Dundee to Dalgety Bay

I was still feeling pretty full when I woke up the next morning but I would soon be walking it off. At first glance it looked to be a miserable day, it was still dark outside and raining. When I ventured out though, it turned out to be a lot worse than it looked. I wasn’t carrying my full bag as I was staying in a caravan in St Andrews that Jill was going to drop my bag at. I was soaked in seconds and couldn’t even see the opposite end of the bridge.

When I got up onto it the wind and rain was straight at my face. It took 15mins to get across and was one of my pockets actually filled up with water. Once over I hid in the subway feeling a little bit abused.

Setting off along the Fife Coastal Path I was hopeful it would get a little better but was disappointed. Most of the path was flooded and the water was starting to seep in through my waterproofs now.

Once I got into the forest at Tentsmuir it was a little bit more sheltered from the wind at least even if the rain was still getting through. The paths were still flooded and I was in there quite a while until coming out in farmland near Leuchars air field.

I had to take the road into Leuchars itself then through the RAF base with a brief stop for a scone at a bus shelter. Once I had got to Guardbridge it was all roadside path to St Andrews as the rain started to let up and the wind dried me off a little bit.

I know St Andrews is the home of golf but it was still a bit of a shock just how many courses are there. I got some food then continued on past the castle and cathedral and out the other side to head up to the caravan park. I let myself in before the rain started up again and was battering the caravan roof. My bag was there so i set about putting my wet clothes up to dry and watched tv eating donuts.

The rain was still going in the morning but let up slightly as I got ready. I only had my daysack again when I set off because Gil was picking up my rucksack and meeting me where I finished. The rain stopped and I climbed the fence back onto the coast path. The path went up and down into bays quite a lot and the weather had decided to be sunny so I started getting a little bit hot.

At Boarhills the path goes inland along farm tracks to get over a river and back out to the coast. There were a lot of golf courses on the following stretch and numerous times where the coast path signs said to just walk the beach so I was lucky the tide was out. A path through the Kilminning nature reserve took me to Crail which was another quite attractive town. Out of there the path had been covered in rubbish and flotsam from the recent storms.

There was an interesting rock formation with loads of arches along there too.

Going through Anstruther i got an ice cream and continued on to Pittenweem stopping for a go on some swings on the way. Out of St Monans the path was closed because of storm damage so I had to take the high tide route that lopped round to the castle there. I didn’t get to Elie until half 5 but decided to press on to Lower Largo anyway. I got past shell bay slightly inland but the river crossing on my map was nonexistent. I had to head out to the beach to get to meet the bridges taking me back in again annoyingly.

I got back to the beach and followed it to Lower Largo, arriving at 7. I met Gil at the Robinson Crusoe hotel and had a drink then went to the van for some much-needed food.

I was sleeping quite well until a lorry came and emptied the bottle bins in the car park. I set off at 9 saying bye to Gil for the last time of the walk.

Once past the hotel I was down onto the dunes and beach to Leven. Some old guys stopped and talked to me along there, one of them walked off whilst the other kept on talking. Once up at Leven it was road walking to Buckhaven along quite a skanky stretch. There was a path out of Buckhaven to East Wemyss along the top of the slope.

Out of West Wemyss was a mixture of path and beach, having to go up over an old colliery and down into Dysart. It was a really hot day again and I had a fair sweat on walking down through a park to Kirkcaldy. There was a path by the railway out of there to Kinghorn. The view over the Forth to Edinburgh was really clear now. There was a stupid loop to go round then I was back onto main road over to Burntisland. The links there were nice.

Out of there I needed a friendly local to point out where the path actually was. It runs right along by the railway crossing it to go along the seaward side after a bit. When I got to Aberdour i had to get round Hawkcraig point and should have camped round there because there were some good spots. Stupidly, i carried on so I had to get through Aberdour before I could start searching out another one. I ended camping in a field next to a straw bale after trying to flatten the cut straw beneath me rather unsuccessfully. It was right by the path but people stopped passing by eventually.

Advertisement