every day.

We encountered further walls, bridges with locked gates, slides down lampposts (think fireman’s pole), any number of barbed wire fences, lashings of slippery mud, occasional rain, gusting wind, tussocky grass and more.

There was the odd other travail as well like Peter losing half a sandwich to the lightning reactions of Florence the dog.

But despite these slight inconveniences, it was a grand day out.  The scenery was superb and varied, we encountered plentiful fauna (including a pair of deer, and an otter being released back into the wild), there was interesting architecture, the company was excellent, and there were loads of laughs.  After the stop for bacon rolls at Penicuik, Peter and I joined the “fast group” of Graham, Olly and Jason, so those laughs were frequently unprintable.  At times it felt like I was in an episode of The Inbetweeners.  Telling you that there was a lengthy and detailed discussion of the Viz Profanisaurus is probably enough said.

Arriving at Carlops around 3.30pm, Peter and I had a quick run up and down the High Street to see our Garmin’s tick over the 30 mile mark.  Job done.  And then checked the bus timetable, only to find that we’d missed the 3pm bus back to Edinburgh, and the next was not due until 7pm.  Bugger!

Nothing for it but to have a restorative pint (Peter) or coffee (me), and then do another 9 miles over the Pentlands in gathering and then total darkness to Balerno to catch the more regular Lothian bus service.  Thankfully Nasher, Olly and Peter all had head torches.  I did my best to keep our spirits up by falling regularly and in classic arse-over-tit fashion.  By the time we reached Bavelaw, I was caked in mud.  There was concern that the driver might throw me off the bus.  So long as he didn’t toss me off.


Thanks very much to Willie for organising, and for allowing non-Carnethys to tag along.





Peter tries to head-butt the wall over, with Neil egging him on











Peter, Willie and Anna share a joke


It was raining at this point which made for an interesting light









Peter and I considered taking our chances with the trains









Mavisbank House (the remains of)


These shutters were banging rather eerily in the wind




WM at Polton Village






Haunted tree

Column of rock

Hawthornden Castle






Rosslyn Chapel


Grounds of Roslin Castle




Damaged weir





Fast group of Peter, Graham, Olly and Jason


A pipe well-insulated with gaffer tape

Marking out a gymkhana




Valley of Death


Olly prompts the "Casualty" theme tune in my head





Olly, Nasher and Jason at Carlops

Next bus is in three and a half hours - not what do we do?!

2 comments:

  1. I like the spooky buildings and skeleton. On another note there may come a time when you have to become living war memoria (??). I think if you took a selfie while thinking about the war that would do.

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  2. Thanks Mary.

    Not a bad idea to do pensive thoughts. And appropriate. I cringed when I saw how pleased I looked in Peter's picture. Delighted to have found a quality new memorial, but not good to look so gleeful in the face of so much sorrow and so many tragically shortened lives.

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