After the busy weekend, all has returned to calm this morning on the campsite, so it is a pity we are not staying around to enjoy more of it!
But today we are hitching up again and driving over to Castle Douglas for 10 days of exploring the lowlands. Tom and Lize have already given us a few pointers, I think that we are going to be busy!
The journey across country was beautiful, but it felt like I spent many miles on the phone, as it looks like two people have asked to rent 104 so we have some decisions to make – and of course some waiting to do, whilst this unfolds.
We arrived at Castle Douglas, our next campsite at 4pm, and were quickly settled in. We are staying on a working farm, sharing a field with 3 other caravans, nestled between a lake with swans on it, and a field with sheep in it. We noticed that while the swans were very serene, the sheep were very grumpy. Apparently they had spent the day in the pen waiting to be sheered, and once they had all had their winter coats removed they were led back into their field, and they were not impressed, for 20 minutes or so they protested loudly to the farmer that he had no business stripping them off and they needed the central heating turning up!Tuesday 24th - day 311
The weather has not been good today, rain and more rain, delaying our departure from the caravan. By early afternoon it had cleared up enough to venture over to Dumfries, the nearest town, to purchase maps and birthday presents!
We had not expected too much of the town, but were very pleasantly surprised. It had a wide river running through it with several lovely bridges quite close together, making a pretty picture.And the town centre was very upbeat if mostly modern (except for this rather impressive fountain in the centre of the precinct), and the Tourist Information Centre which had a really
charming stained glass wall panel right across the whole of the entrance.We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and then dashed home to escape the rain, which had started up again!
Wednesday 25th - day 312
The weather forecasts are not too encouraging at the moment, but we set off regardless, to explore the East Stewartry coastline, starting with Castle Douglas. What a good start to the day, (apart from the rain) The lovely long High Street was a celebration to good food – first class butchers, bakers, chocolate makers, deli, fishmongers etc, plus a really delightful little Art Gallery, which displayed beautiful crafts, but the shop was also was a gem itself.
We left Castle Douglas and took a bit of a circuitous route to get to our next destination, because
I read that Kippford was on the opposite side of the estuary, but once we had set the map the right way up, and had eaten our pasties (bought in unfortunately the first and worst bakery that we passed) we had the journey sussed, and set off in the right direction! By now the sun was coming out, and we were able to enjoy a refreshing walk along the length of Kippford sea front down toward Rough Island.
We left the village behind, and walked down a long residential drive by the water, as we moseyed along the lane, we became aware of eyes staring at us out of the hedgerows…….. on 
closer inspection we discovered there were lots of drift wood sculptures lovingly and humorously put together for the delight of passers by, fortunately the creator of these gems was tending to his latest spectacular on our return journey so we were able to let him know how much we had enjoyed them!The second eye opener of the walk was the beach which was made up entirely of cockle shells, millions of them lining the shoreline, large and small and mostly in tact. This was a first, and very
crunchy to walk on!I think we could have stayed and played in Kippford for the rest of the day, but we would also like to see Kirkcudbright, so off we go again.
Unfortunately we arrive as most of the interesting places are closing and going home for tea, but we enjoy another wander round, until we find a hostelry open and serving tea, hurray, we sat in a sheltered spot enjoying the early evening sun in this newly refurbished 7 bedroomed hotel, which - they hoped – would all be ensuite by the end of the season, good for them.Thursday 26th - day 313
It rained again last night, and this morning, which caused a wobble in the decision to go walking today! But it cleared up quickly and so we were back on track for the drive down the length of Loch Ken to St John’s town in Dalry, where we are going to park the beast and follow the circular walk described in book of walks. It pour heartily on the way there, prompting a discussion on how much of our wet weather gear we will need, but it had cheered up completely by the time we parked up.
We packed everything just in case, and set off down a lane past a church with the pointiest spires we have ever seen. The sun shone warmly on us as we crossed the field to the lane by the 
Garroch Estate, and we headed down a quiet lane which became a lovely dingily dell, after we had past a small hydro electricity power station!It was wonderfully fresh and fragrant after the recent rain, and we were enjoying its stillness, and we certainly were not expecting the downpour that burst upon us to spoil the calm! It cleared up quickly though, and we climbed the small “Waterside” hill in sunshine, wading
through waist high bracken sparkly green after the rain. We lunched, sat on a rocky outcrop over looking St John’s, and just as we were setting off again we are met by a lovely sheep farmer on his quad bike, which he dismounted, to engage us in conversation for the next 15 minutes. We didn’t leave until he had found out all about our travels, and told us such details about himself as – he doesn’t like the taste of lamb (not bad for a sheep famer!!) and that he had saved £800 on insuring his vehicles by switching insurers. We enjoyed our chatter with him very much, but we did leave wondering just how much insurance he has to pay if he is saving £800!!
