I had an excuse to donder in to town along the WoL walkway yesterday, for the first time in a long time. It was a generally pleasant experience and I found some things that were significantly better than the last time I used it - and some that were not.
I discovered that the road through Saughton public park is closed off while work on the park restoration project progresses. There is a path which runs parallel to the road but (a) it's narrower, which increases the probability of conflict with pedestrians, and (b) access to it at the western end does not appear to be straightforward on a bike, with uneven ground levels and other obstructions making accessing the footpath from the end of the road unappealing. It's certainly a lot less easy than just blatting happily along the road, as I was used to doing previously. I gave up and retraced my route back to the bridge over the WoL and went down Ford's Road to join Gorgie Road and then Balgreen Road to regain the walkway next to the primary school.
The re-opened section under the railway & tram tracks and past Murrayfield was a definite improvement on the diversion route via Westfield Road which I had had to follow on previous visits. It was pleasant enough to ride, but the landscaping has some way to go before it looks like anything other than wholly man-made and machine-built.
I was dismayed to find that the path is closed at the point across the river from the sports club, where it nicks through an old gateway and down a wooden ramp. Apparently this is to allow repairs to the ramp...except that they were due to be completed in February. What really hacked me off was the lack of any kind of advanced warning (that I noticed, anyway) so the first I knew about it was when I arrived there to find that my only way of proceeding (as opposed to back-tracking, again) was to heft my bike up the steps to Magdala Crescent :( Not surprisingly, this was the point on the journey where my heart rate peaked!
The section between Sunbury Place and Dean Village is still closed :( I can't remember the last time I tried to go that way and found myself thwarted, it was so long ago. [EDIT: it was in May 2016, so getting on for two years ago.] I was very disappointed to find it still closed. I couldn't help pondering about the balance between spending money on fixing the problem, rather than on expensive-looking security fencing to keep people away from it...
After regaining the formal route of the walkway in Dean Village, onwards to my destination in the colonies the route was as I remembered it, with no unexpected obstructions. Which was nice.
Highlight: pair of goosander on the river by Saughton Rose Garden (so at least that diversion ended up having an up side).
Lowlight: unlicensed dirt bikers (noted on this thread).
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