JOGLE 6.5 Day 7 Sun 8 Sep 13

Depart Lauder at 09.00 Arrive at Ancrum 1700 (bus stop) to Jedburgh 1710 hrs. Distance 21 Miles.

A very good days walking. The weather glorious in the morning not a cloud in the sky until later in the day when it became overcast but no rain. Followed the South Upland Way to Melrose missed a turning that wasn't signposted but the alternative route we took through Wester Housbrytes which was in my opinion very scenic. I wasn't really watching the map too closely.  Had lunch by the Abby in Melrose along with a latte coffee which was nice but couldn't hang around due to wanting to catch the bus at Ancrum. We followed the No 1 cycle path through the Boswells and then picked up the A68 to the start of the Roman Road that runs parallel to the A68 and is much safer although no longer straight and very uneven to walk on. Got back onto A68 and headed for the Ancrum turn off only to see the bus go shooting past us. We started to run for it only to see it turn around and head back to the main road, we flagged it down and the driver, bless him stopped for us, that saved a two hour wait for the next one or a six mile walk into Jedburgh. Perrymans No 51. £1.70. The Hotel room was good and was in an Annex and the shower was good as well. Ian was quite poorly that evening and had me worried for a while, but he had made a full recovery by the morning. I had a nice evening meal in the hotel restaurant. We managed to persuade the staff to serve us breakfast early so that we could catch the bus in time to get back to Ancrum to carry on where we had left off. It has to be said that Perryman’s runs a very good service in the Borders area.