Week 37 - 23rd to 29th June

Monday 23rd - day 310

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.