Glasgow

Hi all

I am in Glasgow city centre.

Nice Faye, Elisa and the duracell batteries dog.

From Corehouse farm, Faye B&B, Glasgow was within walking distance, but I decided that it would be much better to do the distance in a couple of days. On saturday I started walking around 10 after a wonderful breakfast. I walked up the Clyde for half an hour or so, two cross it a walk at the other side of the river. All of this in a wood on a well marked path.
Soon I walked by the Clyde falls

Clyde falls

And not much later I arrived to New Lanark. The place, was built on the XVIII century as a wool mill factory. The owner of the factory built houses, nice ones, for his employees, and educated them, not only on reading and writting but also arts, history, and set up a library too. The place, between Lanark and the river is in the wooded hills that look at the river. Nice place, worth visiting. There is a youth hostel there too.


I went up the hill to Lanark town centre. The place is quite nice and I got quite a lot of donations. While I was shopping in Tesco, muffins and other things too, people would not stop coming to give me donations, small ones, butg everything counts. While i was eating outside the superstore, muffins and other things too, it was raining like hell.

For the day I had planned to follow the Clyde walkway. For the first bit I did not have map, and took the wrong side of the river, what made me walk on a road for a couple of hours.
For a while, at least up to Invergarry, I will be using 1:50000 OS maps instead the more detailed 1:25000. I will save some money by doing this, and I don't need the 1:25 because form here to the Knoydart I will follow very well singed posted long distance trails, the West Highland Way, and the Glen.. something way.
When I managed to cross the river, with some local knoledge aid, the walk run on a nice path by the river, once more in woodland. Soon, the wood disappear, and gave way to fields.

Crops fields south of Motherwell

I had bought some pork meat and beans, so I cooked it by the river. Nice place for something good. I did not have any chocolate for desert. Mistake, BIG mistake.

Cooking in the wild!!

Then, landscape begun chaging in more than one way. First, the noise of nearby big roads and farms like this one:

Farm land with Motherwell "skycrappers" at the horizon.

An then, the people. There were groups of people with childre enjoying the relatevely good weather, a few fishermen, and then, the drunks!

Families enjoying the river and the weather, but further up the river...

It was so weird to meet these guys, semi-naked, very drunk, on the countryside, and simply being annoying with whatever cross their way. One of the groups was formed by an unconcious semi-naked guy, standing; then the brainy one asking for a lighter; and the third one verbally abusing and threatening me (I guessed he was being nasty to me because between all the things he said, I could pick up some "....foocking.......,..... foocking.... foocking...). On the meantime, their nice friends were running with sticks after the calfs in a nearby field.... I guess they were paying their pub failed flirting adventures with the poor cows...


The picture above shows (sorry the lack of detail) one of the "cowboys" (the small white bit) chasing the poor animals. I did not take a picture of the commented three, taking into account the last stabbing and shooting stories in the Glasgow area.

I bumped into more drunks on my way, annoying but not rude, and the rest of the walk up to Strathclyde reservoir was nervous and unsettling.

I should say, however, that nice people is everywhere too, and Jenmy, very patiently gave me a hand to find my way.

The atmosphere was completly different once i got to the mentioned lake in Motherwell: mainly families and couples walking on the path by the shore.

Actually, by the time I took this picture, danger was gone.

At the other side of the water I could see a theme park with many of those devices i would not get into, not even drunk. As I said, the change of atmosphere was a relief, but I was very tired and the feet were aching.
The camping was at the north end of the reservoir.
The tendons that connect the toes with the feet were sore. Better in the sandals.


On the next day I walked in sandals, and the soreness diminished. It was time for another urban walk. it took me three and a half hours to get into central Glasgow, through Uddington, generally speking not too dodgy areas, excepting the last bit before actually getting into the centre. I had a couple of heavy showers, and i passed by the Premier Inn where i stayed with the Late Peakers for the Three Peaks Challenge, a few years ago.

Waitin for the rain to stop

I got to Glasgow before 2 pm. I walked by the Clyde again looking for the hostel. The place does B+B for £15 a night, in dormitories. Good atmosphere, and breakfast, recommended.
After the ususal cleaning duties in the hostel, went for a walk and bought some more maps

Dusk at Strathclyde theme park

In the evning i went to the cinema and saw Wall-E. Very good, also recomended. There is a bar, Osmosis, on the hostel gorund level. I chilled out there before going to bed, while i wrote my diary.

Glasgow from the air.

Today, monday, the sun was shining in the morning, and is still shining. The frst thing I did was looking for a swimming pool. I needed to take a train to it, 5 minutes, and swam for 30 minutes. Back in the centre, had a light lunch, and here I am updatting the blog. The rest of the day, I will continue to do nothing which is great: read the paper, buy some food for the week coming, go for a drink...

Waiting for train back to the centre

Everytime I updated the blog, it was a real pain having to tidy up the text I had written that was a big mess, where pics would be in the wrong place, and there would be big gaps between text blocks anb pics. I found a way to avoid the mess, so i don't have to do any extra work!

Me in George Square, Glasgow.

Tomorrow i start walking the West Highland Way. The "villages" on my way are not more than small groups of houses, so i don't know when I'll be able to update the blog again. I am planning to be in Fort William in7 or 8 days time, and then it's 2 days walk to Invergarry where I am meeting Jeremi and Co. This gives me lots of free time that I don't know very well how I use. Resting is one of the options.

After the walk in Knoydart, I am pretty sure I will walk Skye and Lewis.

The boots are still being a problem, the next 7 days will decide if they adapt to my feet or i need to buy something else.

That is all for now.

All the best.

Carlos