I've mentioned previously that southern Scotland, the
regions of Scottish Borders and Dumfries & Galloway, contains some of my
favourite biking roads. The area extends from Portpartick in the west to
Berwick upon Tweed in the east and that gave me an idea for a run.
I decided to ride from Portpatrick to Berwick on roads, as
close as possible, to a straight line between the towns. This journey, from my
home, would be about 380 miles. Possible but a bit further than I would like.
This is for pleasure not an endurance test. Luckily the M74 motorway bisects
the route and provided a way of splitting the trip into two 250 mile days.
(This posting will be in three parts. I usually spread them over a few days but we're going away tomorrow for a week so here's all three - enjoy!)
(This posting will be in three parts. I usually spread them over a few days but we're going away tomorrow for a week so here's all three - enjoy!)
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| My route |
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| Portpatrick |
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| SV at the Harbour |
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| Ireland is 23 miles away and I think I could just about see the coast |
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| Pity you don't have smell-o-vision - the woods were full of bluebells. Soon to be replaced by ferns. |
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| Heading away from the coast |
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| A real back road - on the way to New Luce |
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| Church in New Luce |
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| Newton Stewart |
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| Clatteringshaws Loch |
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| Water of Ken, New Galloway |
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| Moniaive |
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| Thornhill |
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| Dalveen Pass |
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| Daer Water Bridge. I passed this old job of mine. About 25 years ago the bridge was found to be under strength and I was told to fix it "as cheaply as possible" My design was to drive in pairs of steel piles with a cross beam between them to support the deck. It's rusting away slowly but should last another few decades. |
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| Is it just me or is there something odd about this plantation of trees near Crawford? |
Beautiful set of pics, Stuart. You always seem to get lucky with the weather. Isn't Scotland supposed to be rainy? And no, there is nothing odd about the plantation form. There.Is.Not. It's just a T. Nothing else. Moving along now...
ReplyDeleteI plan a trip then carefully study the BBC weather page and wait for a good day. I can ride pretty much any time so I usually don't have to wait long. We have a lot of cloudy days but not so much rain at this time of year.
DeleteI am playing catch up on the blogs as we were away camping all weekend.
ReplyDeleteYou sure do have the pretty scenery. I was surprised that the forest picture so resembled the ones here in Oregon on the 45th parallel.
Would that plantation be a capital T Sonja......I am really trying to think of something cheeky to say here but my mind is drawing a blank, it is a long hard climb out of the gutter.
It is no coincidence that the forest is familiar to you. It is probably sitka spruce which is not native but grown here as a commercial crop.
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