664 miles / 1068 km
The weather wasn’t look good today – not this afternoon anyway! After a wonderful night at an airbnb I wasn’t ready for an early start, and to have to get out of the comfiest bed Ive slept in in SO long!! I knew the rain was gonna come today… the weather app said I had till about 1pm. Well they weren’t wrong!
After a breakfast of leftover Chinese food from last night I was fuelled and ready by 9.30. I knew I only had a few hours ride to Dumfries, which I hoped to hit the town before the rain came – I was cutting it fine! I had a few excursions I wanted to hit on the way up to – being the ‘Scotland welcomes you’ sign and gretna Village!
Totally worth the 2 mile detour was the ‘SCOTLAND WELCOMES YOU’ sign! Me and Lionel took some wonderful selfies! Glad to have made it all the way up to Scotland and excited to spend 10 days getting right to the top!
Soon after the welcome sign was the village of Gretna Green – a cute little village, with a huge tourist attraction in the ‘Famous Blacksmiths Shop’. Wow, now that little part of the village was plopped there just for tourists. It was full of Chinese tourists. First time I’ve seen this my whole trip! Land’s End wasn’t even like this… nore the lake district or Snowdon.
Anyway, this leads me to the funniest story so far on this trip. I’m walking around amongst the ‘tourists’ taking my snaps, and under the arch some Chinese tourists wanted their photo, they almost throw their phones at me… which leads to another couple asking for a photo… and another. At this point I have a handful of cellphones! I take their photos and think nothing more of it. I park my bike up just outside the gift store and pop in to grab some postcards, still a little bemused by the characters here.
I come outside an the same ladies who I took photos for, were now lined up to take photos sitting on my bike…. yup, they’ve got on my bike and got their buddies to take photos. First of all Im surprised the bike didn’t buckle under them as its not the easiest thing to get on when it’s fully loaded. But they managed it and got their photos. I wait, I laugh, I take photos. Thinking thats the end of me weird Gretna Green experience…. it’s not. I get on my bike to peddle away and the ladies start running after me… I’m very confused so I slow down. They run ahead and across the road and beckon me to come towards them… they wanted a photo of me in action riding my bike. I mean…. seriously, I can’t make this shit up. It was like they had never seen someone ride a bike before. I have no idea who they thought I was or what I was doing. None of them speak a word of English (other than ‘photo’). I peddle on.. relieved that no fan group has followed me and head on the Dumfries.
Conscious of the impeding rain storm, I peddle fast for the remaining 20 miles. I stay on the A roads, as its drizzling and the roads are already starting to get wet! I make it to Dumfries by 1.30pm and head straight to the train station to store my bike.
I unload my bike, and head to the pub. To a trusty Wetherspoons to get a beer and some lunch. Nice to be able to stop for lunch for once! waiting out the rain, writing my blog, and return a few calls! Another 45 minute ride to my couchsurfing place for the night and hopefully an early night! Glad of an easy ride today! My ankle is defiantly thankful, and for once not hurting more than the day before!
The afternoon rain started to lighten up, so I pushed on for 8 miles to the place I was couchsurfing this evening. A nice gradual uphill at the end, but I made it up, not as soaked as I thought I would be, and happy for a hot shower and a cold beer! Day 13 done! Tomorrow I head to East Ayrshire!
Good Night
