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 |
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Peter, Willie and Anna share a joke |
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It was raining at this point which made for an interesting light |
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Peter and I considered taking our chances with the trains |
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Mavisbank House (the remains of) |
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These shutters were banging rather eerily in the wind |
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WM at Polton Village |
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Haunted tree |
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Column of rock |
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Hawthornden Castle |
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Rosslyn Chapel |
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Grounds of Roslin Castle |
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Damaged weir |
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Fast group of Peter, Graham, Olly and Jason |
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A pipe well-insulated with gaffer tape |
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Marking out a gymkhana |
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Valley of Death |
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Olly prompts the "Casualty" theme tune in my head |
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Olly, Nasher and Jason at Carlops |
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Next bus is in three and a half hours - not what do we do?! |
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.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mary.
ReplyDeleteNot 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.