After a stretch of walking up the A9 (where Dunc gets his hat blown off) we cut across some fields heading west inland.
Stopping for a rest by the side of the road a friendly postman is astonished to see us - "I've never seen walkers around this way".
We are not going the most direct route today so we can visit the Duddo Stone Circle. This early bronze age sandstone circle, erected about 4000 years ago, has been weathered over the years, leaving the stones with distinctive deep fissures.
To a winding woodland path alongside the River Till which takes us to the village of Etal.
Arriving at Etal we have a welcome stop off for some food and a rest. Our route out of Etal is via a ford but it's too deep to cross. A friendly local drives us fifteen minutes to the other side of the river!
Next to Branxton where I'm looking for the concrete menagerie. This is an extraordinary collection of animals housed in the garden of an otherwise ordinary semi detached house.
First created by local master joiner, 'Old John' Fairnington Snr the garden was taken over by his nephew, John Farrington Jnr and then his daughter kept the garden going when John Jnr died in 1990.
Dogs, zebras, snakes, deer, camels, sheep, swans, elephants, sharks, Winston Churchill, pandas and a giraffe. The animals were built up on a framework of chicken wire, stuffed with newspaper and rubbish and then covered with layers of cement. It's a fantastic example of British outsider art and genuinely one of the best things I have seen in my travels.
By the time we leave Branxton it's already 19.30. We cut onto a disused railway line high up on an embankment which takes us to Cornhill on Tweed.
It's then a short walk to the River Tweed.
Crossing the river, with the sun going down, a rainbow in the sky, and Sunshine on Leith playing on Dunc's Bluetooth speaker we arrive in Scotland!
