Soph's Canal Walk

Fifty odd miles, and some stinking blisters...

On a bright Saturday morning on the first weekend of June, Andy and I set off on another training walk adventure. We wanted an opportunity to walk the full distance of the challenge and planned a route over a long weekend, unlike the main event however, we allowed ourselves an overnight stop with a glorious bath and a restful sleep.  We spent the weekend walking the Union Canal route from Edinburgh to Falkirk… and intended to walk the same back the next day.  As the forecast for the weekend predicted showers with a 65% chance of rain, waterproofs were packed, but thankfully it didn’t rain once and instead stayed cool and dry.  In fact the more sensible of the pair whipped out the sun cream several times during the day…even though it wasn’t sunny I hasten to add!… and the less sensible one, well I ended up with a very red and sun burnt forehead!


Our first day of walking led us from Edinburgh around the outskirts of several West Lothian towns, including Winchburgh and Linlithgow with Falkirk as our goal, a mere 33 ½ miles away! The route along the canal was calm and peaceful for the most part; well if you don’t count what seemed to be a constant echo of bicycle bells! We had the company of many a duck, swan, signet and swallow, not to mention two canoeists come windsurfers who paddled along the canal at roughly the same pace as we were walking! I think they took the easy option! We also passed several barges full of people... well they passed us, some even had champagne! We looked longingly at the barges sticking our thumbs out for a ride; I think one barge named the Bonnie Prince Charlie passed us at least three times during the day!

I made a bit of a rookie mistake on this walk, one which I will not forget in a hurry. The two things I usually do to prepare my feet for walking are to wear two pairs of socks and prior to putting these on, I strap my feet with zinc oxide, or sports tape. Did I do either of these things?  No, and my feet paid big time! Andy was very kind and patient as I tried best I could to sort my feet out at our lunch time stop but unfortunately the damage was already done.  I did however eat the best and biggest Scotch egg I have had in a long time!

We hobbled back to the canal path and managed to pick up the pace again. Winchburgh was our half way point and it was great setting off after lunch knowing we were making good time. After this point we decided on a checkpoint for us to stop and sort our feet out and kept our eyes peeled for another bench to come to our rescue, I knew that if I sat on the floor, I wouldn’t be able to get up again! We marched on and finally stumbled across one 6 miles after our intended stop!

We were kept going and were occupied counting down the bridges, and looking for bridge number 26 (correct me if I’m wrong Andy!) as this was the last bridge we had to pass before venturing off the canal path into Falkirk in search of our bed for the night. Of course this bridge didn’t appear to actually exist, instead by pure luck we walked past a giant Tesco which allowed me to get stocked up on new insoles for my boots and many a compeed pack. By this stage and many a mile before it, I was really starting to struggle. My feet were in agony -  I could tell the blisters had come back, and some had burst, and even the wonder drug wasn’t helping, Andy was a superstar listening to all my moans and groans along the way and still managing to keep us both going! Through sheer determination and the thought of our dinner reservation waiting for us at the Premier Inn, we struggled through Falkirk to our hotel. The offer of walking further to go and see the Falkirk wheel, although interesting, was dismissed within seconds -  I don’t think my will power or feet would’ve lasted long enough to get there!  

Food, bath, feet and bed was pretty much the routine for the evening. The restaurant attached to the Premier Inn provided us with a very tasty meal.  I think I would’ve eaten anything at this point, but we were actually really impressed not only by the meal but also by the rooms - it was heaven! After dinner, Andy helped me with my blister ridden feet, one in particular was roughly 4cm in length and about 2cms wide, no wonder I was in so much pain! The thought of walking back to Edinburgh made me want to cry -  walking with blister free feet would have been no problem, but I did not have this luxury, instead my own feet looked like they were going to fall off! What a sorry state of affairs!

Andy and I had completely stiffened up by the next morning, we must’ve looked like a right pair, hobbling and flinching our way to breakfast! The breakfast set up was all you can eat! A fry up and continental breakfast! We ate so much we hardly had to stop to buy lunch! We decided that we would take our time on the way back to Edinburgh and phoned in our back up (Dave’s mum Mo) to be on standby in case we needed to be picked up earlier than expected. I put on a brave face and concentrated on the beautiful countryside as we marched towards and on past Linlithgow. We walked through a long dark tunnel at the start of our journey a lot of concentration was required here as it is almost completely dark with only a few pretty useless spot lights to guide us, thank goodness Andy had a torch! We spent most of this dark tunnel trying to dodge water drips, some of which were very heavy... and didn’t always succeed!

We came to the decision early on in the morning to make our finish point at Winchburgh, which was 17 ½ miles from Falkirk and our half way point to Edinburgh. We walked over the Avon aqueduct near Linlithgow which is 810ft long and is the second longest in the UK; and stopped to pose for some photos which we had completely forgotten to do on the first day!

The Avon Aqueduct

We actually made pretty good time on the way to Winchburgh and stopped off at a farm café/ restaurant, which was unfortunately rather pretentious, for a cup of tea. They actually ushered us to the seating outside, who would’ve thought our walking gear and rosy foreheads would be too much for them! I was religious in the sun cream spraying from the word go on day two and to say that Andy had said the statement ‘I told you so’ regarding my red forehead incident from the day before would be an understatement!

We gladly greeted Winchburgh and collapsed onto a park bench in wait of our support crew, Mo and Dave who came to our rescue, and were whisked off for a lovely meal out! Standing up and leaving the table after that meal out....well that's another story!

The four biggest lessons I learnt this weekend are: strap my feet, double up the socks, put on sun cream and have a supportive team!! The big 4! A great weekend walking, despite blistered feet. With 51 miles under our belts - next stop, bed!

Soph xx