After having been as far north in Scotland as we could go we thought it would be a good idea to go as far south as we could, so we headed for the Scottish Borders. We started the journey from Dumfries and took the A701 to Moffat, only stopping to buy some of the local toffee, we continued along the A708 which really should be classed as a B road as the first 5 miles are nearly single track, after that it opens out a bit and you are rewarded with some stunning views along the Loch of the Lowes. The first town you come to is Selkirk which we managed to bypass and made our way towards Galashields, there are a  lot of road works going on at the moment and diversions are in place, but not well signposted. After going round twice we ended up in Tesco’s carpark and fired up the satnav!! Eventually we made it to our destination at The Caravan and Motorhome Club site at Melrose Gibson Park, it’s right on the edge of town so do need to unhook the van when it was time to explore.

We had never been before so first thing to do was read through the info that the site warden had supplied and then find a coffee shop to decide on a plan.

Melrose is famous for a few things, like the rugby sevens that were invented here in 1883 and teams meet up for the annual tournament every April, and the impressive Abbey where Robert The Bruce’s heart is buried.

The River Tweed that runs along the edge of town is a huge draw for fishermen trying to catch one of the salmon that the river is famous for.

We took a walk across the Chain Bridge thinking that if we walked far enough we would come to another bridge to get back to town, wrong, we had to turn back, but at least Dave enjoyed it.

The following day it was time to move on with Berwick upon Tweed being our next stop but not before driving though the Border towns of  Kelso and Coldstream. It would have been wrong not to take a slight detour and we decided on a visit to Holy Island as the tides allow us to cross. you could spend a lot of time here with some lovely walks and lots of history. It was good to see that the restoration work that was taking place last year had finished.

It’s worth the walk along the coast past the upturned boats then the climb up onto the headland for some decent views inside the Priory.

The Club site in Berwick sits on top of a hill with some great views out to sea, as you can imagine it can get breezy, a 20 min walk and you are into town.

It was sad to see that the town is getting really run down, more empty shops than full ones, betting shops, pawn shops and charity shops. However the town walls are a good walk, clean, tidy and well looked after, as is the walk along the break water which is almost 1km long.

We had followed most of the Lowry Trail which is really well signposted,  previously we had done the Hemmingway Trail in Cuba which was more of a pub crawl, no such luck this time.

All too soon it was time to pack up and head for home.