Day 26 Eccelfechan to Beattock

Well 4 weeks after leaving Land's End, I find myself in Beattock at the foot of the Southern Uplands. It is those Uplands which have been the main feature to look at today, although they did not come in view properly until three quarters the way into the walk. For the first three quarters there was little to view, the B7076 never more than 100m from the M74, and the constant drone of traffic was a companion. Of the 4 weeks walk to date, visually it was probably the worst, with a lot of sameness. The weather, with the exception of one sharp shower, was ideal walking weather, being bright but cool, T shirt weather once again, so at least that made thing better. Leaving Eccelfachan, the next town was Lockerbie. When I looked at my strip maps last night, it appeared the two town where next door to each other, in fact they are a far distance apart. When producing my maps, last Christmas, I'd printed them all and cut them into strips, then laminated them for waterproofing. Somewhere the strip following Eccelfachan, didn't get laminated and is probably somewhere in the spare room as I certainly didn't have it today. Route finding between the two towns was simple enough, straight up the B7076, with M74 on left and main West Coast trainline on the right. Where the map would have come in useful, would have been to settle an issue which was developing as I walked. The distance to Lockerbie was initial signed as 6 miles, some way into the walk the next signpost stated, Eccel 2.75 (the distance I'd walked) and Lock. 3 miles, totalling 5.75 miles. Soon after the next stated, Eccel 3, Lock. 3, back to 6 miles in total, but I'd just walk 1/4 mile and not credited for it. Then, a while later, it was Eccel 4, Lock 2.25. Now, 6.25 miles in total. So looks like the walk total is now 900.25, hope this doesn't happen to often, it ain't good for morale. What was good for morale was the the vision I had in front of me, when leaving Johnstonebridge. There in front of me was a group of a dozen females, in fancy dress, walking for charity. They had only 1/4 mile left, unlike my 350 miles. They certainly brightened my day. A break from the sameness. I'd captured this image as it came towards me on my camera, but as I bury my phone camera deep inside my bag, I couldn't take the picture with it. As all the images on the blog are captured on the phone, I can't upload this shot. You'll have to come to the slide show to see. The walk through Lockerbie, was certainly charged with emotion, thinking back those 25 years when a plane was brought down on the town by terrorists. The 32.8km's was covered by 15.40, which enabled me to watch the second half of the FA Cup final, before completing other regular tasks and watching Dr Who