Monday 23rd August 2021
I have heard many good things about the Fife Coastal Path, so for many years I have had a desire to do the walk, and when I was trying to decide what to do on this holiday I eventually decided that now was the time when I would finally do this long distance trail. I had been staying in Dalkeith Country Park, south-east of Edinburgh, so first thing in the morning I caught a bus into the city and a coach from there over the Forth Road Bridge to Halbeath Park & Ride where I caught another coach that took me to Kincardine at the start of the Fife Coastal Path. However, rather than being excited at starting the trail, I was distracted by two related problems. Firstly, I was desperate for a toilet and couldn’t find one in Kincardine and secondly, the bottom of my rucksack was wet. Initially I thought the latter was due to it sitting on wet grass, but I eventually realised my water bladder was leaking. With these two pressing concerns on my mind I headed out of the small town and under the arch near Kincardine Bridge that marks the start of the Fife Coastal Path. Unfortunately the weather was not great with heavy mist that obscured all views leaving dull, grey overcast skies overhead.
After a frustrating half a mile I eventually managed to find somewhere discreet to stop and solve my first problem and then I moved my water bladder to a place where it would be less compressed and hopefully not leak. My biggest problem on this walk was not so easy to fix and that was the excessive weight of my rucksack. While I was in the Lake District earlier in the year, I had skimped on weight as much as possible, but for this holiday I wasn’t supposed to be walking with my full rucksack, so I’d filled it with as much stuff as I liked. I had not planned on starting the Fife Coastal Path until the next day, but then I changed my mind thinking that if I could get a head start on the trail then I would have more time later in the holiday to do some walking elsewhere. This was disastrous as you can’t walk very quickly or very far with a heavy rucksack. Very, very slowly I made my way beside quiet roads passing the disused Longannet Power Station until I eventually came alongside a now seldom used railway line that runs beside the coast.
The Fife Coastal Path follows the railway for several miles where I was provided with my first glimpse across the mud flats out into the misty estuary of the Firth of Forth. This was an awesome sight and kept me going as I wearily dragged myself along the trail until I reached the village of Culross where I was finally able to stop for lunch beside a very large anchor in a playground. After eating I resumed my shuffle along the trail soon reaching the Valleyfield Lagoons that were created from the ash leftover from the combustion of coal at the power station. This is now a nature reserve and there are paths around the artificial island, which was interesting to look at, but I just stayed on the coastal path beside the railway line eventually passing over the line and reaching a road that took me into the village of Newmills. I was now becoming very weak and my rucksack was beginning to crush me as I followed the road under the railway line and out into the stunning views across Torry Bay while the sun finally came out. I was aching with every inward breath, but for the moment the stunning views across the bay kept me going.
There were beautiful wildflowers beside the path and stunning views across the bay as I followed a path along the edge, but all too soon I had to leave the coast and climb agonisingly steeply up the hill to Crombie Church. After more than seven miles of flat walking while carrying a heavy rucksack, this was agonising and I was now really struggling to breathe, so I resorted to lifting the rucksack with my hands just so I could breathe. I knew I would not be able to go on for much longer like this. When I reached the junction with the A985 road I turned left, instead of right, off the Fife Coastal Path and walked into the village of Cairneyhill where I waited for a bus. My original plan for my first day on the trail was to do about sixteen miles as far as the Ferrytoll Park & Ride, but this was never going to be possible now as I was supposed to be at my campsite by five o’clock. When I reached Cairneyhill, I realised I had just missed a bus and had to wait a long time for another one and it took so long for get me to Leven that I didn’t reach the campsite until just after five o’clock, so I was getting phone calls to find out where I was.
With hindsight, I should not have started the Fife Coastal Path on this day. Instead I should have spent a leisurely morning exploring Dalkeith Country Park before slowly making my way to Edinburgh, where I could have spent some time looking around the city, before catching the coaches across the Forth to Fife and reached Leven mid-afternoon with plenty of time to check in. It is curious how badly my heavy rucksack affected me on this walk as this is not the first time I have struggled with a heavy rucksack, but previously it has not been as disastrous as on this walk. I wondered if it would have helped if I’d been using my walking poles, but we’ll never know. Looking to the positives, I had started the Fife Coastal Path, which I had been looking forward to doing for many years, eventually doing about eight miles and despite the misty weather conditions I enjoyed some spectacular coastal scenery that I was looking forward to continuing in the following days with a much, much lighter rucksack.
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