Thursday
Where was Bertie? In the car park at Black Loch (SW of Clatteringshaws, Dumfries & Galloway)
Weather: Disappointing! Fog, fog and more fog, with some rain thrown in.
The pull-in by Shap is an exposed spot (which we already knew from past experience) and the wind picked up considerably overnight. The resultant buffetting disturbed Mick's slumber more than mine, but we were both awake early (although not as early as our neighbours, who had already left by the time we opened our blinds).
Fog was the theme of the day, as we drove to our destination, held up considerably on the Dumfries bypass by four way temporary traffic lights at some roadworks on a roundabout.
Taken just west of Dumfries, just before the road climbed into even worse visibility.
The cloud was down at 150m when we parked at Black Loch, from where I intended a circuit of two hills. In the event, we did one on Thursday and I did the other on Friday morning (as reported in full on t'other blog).
Friday to Sunday
Where was Bertie? in Glen Trool
Weather: Friday afternoon and Saturday were okay. Sunday started fine but became grey and wet.
Not long after we settled Bertie in the car park at the end of Glen Trool, two cyclists came along. One of them, who nearly ran into Bertie as he failed to unclip from his pedal in an elegant manner, loudly exclaimed, whilst nodding towards Bertie: "How did they get that up here?!". I resisted the urge to pop my head out and tell him that we drove up the public road.
We had, however, had to breathe in and duck to achieve that, with trees overgrowing the road for the last few hundred metres.
Between Friday afternoon and Sunday lunchtime, I managed to do all of the hills I wanted to visit from there (again, reported on the other blog, if you're interested). I even got a view from most of them.
We could then have left the glen, except that given the number of cars we'd witnessed coming and going, even into the evenings, and knowing that our progress along the road would be slow due to the overhanging trees, and certainly not wanting to meet an oncoming vehicle, it seemed that the best time for us to leave would be 6am. So, we opted to stay for one more night (whilst once again the midges held a midge-fest outside).
Where was Bertie? In the car park at Black Loch (SW of Clatteringshaws, Dumfries & Galloway)
Weather: Disappointing! Fog, fog and more fog, with some rain thrown in.
The pull-in by Shap is an exposed spot (which we already knew from past experience) and the wind picked up considerably overnight. The resultant buffetting disturbed Mick's slumber more than mine, but we were both awake early (although not as early as our neighbours, who had already left by the time we opened our blinds).
Fog was the theme of the day, as we drove to our destination, held up considerably on the Dumfries bypass by four way temporary traffic lights at some roadworks on a roundabout.
The cloud was down at 150m when we parked at Black Loch, from where I intended a circuit of two hills. In the event, we did one on Thursday and I did the other on Friday morning (as reported in full on t'other blog).
Friday to Sunday
Where was Bertie? in Glen Trool
Weather: Friday afternoon and Saturday were okay. Sunday started fine but became grey and wet.
Not long after we settled Bertie in the car park at the end of Glen Trool, two cyclists came along. One of them, who nearly ran into Bertie as he failed to unclip from his pedal in an elegant manner, loudly exclaimed, whilst nodding towards Bertie: "How did they get that up here?!". I resisted the urge to pop my head out and tell him that we drove up the public road.
We had, however, had to breathe in and duck to achieve that, with trees overgrowing the road for the last few hundred metres.
Between Friday afternoon and Sunday lunchtime, I managed to do all of the hills I wanted to visit from there (again, reported on the other blog, if you're interested). I even got a view from most of them.
A random selection of snaps from the hills.
We could then have left the glen, except that given the number of cars we'd witnessed coming and going, even into the evenings, and knowing that our progress along the road would be slow due to the overhanging trees, and certainly not wanting to meet an oncoming vehicle, it seemed that the best time for us to leave would be 6am. So, we opted to stay for one more night (whilst once again the midges held a midge-fest outside).
Monday
Where's Bertie? He's been in lots of places today: a car park in Newton Stewart; an official 'Stay the Night' location at Clatteringshaws Loch; a car park in St John's Town of Dalry; and, finally, a pull in off the A713 a few miles north of Dalry.
Weather: Some sunshine, some cloud and a small amount of light rain. Quite cool.
Up at 0550, and on the road at 0600, we didn't meet any vehicles either on the skinny section of road, nor indeed anywhere in Glen Trool, as we bobbed and rattled our way out of the glen on a road of quite awful quality.
I'd commented to Mick last night that there were two more hills I'd like to visit just a few miles north, but accessing them would involve a drive along a tiny road and I'd not checked it out on StreetView. It was only after we arrived in Newton Stewart that it occurred to me that we had turned onto that road between two large logging trucks who had just come down from the direction of those hills, suggesting that we could easily have driven up there.
We were in Newton Stewart by 0630 and, in need of supplies, we intended to have breakfast in Aldi's car park, whilst waiting for the store to open at 8. We were slightly waylaid just a few yards short when I spotted a public toilet. I wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to empty our cassette, even though our next intended stop was a service point.
As odd as it might seem, I wish I'd taken a photo as it must be the smallest public toilet I've ever come across. In a building about the size you would expect for such a facility, the door to the only open toilet was about half the width of a normal door and opened (outwards - no room for it to open inwards) to a space considerably smaller than your average cubicle in a multi-toileted set of public toilets. There was no room for a sink and thus whilst I was able to empty the cassette, I wasn't able to rinse it. Or so I thought at the time. We're obviously out of practice at this motorhoming malarkey, as what we usually do in such a situation is drain some water from the grey tank and use that to flush the cassette, but that didn't occur to me until later (when the smell emanating from the now-empty cassette was, ummmm, what's an appropriate word? Powerful?).
Around to Aldi we then went, to find it in the middle of a 1-week refurb closure. What bad luck! Fortunately, there was a Sainsbury's across the road, so it was in their car park that we breakfasted and in their store that I shopped.
Next to Clatteringshaw's Loch, which is the location for one of Forestry Scotland's 'Stay the Night' official motorhome overnight parking areas. We didn't want to stay, but we were hoping the service point there would have a tap. It didn't, but we did take the opportunity to belately use our grey water to flush the cassette into their toilet emptying point. We stayed there an hour, paying for a ticket to do so, in return for their provision of the facility.
Next onto St John's Town of Dalry, where we stayed a night (in the Inn) whilst walking the Southern Upland Way a few years ago. Today we just wanted somewhere to sit for a few hours, having decided that today was a rest day from the hills.
After four days of being parked with no phone reception, we made good use of the signal we had there and we also gave some custom to the snack wagon outside one of the Inns (discovered whilst walking a circuit of this 'Town' that is more of a small village), opting for burger (Mick) and chips (both) for lunch.
Finally, at tea time, we moved on again, coming to the foot of the road up which we want to drive in the morning, to access tomorrow's hill. It may be that the car park at the top of the road would be suitable for a night-stop, but we didn't want to drive up there to find that it isn't, so this spot, just off the main road will do for tonight, even if it's not the most level spot we've ever pitched in.
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