Southern Scotland Late June

Our arrival in Scotland was high speed into the river valley that formed the border. We stopped, marvelled at the beauty, took the photo, and slogged our way up the next hill. We stopped for a breather at the village of Claygate when suddenly the door of the house opened and out came the occupant. We got talking and found out that she was a cycle tourist as well and she passed on some good local knowledge before offering us chocolate for the ride.

Just outside Langholme we re-joined the A7 and stopped again for a

quick bite to eat. I walked out onto the bridge to view the river and was greeted by a view of a large house on the banks of the Esk River. Just beautiful. We had been in Scotland just 2 hours and already we were loving the place. In the town we stopped at the pub for a cuppa. On our way out of town we stumbled across an old cemetery where we stopped for lunch. We wandered amongst the gravestones which reminded me of the menhir at Carnac in France.

As we were leaving we stopped and talked to an old Scotsman who was riding his bike. He was in his late 80s and was fit as a fiddle. He was on his way up the river valley to get some cow dung for his garden and he bid us farewell just as the rain started. It never stopped for the rest of the day so when we arrived absolutely drenched at Lockerbie (where the Pan-Am plane was blown out of the sky by terrorists many years ago) we hunted out a hotel to stay for the night and dry out. We covered every possible spot with wet

clothes and ate hot chips for dinner.
I have to admit that during the day we both felt like giving up on our adventure which for the last few weeks had been fairly miserable and only made bearable by the wonderful people we met along the way who always encouraged us. The only thing that stopped us was the price and inconvenience of changing our plane tickets. We had individually felt like tossing in the towel at times but today was the first time we both crumbled.

The next morning we put our wet weather gear on again. As we left, the cleaner who was Polish, bid us farewell with a phrase I have now stolen. His exact words were “ I wish you wide roads”. He is the second Pole I have met in the UK and both were absolutely delightful. We stopped at Tesco's to stock up for the day where we chatted to another cycle touring couple.
We found our way onto the B7076 which runs right along side the A74

( M ) and cursed the big trucks who were using it as an alternative to the motorway. The roads were empty and there were no villages along he way to shop for food.
But best of all was the cycle way. It often was on the B road but often they had turned a former dual carriageway into a single carriageway for cars and the other side had become a fully dedicated cycleway complete with rest areas, picnic tables and road signs. The Scots have certainly made huge strides to improving the cycling infrastructure.

At Abington we found our campground for the night and as we set up for the night the famed midges arrived. Every cyclist we talked to about Scotland mentioned midges first, the rain second, and the scenery third. Not a problem. I just sprayed myself in the anti-midge and continued on. The campground had a kettle so we made lots of cups of hot coffee to warm up. We also found that the hand dryer was really useful for drying our wet sleeping bags and the like.

We tried really hard to keep the midges out of the tent but we had failed miserably so I asked for some fly spray which we used liberally inside. Then off to sleep for the night. The next morning I awoke to find that the anti-midge was a miserable failure and I had around 250 – 300 midge bites on my legs and arms and face. They were raw and red and very itchy. Sally had none.

We set off for Hamilton but continued on to Glasgow where we wandered the streets of the city asking at several hotels if they had a bed for the night. “Of course sir. Only 500 pounds for the night.” Eventually we found a good one at only 40 pounds a night but we would have had to lock the bikes on the street overnight. The last time we did that in a big city they were gone in the morning so we said no thanks and continued on.
Our last option turned out to be a winner. we came to the Premier Inn where the staff were oh so friendly and helpful. We left the bikes in the foyer while we went upstairs to the bar to book the room online and while there we were offered a complimentary cuppa to warm us up. The bikes were locked in a room overnight and we went off to bed.