I did it - honest! (a post with evidential value)

 

VIRTUAL KILTWALK, REAL KILT, REAL WALKING

Many thanks to all those who've donated to my Virtual Kiltwalk page (or those who are still thinking about it...), with the top up from the Hunter Foundation that's well over £400 raised for Advocard.  I did the promised walk today, but since it was a solo effort, unobserved, you might harbour some doubts as to whether I actually bothered to whether I actually bothered making the effort to justify your parting with your hard-earned!  So I thought I'd try to provide a bit of evidence, and show some of the highlights of the Water of Leith Walkway, should you ever feel tempted to trudge that way.

A 5 step guide to walking the Walkway :

1.  Get a 44 out to Balerno

2.  Do some stretches to make it look to passing onlookers like you know what you're doing

3.  Take obligatory selfie with signpost marking the start.

4.  Start walking 

5.  Keep on walking until you get to the end...

The startline signpost tells lies.  How else to explain this one over 20 minutes down the road?  Is this to deter the uncommitted walker?

The first few miles are devoid of recognisable landmarks.  Mostly woodland with the odd break for the back end of spam belt housing outposts.  So the first really photogenic point on the route is almost an hour down the road - the recently completed murals in the Colinton Tunnel.  

The work of local artist Chris Rutterford, aided by sundry schoolkids and the local community, is a multi coloured marvel of words and images and visual stories.  If you're in Edinburgh and you haven't been to see it yet - why not.  This is just a brief excerpt of what's filling the 140m of wallspace.

For the rest of the walk there are plenty of familiar points to show where I've been so I took a few more along the way.  Starting with The Water of Leith Visitor Centre at Slateford.  No time to stop today, but it's a handy loo and sustenance stop if you're going for more of a saunter than a hike.

Twenty minutes more and I'm on my way through Saughton Park.

Followed rapidly by one of the city's most iconic sporting venues...

And then on to a far less recognisable gladiatorial arena...

Featuring the new mini-Murrayfield where I hope I'll be watching Edinburgh Rugby do their thing in X weeks/months time - ?

A little further and frst of the Anthony Gormley men embedded in the river - I'll be giving the Stockbridge one a miss, but the other two pop up a bit later.

Then the most tiring bit of the day - there's a couple of climbs to get up to pass by the scenic prettiness of the Dean Village.

Almost at Stockbridge, so why not a quickie of St Bernard's Well?

I promised another couple of those Gormleys.  Here's the one near Powderhall.

And then on to the same at Bonnington

And that means I'm nearly there.  It didn't feel like it, but coming out on to the sight of The Shore certainly did.

And then I was there, at the Victoria Swing Bridge, a tragedy of it's former self these days.  But the view's still pretty good.

And that was that.  Three hours and seventeen minutes of boot plodding interspersed with fleeting moments of stop-snap-go to take the above pictures.  

Of course the naturally suspicious among you (Hello George - where's my banana?) might justifiably query if those timestamps really show I've done the groundwork.  Might he not have used a bike between stops?  Or even drifted from one checkpoint to another on four wheels?  I accept you suspicion and counter with a screenshot of my step count/pattern, and a map of my walk.  You'll just have accept that I'm not smart enough to fake those.  That sounds credible, doesn't it?

Finally...  If anyone reading would still like to donate then please click on this link.

Thanks again.