We made it back to the road by another power station, but this one had a very pleasing stepped slipway by it, which was worthy of recording – so we did!Then it was back to the car for a much needed cup of tea, before making the journey back down by Loch Ken.
Friday 27th - day 314
Well, rain almost stopped play today; we set off in good faith for an explore around Sweetheart Abbey, lunch at the viewpoint at Drumburn and a good leg stretch along the coastal path at Rockcliff.
It started to rain at New Abbey, so rather than pay to wander round the (Sweetheart) Abbey
(most of it clearly visible from the fence anyway) we paid for a visit round an oatmeal mill, which was a fascinating journey through local history.
We were there – of course – longer than intended, and lunch was delayed until 3.30pm and by the time we got to the viewpoint it was pouring, and the cloud had come right down so there was no hint of Cumbria to be seen across the Solway Firth. We sat a while and in the end the cloud lifted long enough to make out Silloth, but it was time to move onto Rockcliff, which we still wanted to see even if we were unlikely to set out walking.
By the time we arrived the rain had stopped, and our bums were feeling numb enough for us to make the decision to go for walk, but 10 minutes in the heavens opened again, so we went as far as the headland to get an atmospheric view of the village then legged it back to the car. We were soaked and the car was so steamy on the way back, we were sure folks would be thinking that we had had a good time!!Saturday 28th - day 315
As a day planned, it has to be said that it did not go entirely according to plan. It started well, as we popped into Castle Douglas for provisions, but could not purchase any gas, so went on to Kirkcudbright, and managed to swap one of the two cylinders here, and the drive to Glentrool
was very pleasant, but then the fun started. We ate our picnic lunch sitting by the fast flowing brackish and swirly River Trool, and poured over the walker’s map that showed us a 6 mile route round the Loch. The problem was that there was conflicting information, and no matter which angle we stared at the page from we could not make the pieces fit. First we walked over the bridge and turned left (as described in the instructions) but when it became apparent that we were not going to come to another bridge in the foreseeable distance, we retraced our steps 
back to the starting point, and tried another route. This one was marked “Southern Upland Way” which was encouraging as we were due to meet up with the SUW later in the walk, so we took that track. We had a lovely walk down along side the river, its rushing sounds reminding us regularly of its presence, but still we did not find a bridge, we did however turn a corner and on rejoining the river found that it was now flowing the other way – now that was a mystery! Finally we crossed over – not one but two! – bridges, the plot thickened. The answer came half a mile later when we came across one of those very useful map boards, which showed that we were a full 3 miles off track, having started from the wrong carpark!!!!!! We won’t dwell on who was map reading!So once we knew that we were not walking round Loch Trool, but down the Water of Trool valley (although a little anxious as we were walking in a quite isolated area without any sort of map) we decided to continue, as the path was wide. It was probably a lovely forest trail, but somewhere between not having a map, and not even seeing the Loch, it did not quite live up to its expectations, and a little relieved we found the road again.
On return to the car it became my mission find the Loch, so we drove to the Bruce Stone memorial, and got a splendid view all round – and it has to be said – without much of the effort! We also had a fine view of a little Chiffchaff sitting in the Silver Birch chirping away.
On the return journey, we drove back along the scenic route through Galloway Forest, looking for Red Deer, but no joy, but the sun did come out – for the first time today, and cast fabulous colours and shadows across the valley.Sunday 29th - day 316
Although the forecast has been for bad weather, we in fact have enjoyed a lovely sunny day for the most part, though a little windy. We are walking again today, and are better prepared! We are going back to walking a coastal path, which in many places has strong resemblances to North Cornwall. We reached the sea at the end of a mile walk down Physgill Glen, a lovely green and woody path, and turned left to go and visit St Ninian Cave first. This little rocky shelter seemed
to have great spiritual significance to the many pilgrims that made a vigil there, but I have to say it was a little lost on me!We left the cave to set off along the coastal path to Burrow Head, the sun was on our faces and the wind was behind us (best draw a veil over that!) the path was narrow and tricky but the
views were worth it, including a good view of the Isle of Man, although it took us a while to work out what we were looking at! We got as far as Burrow Head, with hopes of seeing the Cumbrian coast line, but I don’t think that we were far enough around. Instead we sat awhile watching a Gannet in flight, it was so graceful with its long straight wings, and it looked very elegant next to 
the seagulls. By the time we came to walking back, the cows had wandered down to the cliff path, accompanied by their babies so some care was taken to pass them by without disturbance, no chance they are all to nosy to let us go by unnoticed, but, at least they were undisturbed.
