Gatehouse to Gretna - 78 miles approx
A wet and miserable start to the day and after breakfast and packing and getting everything sorted, it's almost 10.15am before the pedalling starts in earnest.
A snap from the church wall at Borgue with the self timer. Look at that lovely weather. Still smiling though, despite the grey skies. The rain was that fine drizzle most of the time with the occasional heavier shower. Could have been worse though, and the wind was light.
Kirkcudbright.
Here you can see Ian posing by the harbour. He's been hanging around the docks for years of course. He's crossing his legs already and we're only 14 miles in.
Having spent the previous week in Egypt, Ian was to become increasingly reliant on these. Not so much spending a penny, more a few pounds.
The cycling cap under that helmet was great in the rain, as were the overshoes.
Endura Luminite Overshoes for those that are interested. Ian coveted them.
But 14 miles in by midday wasn't quite the speed we needed to keep up, so it was off again along the B727 to Gelston and Castle Douglas.
Somewhere between Kirkcudbright and Gelston, we spotted this.
I'm not sure what Ian's attempting to show, but I suspect he's exaggerating an awful lot.
Unless he's just had a dump.
Castle Douglas. 1.30pm. 25 miles in.
Is there a better place to have a lunchtime pasty in the rain, than a bus stop?
We ploughed on along the old military road towards Dumfries, which was a suprisingly hilly route, with the bit through Haugh of Urr in particular being a bit of a climb. Basically, it was slow going. Ian's not the quickest uphill, and the wet weather gear was getting a bit damp and sweaty which started pulling at my knee, so we weren't exactly flying along.
Now I'd been scouting ahead on the internet before we left, and there's a cafe in Dumfries called the Tree House Cafe which was supposed to be bike friendly and it was just off the route. Ideal spot for a meal and a coffee we thought.
Could we find it? We even asked directions, only to finally stumble upon it after half an hour of searching. Closed. Much swearing.
So, it was a stop at Greggs and a street bench.
No sign of toilets and then to top it all, Ian got a puncture somehow.
He seems quite happy about it though.
By this time it was 4.30pm and we'd only done half of the day's mileage in 6 hours.
But then, our luck changed. Some posh 20p a go toilets were found, and we hit the next section along the Solway Firth which was lovely and flat.
Here's Ian in front of Criffel. 5.20pm
The rain had stopped too. There was even the occasional flash of blue sky. We raced on along the flat roads at a good speed. Yay for those low resistance tyres.
6.30pm near Powfoot, about 55 miles in.
Starting to get dark, so we stopped to put on some lights. The temperature was starting to drop off too.
Look at that sunset though!
Does this look like the face of a man who's stopped in every public toilet for that last 55 miles?
Well, darkness fell shortly afterwards which sort of spoils the photo taking, but we pedalled on through Annan, and eventually made it to Gretna at about 8.15pm.
Here's an internet picture of our accomodation for the night, Surrone House, in Gretna.
The owner, Christine, was great, and as we were the only guests, despite the late hour, she happily made us a fantastic dinner which we were more than ready for.
The room was very nice as you can see.
(You'll pay for this shot Mr Photgrapher!!!)
We retired to the Crossways Inn just along the road for a couple of pints before giving up for the night.
We'd done 78 miles, 4 steak slices, 2 pasties, 3 doughnuts, 6 Cadbury's mini rolls and lots of liquid by this point. Day 2 will follow soon.
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