We've finished section 1 already! It might not have been a week yet but the 'Revier March' as Peter Wright refers to it, extends from the borders to the central belt. It feels like the end of a section for me anyway, partly as we've done a very hilly chunk in the borders and now for the next few days we're farm dodging along roads with far less climbing so will be a different type of toughness. The last thing that changes for this section is our support driver. Tom has been with us for the first week but now he's off home and I expect that will make the next few weeks a little harder.

This has been such a long anticipated trip and so thoroughly thought through I hadn't really had any time to think through how I might feel on the trip. Would it be exhausting? Will the sun shine at all? Will we navigate successfully? Needless to say it's a big mix of the above and best of all it's been really enjoyable so far. 

The terrain has been far better than I had dared hope and has been largely runnable. The 1st 3 days crossed forests which I was dreading as we knew there had been substantial changes in the area. Although I'd reccied the 1st section with Emily earlier in the year, a crucial turning had disappeared and meant we spent a long and anxious time wading through felled trees with precarious branches sticking up and mud baths in between, it was a soul destroying 40 minutes covering very little ground and combined with the continuous rain we saw throughout the day was very demoralising.

The plus side of the first day was that there were 2 access points for us to be cheered on at and I was grateful to see the van so I could put on new trainers - within half a day I managed to destroy a relatively new pair.
We ended up being out for around 10 hours which was far longer than expected and fairly dispiriting. It was around 3 miles longer than planned and although not necessarily harder than anticipated, we definitely saw it at its worse. 

Day 2 was a slightly cheerier start and was much shorter than the first day. We had a lot more forest to contend with though and within the 1st couple of hours it burst our bubble of hope for an easier day. We had to use Stuart's gps as we needed the 1:250000 detail to decipher little forest breaks where we could get in to the forest and try and navigate through. It was a difficult approach to the forest through very tussocky ground, covered in heather and we both managed a few falls. 

It was no relief to get into the forest as Stuart's GPS started misbehaving and the breaks weren't as clear or as simple as they appeared on the map. 

Over this section we couldn't follow the true watershed too closely as it's impossible to cut through the forest unless on the paths or breaks. Since we weren't on the watershed anyway I suggested deviating from the planned route and cutting into very clear paths. 

I think Stuart may have come up with numerous ways to kill me as we clambered over rotting wood, slipping and sliding, ducked under branches and generally tumbled through forest for quarter of an hour. Luckily for me it paid off and we found ourselves on a very easy fire track. The sun burst trough in celebration and we were toasted throughout the afternoon. 

The fire track wasn't too direct but saved us a lot of time and we ran straight to our accomodation at the Samye Ling Buddhist centre. The grounds are lovely but I was quite keen to rest my legs so didn't explore too thoroughly.

Day 3 was the last day with any forest and it started promisingly in the sunshine. Tom ran the first few kilometres with us which was particularly good as he found the bridge that both Stuart and I were searching for at different points of the river.

After that navigation was straightforward and the paths were the same as printed on the map which made for an easy morning. There was a slightly dicey moment where tree felling was happening right on the path that we had to cross and it really is the most terrifying machine that can slice straight though an entire tree without problem. We were enough of a novelty for the workers to stop and chat rather than reprimand us.

There were some more overly exciting trail breaking before we finally left the forest behind and got onto an open ridge. Originally we'd planned to leave out some of these smaller peaks as it seemed prudent to save our legs a little at this stage. However, it didn't take long to realise that the ridge was much easier on our ankles and there was a very fine dry stone wall to keep us on track. 

A lot of the watershed coincides with historic borders which are still marked with fences or walls and this helps navigation a lot. Pleasingly there had obviously been a quad bike in the area which had also followed the watershed, this made the going even easier for us. Curiously the quad bike trails jumped from one side of the wall to the other numerous times along the way, I can only assume that quad bikes fly in the borders.

On Thursday we were similarly rewarded with an easy to navigate ridge and largely manageable underfoot. To get us from our starting point onto the ridge we followed a decent path up beside the grey mares tail falls. This provided us with stunning scenery and was easy going, apart from the climbing of course, until we reached loch Skeen where we had some classic watershed bog to wade through.
Despite a lot of climbing during the day the weather turned out far better than expected, it was a pleasingly straightforward day and morale was high. Wildlife was scarce but for the 1st time since we started we saw other people! 5 in total, it almost felt like we were missing the true watershed experience with human contact like this. 

The final day of the Reiver March had an awful weather forecast. Heavy rain and high winds were not appealling. The start of the day also involved more modified forests with a windmill farm for added confusion. We had the most dreich first couple of hours, improved only by the fact that we followed a decent path which coincided with what was on the maps. 

I think we got a little cocky with this however and stuck to the path longer than we should have. By the time we realised this we were on the wrong side of a small valley and it was hard work correcting our mistake. If there's one thing I've learnt this week, it's not to trust paths. The sad truth is, on an adventure like the watershed, they're very unlikely to lead you to where you plan on going. Although this isn't true of the ridges, through forest and field we've been led astray too many times this week! 

After this minor correction we followed tractor trails for the next few little peaks. I kept a close eye on the GPS and took careful bearings and we had a very successful afternoon. The weather improved substantially and we didn't have to wear waterproofs all day long! We finished in a shorter time than expected and in high spirits as a result.
During our first five days we've accumulated 94.8 miles and climbed 5094 metres. Despite falling numerous times the watershed has so far been more enjoyable and manageable than I imagined. Even in the rain it's been mostly lovely and we've not been too hounded by midges yet. Let's hope it carries on as well as this.