Only about an eight mile or thereabouts ride from home to Belfast Port on a quite chilly and dry day, with just the threat of rain but I managed to get to the Port of Belfast, checked in and on to the Ferry before the very heavy rain blew in on the North Westerly.
A few miles up Belfast Lough on the Ferry and it was much warmer and Sunnier, I settled in to my chair with a hot brew and a Mars bar for a very pleasant crossing over to Cairnryan and the start proper of my short tour.
About two and a half hours later we were called to disembark after a very calm and pleasant sailing across the Irish Sea.
Down the A77 towards Stranraer for almost five miles then left and shortly after a right turn to follow the Messan Burn on a lovely quiet lane which turned in to a Woodland gravel route around the Black Loch at Castle Kennedy. It was warm sunny and dry but it was also obvious that the region had seen significant rainfall in recent days, anytime I rode across a more grassy boggy section my momentum immediately stopped as if I had slammed on the brakes. But soon I was back out on to a tarmac road and traction and forward momentum was no longer a problem.
I was now on a familiar road, the road to New Luce, having previously ridden this with my then Cycling Club on an away day, day trip to the Mull of Galloway Lighthouse. A lovely quiet, rolling road running beside parts of the Southern Uppland way and lined with stone walls. Progress was slow despite a gentle tailwind, I’m a rubbish climber as is but the heavy load of luggage attached to my Kinesis Tripster ensured I was climbing even slower than normal and the 36 tooth cog on my cassette was seeing significant action.
Through New Luce and I took a left on to another small, winding, undulating road passing Glenchamber wind farm, the purple heather and the wind turbines forced me to stop for a few Photographs and a song came in to my head.
O the Summer time has come
And the Trees are sweetly bloomin'
And the wild mountain Thyme
Grows around the bloomin' heather
There was approximately one vehicle every ten minutes on this road, cycling bliss!
Onwards through Balminnoch and passing Balloch of Dee caravan site progress was slow, both from my heavy load but also from the stop start nature of the ride as I like to stop and capture Photographs and or video clips as I go. Another quick stop at Challoch to Photograph a place of worship
and onwards in to Newton Stewart and a food stop in a Pizzareia. I was unable to buy water here but there were copious amounts of Irn Bru for sale.
Leaving Newton Stewart via the narrow, “grass up the middle” road known as old military road I was still following my Wahoo route which I had planned a wild camp at Loch Grannoch. Old military road was a delight.
I then jumped on to part of NCN7 through what looked like a former single track railway converted to a greenway to avoid the busy A75. I am glad I cycled it to see what it offered but to be honest I wouldn’t use it again, a bit too narrow and way to stop starty to keep opening and closing gates but it was worth a view and offered up some great views across the valley below. The signs warned of a 30% gradient, luckily for me this was a downhill so down in to the drops and have at it!
I was now back out on to the road again and before long was in Creetown. It was now quite late in the evening so no time for a look around, so straight up another steep ramp and shortly after a left turn in to a great little road. This road should have led me on to a gravel path and onwards to Loch Grannoch. But when I got to the end of the tarmac road I was in a farmyard and large chained up gates prevented access to the gravel path, very frustrating considering I could see the path I was supposed to be on. But with no forward access and no local knowledge of how to bypass my barrier I was forced to do a u turn and head back the way I had come.
The light was fading fast so I stopped at a small burn to filter some water then started checking out a couple of spots to possibly pitch my tent. The first one was elevated from the road and had a stone wall for shelter but the ground beneath was rocky and uneven. The second potential site was in a field, the very long grass was saturated, I was concerned that the damp would seep up through the lightweight floor of my tent and wet my mat & sleeping bag. So onwards I went before pitching up in a clearing in some Woodland beside a river.
About an hour after pitching up the Tent on came very heavy rain, it would not stop for the next two days. It woke me from my broken nights sleep at 4am and the thought came in to my head about what happens if the river floods as I’m pitched very close to the edge of the river. Luckily it was not an issue.
