Dumfries & Galloway: 29/05/2016 to 31/05/2016

Sunday 28 May, Ayr to Monreith.

Howff- on the front , Ayr. Great Sunset.

Ayr- views across to Aran.

Noone about- marvellous.

Leaving Ayr on another beautiful day we headed through the Galloway Forest.  Parts of the forest were decimated.  We were later told that disease has hit the larch trees and they are having to destroy them to try to stop the spread of the disease.  It won't be possible to replant for 10 years.

We arrived at Monreith about 1pm, a gorgeous little village sat on a quiet bay.  The Ditchy's were out so we had lunch and on the way to leave them a note we found Gill and Emma. 

Beth was enjoying her first game of golf with her Dad so we went to pick them up and headed to The Steam Packet for a pint, ice creams and beer to take away.

Back at Portwell cottage it was so lovely we decided on an early every stroll along the beach.  Jay and Alastair gave a master class in dam building.  Beth and, in particular Emma, did well to show interest in the engineering lessons for at least 5 minutes before wandering off to collect attractive stones.

At the cottage Gill cooked up a storm while Alastair and Jay played on the park with the girls and planned improvements to their dam.

After supper Alastair and Lisa had a lovely evening boring G and J with tales of our travels and sharing our Springbank wares with J who was already struggling to stay awake.  Super late bed time for us at about midnight.

Monday 29. Monreith again.

J did a brilliant job of cooking breakfast for 6 in a kitchen not much bigger than Hamish's.

We had a lazy morning playing boule in the garden which turned into a Championship competition between Lisa and Jay, both so competitive that the girls, sensibly, took up gardening as a preferable entertainment.

Eventually we set off for our walk along the beach.  Jay quickly finding tools to undertake renovations to the dam.   Heavy construction work was soon well under way while Gill and Lisa enjoyed the sunshine.

Further along the coast we revisited Jay's childhood haunts finding caves, rock pools, sliding down great slabs of rock and scrambling along the coast.  Brilliant!  Meandering took us back to
the golf course, where we rested, allowing ourselves to enjoy the entertainment of watching other people trying to play.





We returned along the cliff tops to Portwell and drove into Port William seeking ice cream and expanding foam filler. 

Having gatecrashed their family weekend Lisa decided we had taken for too much advantage of the Ditchy's hospitality.   So we filled H with water and emptied our toilet then back to our Howff, allowing them to pack and rest before their journey home.

After tea we strolled the beach discussing how we'd manage water, toilets and washing clothes in Europe; such are our major concerns whilst travelling.  Returning we decided to use the caste iron porta toilets at the bottom of the cliff before bed.  Alastair watched Lisa emerge from her chosen facility, followed by the large, heavy, iron door, sliding past her arm and crashing to the floor. The iron hinges were completely corroded through!  Luckily it had just brushed Lisa's arm on its way to earth.

Tuesday 31 May, Monreith to Kirkcudbright.

Lisa woke early realising, from her sore arm, that last nights bad dream had not been a dream after all.  She is consumed with worry that someone might think she had broken the toilet.  So she resolves to explain to the local lady toilet cleaning volunteer exactly what had occurred.  We wait around.  Eventually the local person appears.  Lisa explains.  The local lady toilet cleaning volunteer listens and is pleased to know that the toilet damage is not the result of mindless vandalism.  She also feels it necessary to inform Lisa that Hamish is not allowed to park overnight in this roomy, empty, laybye, despite there being an overwhelming lack of signs, though, of course, she, and most of the villagers, really did not mind (honestly!).  Hamish wonders if this is yet another example of village-ist prejudice against Hymers?

Lisa having assuaged her angst, we set off for scotland's book town (Wigtown) and thence to scotland's artist town (the unpronuncible Kirkcudbright) via scotland's closed down distillery town (Bladnoch).  Scots seem to relish metaphorical places.

At Bladnoch Distillery, Yolanda was pleased to relate, in great detail, the recent history which featured, like so much of scottish history, a family feud resulting in the collapse of an empire and invasion by foreign powers.  In this case, however improbable, Australian yoghurt. 

Close by Wigtown surrounds its square with multitudinous shelves of second hand books, within quirky shops and tea rooms putting the three or four tourists to shame for their comparative lack of propensity.  Perhaps the books put people off?

Sneaky wee otters!

Kirkcudbright, in comparison, is SO attractive that Hamish can get no where near the town's centre and retreats to a forest glade above and beyond.  Luckily we therefore spot a couple of otters cringing in a hedge at the roadside.

Upon our further investigation they have disappeared but Alastair is already distracted by the adjacent graveyard (theme); wandering past he pokes his head over a bridge and spots the pair making their way up the burn below him!

Here they come.

Right below us!

Two of them!

Magical!

Magical.

Later we are told that otters regularly take a stroll out from the local wildlife park,  probably not so wild after all.

We see no pictures but settle on a howff opposite the good TS (training ship) John Paul Jones. JPJ was born nearbye and demonstrated his appreciation for his happy scottish upbringing and unreasoned hatred of the english by returning with an american warship to attack English shores during the american war of independence.  There are many local institutions proudly named after their local scottish hero!  Unfortunately it is sea cadet training night , so we have to stay awake till 10pm. "Ready Aye Ready".

Wednesday 1st June, Kirkcudbright  to Shap.

As the public toilet is within walking, rather than driving distance we have a slightly more restful start to the day.

We set off along the coastal route to Gretna.  The road is very quiet and broad so Alastair suggested Lisa has her first drive of Hamish.  Alastair was very good, hiding his clenched fists and gritted teeth but gradually Hamishs'windows steam over due to him sweating, To be fair to Lisa she did O.K., 5 minutes later Alastair was driving again.

First stop was Kippford or Scaurr. A quiet bay with a sailing club and houses dotted along the coast.

In complete contrast our next stop was Southerness, a similarly beautiful coastline wrecked by a caravan site, chippy, hotel serving burger and chips, bowling alley.  We abandoned the idea of lunch and headed out to the sound of banjo's strumming.

Eventually the coastline ran out and we were at Gretna.  We nipped into the services to find the Scotland Under 21 rugby team looking into burgers, very big puppies.

We headed for a howff near Penrith which would allow us to get home early Thursday.   The layby had been filled with tractor loads of cow dung by farmers. A reminder that as temporary travellers we experience the same hostility faced by  the travelling community possibly heightened as we had seen signs saying the Appleby Fayre takes place this weekend.

Back on the motorway we saw a howff indicated at Shap from where we had great views with the background hum of the M6.

Howff: Shap- magnificent view of the M6.

At this point we are always tempted to just drive home but after a long day we took the sensible decision to stop over.

Thursday 2nd June. Home.

Alastair had his worst nights sleep since we left Walsall and for a change its not Lisa's fault, just a dread of returning.   We were back on the road by 5:30am.

Obviously the traffic is horrendous so, including a service stop for breakfast, Hamish took 4 hours to get to Walsall.  Then Annie the Honda refused to start. I guess modern cars use electricity all the time, even when sitting still. I guess we will need a solar trickle charger for when we go away next time.

End of trip after 2 months.  l think we did pretty good. Most importantly we stuck to our £200 per week budget.  So we will continue for the time being .

On Tuesday Hamish is off to Brownhills Motorhomes to have a check up on his electrics.  More of that later.