Stiff, sore, tired, and happy, did we finish our second day in the shelter of a kind Dianne. A man called Nigel found us walking along the road in the harsh-and-too-cold-for-June-wind, and when we asked him if he knew a good place to put up our tent, he drove us the last little bit to Dianne's house.
From Stockholm's airport Arlanda we flew, nervous and excited, to Edinburgh this Monday. After spending the night, we were shipped by bus across Scotland, and yesterday me and Karl were dropped off in what felt like the middle of nowhere. We received three maps, our tasks and a hug. We were then left to find our way to now the finally revealed destination of this expedition, namely the town of Carlisle! With the help of a a nice local couple who were biking past us, we found where our location on the map, and started following the Southern Upland Way, a hiking trail that crosses Scotland from coast to coast. Since then we have walked almost 30 kilometres along the trail, slept amongst midges (a particularly annoying breed of flying bugs), walked past lochs, eaten a Terry's Chocolate Orange, and met several extremely nice people.
Our first night was, to be completely honest, quite awful. It was wet, bug-filled, and a little bit claustrophobic, since my rucksack took up half my sleeping space. Tip to future Explorers: do not buy the cheapest tent you can find, even though it might seem like a good deal to pay £10 instead of £200. You do not realise how nice it feels to be dry until it is too late. After being woken by the alarm of Karl's phone, featuring both Simon & Garfunkel and Shakira, we almost literally fled from the campsite, away from the midges and the dampness.
One of the brightest moments of our day was when we paused for lunch near Loch Trool. The wind picked up, blew all bugs away and dried our damp clothes. Karl cooked up some delicious oatmeal porridge, the sun peeked out and we started feeling normal again. After that we walked, and walked, and walked, until we finally arrived at Upper Craigenbay and found a place to sleep in the shed of Dianne and her lovely family. After enjoying two cups of tea while spending two hours chatting and peering over maps in their kitchen, we are now cooped up in the "Chalet" as they called it. We are dry, tired and happy, and excited about the future. See you in Carlisle!
Cheerio, Nils.
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