After an uneventful journey, we arrive at our first Scottish camp site, strike that out and put in holiday camp! There is a shop, restaurant, social club, children’s playground and area dedicated to static units. Let’s just say that we are extremely glad that we are staying here outside the summer holidays!
Actually the tourer field is very quiet at the moment, and the facilities are excellent so I think that we will do very well here for the next week, especially with Edinburgh just down the road!
with its two harbours and old castle ruins. It would appear that we were visiting in John Muir’s Country Park, and there were information boards around the place, one of which told of the raw deal the Scots had had, at the hand of the English (oh boy, had forgotten that bit!!)
The harbours were very pretty though and walking along the sea shore, as always did the spirit good, as did the walk back into town, where we saw some fine examples of Scottish house building, which once again turned our attention to the happy ponderings about where we might be living at the end of our trip.
sheltered outcrop of rocks by the lapping waters to take our repast (!), and guess what, the tide was coming in, (we have been reading about tides and it seems that the tides are always on the move!) I don’t know why it is so fascinating watching the sea rise and fall, but it is, and we could loose many hours to this fascination!
gallery, well it would have been rude not to pop in, and as a result we may have bought some glass panel, candle light illuminators, we didn’t today, but we may go back!!
trippers round the bays to explore what the clear waters may reveal. We headed back, supposedly by Mire Loch where we were led to believe that we might see Whinchats and Redstarts, but the path was through dense under growth, so we saw nothing!!! We made our way back to the coastal path after that, with pictures of cups of tea floating before my eyes, as the stroll to see the birds had rather become a hike!
given an adverse weather warning! One young family arrived this morning with their tent, and although we offered our assistance they gave up and left; and during the day another tent was flattened, is this a Scottish summer – I thought their summers were wet not wild!
We walked back along the beach to town, and the sand was so whipped up, that rather than sun burn, today we have wind burn!
we witnessed the increasing population of the sea, by wind surfers and kite surfers. We were not sure whether there was competition between them, but they were both moving very quickly across the water - we went home for a rest!
had few charms and there was little to stir us, so we left quite quickly with lunch (from lovely bakery) in hand and headed back for Coldingham Bay, just outside St Abb’s Head. It turned out to be a really good decision as the bay was idyllic, wide warm clean sands sloping gently down to a clear blue sea, and the sun was definitely shining on us! We found a sheltered spot to eat our lunch, and settled for our little repast. After a small discussion about whether we should pick up 
the coastal path and walk toward St Abb’s we soon decided against such vigour and settled back against the rocks and closed our eyes for just a mo………………. 2 hours later, we didn’t even bother to have the discussion about having a walk, we just returned to the car and drove straight round to the tea shop that had nearly tempted us earlier and this time went in! We lingered there until closing time, enjoying the warm sun, blue sky, green fields and quiet serenity – if we had known what was to greet us on arrival back at the campsite, I think we may have stayed till really late. We had left a virtually empty field this morning, but since our departure half of Newcastle had come and pitced their tents and gazebos all over the place, and the music was playing loud, the burgers were sizzling and the stongbow was flowing – great – after some discussion we decided not to sit outside for supper this evening!
And what a choice, all the fragrances were distinctive and had much more personality than the usual perfume counters, which made choosing my favourite a protracted affair, but my own olfactory guru guided me to the final decision and I am very pleased with my little purchase.
There was such a lot to see in the castle, mostly military history, but they had set up a mock prison for prisoners of war, and it had been done so effectively it was possible to envisage a scene in the mid 1700’s of men of different nations all holed up together, sleeping three in a row in tiny hammocks (no wanting to go for a wee in the night!) and living in very cramped and dingy conditions.
and the staff were there to move us along, there was no lingering over slow food, it was queue, fill the plate, eat, pay, go……….. so we ate slowly! Just as well really as there was a vast array of Chinese dishes on offer, (most of them tasting the similar) and we could go back as often as we wished (3 for Chris, 2 for me, oh where were the kids – they managed to go back 8 or 9 times, last time we did this!) Although it was not “haute cuisine”, it was a lot of fun, and we did enjoy it, and eat well, as you can tell from the picture of the prize prawn (what do you mean which one!)
make a hasty retreat back to their cosy dry homes. We had planned to go to Melrose, but the torrential downpour kept us indoors. By 2pm though it had cheered up enough to make the journey to go and visit the famous old Abbey.
