Dumfries and Galloway

First, last night’s dinner at the pub was good. I had a steak and managed to avoid too much stooge! They offered Carole chips or jacket potato with her lasagne!! Like they do in Ireland, everything comes with potatoes in some form. (She said neither please, just salad!).

And this morning we had a good breakfast, continental and full English choices, and a good start before walking. Despite going to bed with still a perfect day, by this morning it was raining as predicted and we set off in our rain gear at about 9.30. It wasn’t heavy all the time, and sometimes almost stopped, but enough to get pretty soggy, and the ground, even though it hadn’t rained for a week, immediately got very muddy and puddly. With the consistent rain I found that my poncho wasn’t as impermeable as I thought. We’ve always been so lucky with weather on our Caminos that it may not have been put to the test and my t-shirt got quite wet which was uncomfortable and cold. It is much colder today, and hard to remember that yesterday we only wore a light shirt, and many people just had shorts and short sleeves. Any way it was all part of the fun, and it was a short flat walk today, along the firth and half way towards Carlisle. We did about 15 kms, and walked to Burgh by Sands (pronounced bruff). It is a tiny town, but famous for a statue of Edward I where they fought Robert the Bruce...Edward died here, but now buried at Westminster Abbey. Also there is a very old church, St Michael’s, built partly with stones from Hadrian’s Wall, dating back to 13th century, with some later additions (or maybe the later additions were 12th C!!). And it had been a garrison during the wars. So much history!

But as the inn at Burgh by Sands is closed at the moment, we were taxied back to Carlisle for the night (all part of the service) and tomorrow we get taken back to Burgh by Sands to walk back to Carlisle! So it means that we are 2 nights and this very pleasant B and B, and don’t have to pack up tomorrow morning, and have 2 days to get washing dry! So we are getting to know Carlisle well, and are going out to Indian tonight. Paul our taxi driver recommended one that is the “best in Carlisle” so we’ll put it to the test. Indian food in the UK is very good, better than I’ve found in Australia. But the other Asian cuisines - Thai, Malay etc are not anything like as good as in Oz.

Tomorrow’s walk is even shorter than today - about 12 kms I think, and still flat. The hilly more demanding part comes in the middle, so this is a lovely gentle start!Read more