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Another rare weather window and I have a few Marilyn stragglers in the Borders still to visit. My original plan was Panvalla and White Meldon but as it is Sunday and the traffic would be much friendlier, so I changed my plan which would involve travelling much further south. As it turned out I actually spent more time on the road in the car than I did walking up and down hills.
My plan of action was to tackle Belling Hill first and having researched (as I usually do) all the hills, a big thanks to Inca as I would be loosely following his route. There has been discussion on FB about not being able to download other walkers routes, but that has never bothered me as I prefer to plot my own route and then download it onto my old phone.
The drive south was pleasant enough, it is a few years since I have been so far down the A68 and one thing that was very obvious were the number of static speed camera's - is there another road in Scotland with more camera's I somehow doubt it. I understand the argument that speed kills, but it is funny how the majority of camera's are either positioned on a downhill section of road, or one of the few overtaking spots, rant over.
Large parking area, as described by "inca"
Start of the gradual ascent
Looking south
Track splits, I turned left
Plenty of trees have self seeded and thriving
End of the track
The way ahead
Now turning right and heading north through a fire break
A path!!!
Ground surprisingly dry
The summit of Belling Hill
Built a small cairn for future visitors
Looking SW almost back at the car
Belling Hill route
Now after a short drive to my start point for Rubers Law I found a "sort of" parking space on the single track road which gave me easy access to my planned route. I was expecting this to be toughest hill of the day and so it turned out, having said that it was still rather easy and took about an hour.
The single track road, no large laybys or car parks
My shortcut to get to the track
Final obstacle before reaching the safety of the track, Rubers Law in the distance
Track almost takes you to the foot of Rubers Law
Locals keeping an eye on me
Looks a bit wonky, any suggestions as to what it is?
I opted to follow the wall and keep on a direct route to the summit, the track is over to the right but I wasn't sure where it was heading.
Track is on the other side of this new small plantation
Looking back you can see the fairly obvious grassy bit I walked up
Looking north, nice angle of ascent
Looking south
Looking back
This is on the side of the trig on the summit of Rubers Law
Looking North towards the Eildon's
Top of the trig
Hawick from on high
Eildon's zoomed
Rubers Law offers fantastic all round views
The track that I didn't use on the ascent
Rubers Law route
Once back at the car I took my boots off for the longer drive north through Selkirk and then Peebles. I set the satnav for Peebles as that is all it is capable of and like all satnavs it took me on the most direct route, which involved utilising B roads and travelling through villages and hamlets that hardly ever see visitors. Once through Peebles it was just a matter of finding the unclassified road that would take me to the Meldons.
Useful blurb at the parking area
Looking back down on the parking area and the toilets that are locked up, note the wee bridge over the tiny burn
The road that takes you to Eddleston
One of the locals, not seen many black lambs
The bridge
Looking east from the summit of White Meldon
Unfortunately it looks as if White Meldon is too easily accessible to the 'low life', the toilets at the parking area are probably closed for the same reason
Looking south along the road that would take you back to Peebles
White Meldon route
Another enjoyable day albeit one of the easiest, as the title says 3 hills and only 7.5km walked, not good for the step count, the majority of the ascent was on Rubers Law. I have to admit they are not hills I will be re-visiting, but it is nice seeing parts of the country that I have not seen before.