Bartimaeus

It feels like I had another cold immediately after the other two.  I had another day feeling completely knocked out and with my nose running like a tap.  I was noticeably better the following day, which was lucky as that was when we were walking with the alpacas.  By the middle of the week I was starting to look forward to going cycling again.

Each day the message got steadily clearer that Friday was not going to be a good cycling day.  By Thursday evening, our phones had jangled with an official “do not travel” message (three times on my phone, for no obvious reason) because of unusually strong winds all day in southern Scotland.  We took the hint and didn’t even open our front door for the whole day.  It seems that most people heeded the warnings, so despite the extreme conditions there were mercifully few serious incidents.

Despite being well outside the red warning zone, there were incidents at Calveley, less than ten miles from where Bartimaeus is moored.  The roof of a cheese factory was blown off and a nearby building collapsed on to the tow-path, closing the navigation.  The collapsed building has since been cleared – no news on the cheese factory debris.

I was keen to get out cycling on Saturday, but there was a biting wind forecast so I was really hoping the railway would be back in action – cycling in to a cold wind can be unpleasant.  Kenny and I agreed to reserve judgement until the morning.  We let the sleet shower pass and then set off just early enough to get to Prestonpans for lunch and review our options there.

The path was littered with twigs and small branches, and we saw a large tree that had fallen at the side of the Innocent Railway Path.  It was only when we got to the Brunstane Burn Path that we had to stop for fallen vegetation.  Fortunately we were able to push our bikes through the gap at one side and continue on our way.

A short distance further on we came across the modern indicator of high winds.  A trampoline had migrated and found a new home.  It might perhaps add extra excitement to bounce above a stream.

We got as far as Prestonpans where we decided to try the cafe Clare and I had discovered a few weeks earlier.  While we were enjoying our soup and sandwich I checked the state of the trains.  There were clearly still many problems, but as I had hoped, the main line was open again. Trains were still not running to North Berwick, but we could continue with the wind behind us as far as Drem.

We opted to head for East Linton station.  We had enough time to get there if we were quick, but the stiff breeze on our backs made that easy and enjoyable.  We didn’t get caught in the sleet, and It was only cold when we stopped!