Just completed a 80 km walk to the coast from Galashiels along the Southern Upland Way over a period of two days.

This is the first view of the North sea from the Penmanshiel Woodland, and as you can see the weather behaved giving clear views all the way, even from the highest points (about 460 m). The highlights were through the ancient woodlands, high moors and the coastal section near the end. The finish of the route is at Cockburnspath where helen met me at the end of the walk. I had one nights camping and woke to a frost and an early start. This is my first walking with a full pack since Fish River canyon and I felt the weight, so that means much more training before the GR11 in June !! However, the distances covered each day were longer than I expect in the pyrenees but the height differences perhaps less.

We're enjoying life here in Gala and the open spaces. We've even managed some gardening and have some Rundu type camping chairs to enjoy our patch of garden.

Now settled in Galashiels in the Scottish Borders. We have rented a flat not far from Emily and Helen on Magdala Terrace, only a stone throw apart so we can easily pop in for coffee. So far things have gone OK with the usual problems of telephone connections and boilers not working, but the weather has been great with temperatures 10 degrees above the seasonal average.

We are on the outskirts of town overlooking Meigle Hill to the south and have already got to know the area and town, sorted the small garden and made the flat a bit personal with our things.

Yesterday, Saturday, we went on a longish walk starting at Newtown St Boswell along the St Cuthbert's way to Bowden and then over th Eildon Hills to Melrose for coffee. We did a different route back around north hill and then through the woods to a lane leading to a track to Newtown. Nice because of the rolling hills, lots of primroses and warm temperatures although the mist on higher ground reduced long range visibility. I'm sure this will be the first of many walks in the area.

We plan to leave about the 15 June, me to trek the rest of the pyrenees from St Gallent to the coast and meet up with Bex on route and Helen at the end for a weeks rest on the Costa Brave before flying home. Meanwhile Helen is going to Poland and other eastern european countries backpacking with Katy for 6 weeks whilst I'm in the mountains. Then it's back to our flat here until about the 10 October and the end of the 6 months rental. We plan to go off then to Asia but have a lot of planning to do before that.

Meanwhile, we have plans to meet up with Bex and Tony and do some walking in Northern Wales and trips to parents to help out.

We did meet up with Margaret, Doug and Dot in Edinburgh for a meal and hopefully will see them over the coming months whilst in Scotland. They are all well and extremely busy with activities.

Here's a picture of the North Hill Eildon on our walk yesterday. Also on route I picked up a copy of "Forever Free" by Joy Adamson from the book shop in Melrose and into that at the moment. Really interesting as I can relate to the places, as we visited her house and the Serengeti, were the cubs were eventually, released on our travels.