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Scottish Borders Holiday

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Today has been a splendidly sunny day, T-shirt weather. And trousers of course :)

We took @Adopado ’s advice and took the road past the AA box to the spectacular Megget and Talla reservoirs. We stopped and walked across the dam wall at Megget.

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We then drove to Galashiels and while we looked around I put the car onto the CPS rapid for a top-up. Unfortunately this was another crippled rapid giving just 15kW, but at least I got a few percent while we had lunch. Sadly the high street in Galashiels seemed to have many more empty shops than when we visited last year.

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Then on to Melrose, a nice little village. We found a rather nice ice cream emporium and decided it would be rude not to partake in a double scoop waffle cone. Unfortunately the CPS rapid at Melrose was ICEd by a Hyundai MPV, so no Watts to be had there.

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Luckily just about three miles down the road is another CPS rapid at Newtown Saint Boswells, tucked away in the car park of the Old School. When I first plugged in I was getting 41kW - great I thought! However, within ten minutes, presumably because the battery had then been warmed up, this had risen to the full 50kW!

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I’d always thought the 50kW rating on these rapids was a theoretical maximum. With both the Leaf and the Kona electric previously the most I’d ever had out of a 50kW rapid was about 43kW, even at very low states of charge. Once the Model 3 had worked its magic optimising the battery temperature it was managing to suck the full 50kW, amazing. And it carried on at 50kW until the charge reached about 85%, when it started ramping down. This was also much better than I’d ever seen on the Leaf or Kona. So not exactly Supercharger speeds, but not bad.
 
Luckily just about three miles down the road is another CPS rapid at Newtown Saint Boswells, tucked away in the car park of the Old School. When I first plugged in I was getting 41kW - great I thought! However, within ten minutes, presumably because the battery had then been warmed up, this had risen to the full 50kW!

I live here and I don't know all this charger info!! I should be taking notes! :D
 
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Reactions: Flatchat and Roy W.
It was a wet, rainy morning today, so a nice lie-in was called for. The rain had passed by early afternoon, so after lunch we had a run out to Hawick. The river Teviot runs through the town, and the town hall building is quite spectacular.

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Most of the local coffee shops weren’t open yet, so we had a drink in Costa, then called at Aldi to get a few groceries.

The highlight of the day was the journey back to Saint Mary’s Loch. Instead of the A roads we took the B711 and B709, which was a brilliant winding single track road through lovely scenery, avoiding the roaming sheep and cows!

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No charging required today. As we neared the cottage the clouds were coming down again.

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The highlight of the day was the journey back to Saint Mary’s Loch. Instead of the A roads we took the B711 and B709, which was a brilliant winding single track road through lovely scenery, avoiding the roaming sheep and cows!

In which case you may be interested in an unclassified and unsignposted road that goes between the Yarrow and Ettrick valleys. It's known locally as the Swire road. If you are heading east from the cottage it's easy to incorporate into your route as it joins the Ettrick valley road (that you will have crossed today further along) and can take you in towards Selkirk. No traffic so you can pause to look at the views without upsetting anyone!

This link is for its junction from the A708 at Yarrow (even Yarrow doesn't have a signpost!):

Google Maps
 
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Where did summer go? It certainly isn't here in the Borders at the moment. As usual it seems to have slid down the country towards the Isle of Wight! Anyone in Ventnor please have an ice cream on my behalf and think yourself lucky!
 
Where did summer go? It certainly isn't here in the Borders at the moment. As usual it seems to have slid down the country towards the Isle of Wight! Anyone in Ventnor please have an ice cream on my behalf and think yourself lucky!
Yes, another wet one it seems. But I’ll bet they haven’t got the thrill of driving through the clouds on the IoW :)
 
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True, but Scotland tends to take it to the next level...

Milngavie - "Mulguy"
Strachan - "Straw-en"
Finzean - "Fing-in"

:)

Brilliant ... UK place names can be nuts!! I'll have a final go at meeting your challenge :D... how about Magdalen College ... Maudlin? Ynysybwl, Cwm Clydach or even Beaulieu or Rampisham or Leominster or Quernmore... nobody would have a clue about any of those unless they had previously been told ... I'm a true "Brit", born in England, Welsh grandparent, lived in Scotland since childhood ... so I (and I think you do too) celebrate the delightful nonsense of the language(s) and pronouncians and spellings ... but I'll just say Scotland has plenty of competition in the place names game! ... and we've only touched on Wales ... let's be honest, they'd beat the rest of the UK hands down!
 
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It may be too late to be of use this time, but perhaps for future reference this is a really good site for scenic/interesting routes in Scotland -
https://www.motorcyclescotland.com/routes/

I used it as a basis for a tour from a base in Moffat last year and had a great time. Although it is aimed at motorcycles, nothing I saw would have been any trouble for a car.

The pic below (assuming its loaded) is looking back at Talla Reservoir near Tweedsmore and is highly recommended.
 
The pic below (assuming its loaded) is looking back at Talla Reservoir near Tweedsmore and is highly recommended.

Yes, that's the road to Tweedsmuir from Cappercleuch as mentioned by Roy. I ride a bike too but we have had a bit much after lockdown in the Moffat direction on the A708 (not the pictured road) ... a guy on a Kawasaki was killed at the Grey Mare's Tail section at the weekend. Weekdays you can drive the same route and barely see another vehicle.