he penultimate day began with a good breakfast in the hotel restaurant where we had enjoyed our evening meal. After settling the bill and having a conversation with the manager who shared our enthusiasm for walking, we were on our way and soon leaving the town along a riverside path, which shortly left the river for the hills. Although the wilder country had now been left behind the surroundings were still fairly remote as we crossed a shallow valley and rested at the edge of a small wood above an isolated cottage. Ahead lay a rather uninviting looking grouse moor stretching to the horizon, which we had to cross. A lone walker greeted us and stopped to chat as we rested. He was walking the SUW but was only doing a section of it saying that he found the thought of doing the whole route in one ‘too daunting’. We said goodbye to the walker and set off across the grouse moor. It was a grey, overcast day with a keen, bitter wind blowing which, combined with the featureless moor, created a scene of utter bleakness which for some strange reason I found appealing. It may have been because it was the type of scene I thought we had left behind, as the previous days walk through rolling farmland seemed to suggest, and this was a re-affirmation that we had not quite left the wilderness behind. As we reached the edge of the moor we came upon Twin Law, the two huge cairns sat high above Watchwater reservoir, our next objective. We spent a few minutes having our photos taken with these massive towers of stone one of which actually had a seat built into it. There was also a tin box containing a visitors book which had an entry bemoaning the lack of facilities at our next port of call, the village of Longformacus or 'Lordforsakeus' as the writer of the book entry had dubbed it. (Above: Me at Twin Law)   The village’s lack of facilities had actually caused problems for ourselves when we had tried to book a room at the legendary Mrs. Amos’s guesthouse. Terry had recommended her to us having stayed there before and he told us that she was something of a legend with walkers along the Way because of the superb meals she served. Unfortunately, when we rang it turned out that she and Mr. Amos would be away attending a wedding and weren’t taking bookings for a couple of nights. She told us she would see what she could do and asked us to ring back later which we did and were told that she had secured accommodation for us with her daughter in the town of Duns about 5 miles from Longformacus. She would drive us from her house in the village to Duns and her daughter would drive us back the following morning to commence the final days walk. We thanked her for this generous gesture and looked forward to meeting her. We may have missed out on her cooking but it seemed her hospitality stretched beyond the kitchen.

We left Twin Laws and headed off for the Watchwater reservoir from where we had to road walk to Longformacus. We located Mrs. Amos’s house and were soon being whisked off in her car to Duns which was a strange experience after so long without being in a vehicle. The last trip we had taken in any kind of powered vehicle had been the logging lorry when Gordon had returned us to the Polskeoch Bothy at the start of the sixth day. When we reached Duns we were surprised to discover that we had a whole cottage to ourselves for the price of a room. Mrs. Amos’s daughter lived next door to the cottage which she rented out and had just been our luck that it was standing empty. We went through our now well-rehearsed routine of bathing and washing items of clothing before heading into town for dinner. Mrs. Amos’s daughter had recommended the first establishment to us. It was a bistro above a pub but we arrived too early so decided to have a drink in the pub, which we both decided was a mistake the moment we walked in. The bar was a dingy, smoky place filled with rough looking locals whose demeanour did not inspire friendly conversation. The barman however was friendly and quickly served us two pints and we found a seat in the corner away from the bar trying not to draw attention to ourselves. After a hushed discussion we both agreed that we were uncomfortable and felt like intruders in what was obviously a local drinking den and decided to finish the drinks and look for somewhere else to eat. (left: Ian at Twin Law) We eventually found a hotel bar where we had a good meal and discussed the walk and whilst I was looking forward to being able to stop walking after the following day,I was also sad that the great adventure was coming to an end. Still, I consoled myself that we still had a day’s walking left and pictured us walking along in warm sunshine to finish in Cockburnspath with a pint or two by way of a celebration. As it turned out I was to be disappointed on both counts.