fter completing Wainwrights Coast to Coast walk in the spring of 1998, I decided to tackle the Southern Upland Way which is a National Trail running for some 212 miles across the south of Scotland from the west coast at Portpatrick to Cockburnspath on the east coast. It is in effect, the Scottish version of Englands Coast to Coast walk but with a number of differences, the main one being that it is an official route and therefore well waymarked along it's entire length.

Another noticeable difference is the amount of people walking the route. Although when I walked the Coast to Coast it was very quiet, this was because I engineered it this way by starting in mid-week instead of at the weekend when most walkers set off. Also, I began in April which is fairly early so I saw few walkers which is what I intended. Usually however, the Coast to Coast attracts thousands of walkers a year and solitude can be difficult to come by on this long distance walkers 'Holy Grail'. By comparison, the SUW is virtually deserted. It is also more difficult to plan logistically as, particularly in the first half through Dumfries & Galloway, it passes through some very remote terrain and very few centres of population. It was because of this that I was very pleased when a fellow walker and friend of mine, Ian Andrews expressed an interest in accompanying me on the trip and we made plans to set off in the following May. Around the time that I had been walking the Coast to Coast, Ian had been walking the West Highland Way with a couple of friends so we both had experience of multi-day walking, the difference this time would be that we were to take camping gear with us to give more flexibility which would be required on the SUW. This is an account of our two weeks on this impressive but fairly taxing walk.