And we're off....

The John Muir Way is underway. Day 1 started in Dunbar at the John Muir birthplace where a statue of John Muir as a boy is proudly wearing a traffic cone on his head. You can take the boy out of Scotland.... After over-excitedly getting my JMW passport stamped by the lovely staff there, and my companions fitting in some late breakfast bacon & egg rolls in the cafe next door, we started on the 15 mile walk to North Berwick. I was joined by my colleague, Matt, ex-colleague Katharine, and volunteer Sam today, and we reminisced about taking part in the John Muir Way launch festival in 2014 in Dunbar, as well as wide-ranging topics including whether roller-hiking boots with pop-out wheels for the downhills were a viable idea. We passed fields and fields of leeks, sprouts and cabbages, before a lunch stop in East Linton on a park bench and then the long long straight with Berwick Law getting ever closer. The weather and the surroundings felt autumnal today - brambles, apples, hawthorn berries, elderberries, and rosehips, with a rainy start and an even rainier end, but softened by a stop at Alanda's Ice Cream Parlour. A bit of microvolunteering too - a small amount of litter collected, a sign clean, and recording some of the wildlife we saw (hares, grey wagtail, skylarks, little egret - yes; llamas, pigs, ostriches, horses - no). Home by train to dry everything out and pick up the route in North Berwick tomorrow.