Cistercian Monastery was even more interesting because we were given an audio guide to inform our meanderings, although Chris’s tape recorder seemed to be playing mind games and took him all over the place - sometimes back to the beginning! I was exhausted by the time we had finished, and that was just listening to the tape of a young monks day – which started at 2am, when the brothers were called to rise (they didn’t get undressed from their day clothes so 
that they could slip quickly from the bed to the presbytery for prayers)
know that we were in Edinburgh, and got the reply that they were too, and tonight we are going over to their flat for supper!
market. It was lovely to see Lize (Tom’s sister) there as well. She had been driving down from Findhorn to Knutsford and had stopped to join T&S for the evening too.
centre and walked up to White Moss common, down to Rydal and along the river to Grasmere, following the path along the lake until it joined the road that took us back into Grasmere.
eagle eye Mint who noticed a large stone by the side of the road, and he was lost for a moment in the mists of time as he stopped to read that he was standing by the “coffin stone” where the coffin bearers could rest as they carried their burden on its final journey to Grasmere where the deceased went to be buried as there was no church in the Ambleside.We left White Moss to join the river walk towards Grasmere, and the green of the bracken and beech trees, and the light off the water were a delight to the senses, and we dawdled along drinking every bit of it in. The joys did not end there as we walked by the lake we noticed (not for the first time) the electric blue of 
several May Fly dancing around the green shoots, as well as a pair of Great Crested Grebes fishing for their supper.
still lovely and we are determined to get out onto the fells. We leave the car at home and set off for Sweden Bridge. The fell forms part of the Fairfield Horse Shoe, but we are going as far as Dove Crag and then turning right to return down Scandale Beck to take in the very lovely High Sweden Bridge. It is a steady incline up to 750 ft (highest for us, if not impressive to others!!) 
but there are rocky outcrops along the way, making for interesting moments! It was also very windy higher up, making progress slow until we crossed the wall to walk the other side of the wall. After several(!) rest stops we made it to the cairn, and the rewards were so worth the effort. We could see for miles around, Fairfield on one side, Hartsop and Dodd on the other, and 
Brothers Water a long way down! We picnicked in the shelter of a wall looking down over Scandale Beck. It was a very peaceful scene, disturbed only by the sound of Skylarks and the very occasional fellow walker. The Bracken made a bright green carpet right across the valley, and it rustled and swayed in the wind, as we made our way along the path down to High Sweden 
Bridge. We met no other walkers until we got to bridge and then we only saw one older lady who was bird spotting!
Lakeland track, with the slate grey of the walls, the bright green of the bracken and the pink of the foxgloves, a familiar scene at this time of year! We strolled on into the Golden Rule, for a well earned pint, but we were still in good condition (all except for Chris’s knee!) which is our real reward!
“Village Baker” so we decided to pop in and get a sarny, but when we stepped inside its organic loveliness we decided to stay and eat, what a joy, all was very lovely.
From there we drove on to Alnwick to stop for a look at Barter Books, as we had missed visiting 
it on our previous visit. We were glad that we had made time for it. It was an old railway station, which now sold vast quantities of second hand and antique books. Above the shelves was a working model railway, with a couple of steam trains chugging round the track. There was also a 
reading room, lined with benches filled with colourful cushions. It rather resembled the old waiting rooms with an open fire at one end waiting to be lit, and newspapers on the tables. There were coffee making facilities so you could get really comfy there and get lost in the books for quite awhile.
Lowry, and famous for its three bridges. It has to be said that it was a strange visit. It started badly as we parked up, to go in search of the castle and other historic sites, but found we were wandering fruitlessly around some dingy back streets. Finally we found our way to the walls and then to the Barracks museum. Our attention was caught by a sign pointing to an art gallery, so in we go. Once inside my own art critic glanced around at the empty walls and went up to the man on reception and asked boldly if they were still waiting for their displays, but a rather affronted finger pointed to a wooden tree in the middle, and replied “no!” It was not just any tree, but a computer designed tree, which a video explained for us – in some detail!!
The museum was also a little surreal; it was laid out in 3 parts. The first set of rooms were set out very traditionally to celebrate the history of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, the second set of rooms were set out in displays and story board form to explain the life of British Infantry, and the third rooms were a colourful display of Berwick’s history – plus a mini Chinese exhibition!!
soaked all who were out in it, especially those inappropriately clad! We made haste back to the car, and took a drive round town to see if it improved, and as we did that the skies cleared, the sun came back out and Berwick shone, and started to look much more inviting!
North Sunderland there is a circular walk, taking us towards Beadnell through fields of very healthy looking, ripening wheat, before we reach the shoreline to walk back to Seahouses. Today the sea is going out (rather than coming in which it always has done while we have been here). This means that we are able to walk along the rocky outcrops, right round to Seahouses. We 
stopped to picnic on one of the many rocky promontories, unhindered by anyone, and it was only the cool and persistent wind (not Chris’s!) that forced us to eventually move on.
pleased to capture this Heron on film (several times).