Day 10 - I'll take the high road and you take the low road.

We heard our first Scottish accent when having a good hearty breakfast.

I did not get a picture out of the window this morning, as Ray's bed had the windows. So here is one of the guest house.




Our ride started this morning with a puncture.



We cycled up to Gretna and took the obligatory photo of the "Welcome to Scotland" sign. We had to move on quickly as others wanted to take their photo.



We then had fantastic views going along the Galway firth.



Although we appeared to be heading directly towards this rather ominous peak.



Fortunately we turned away from it and headed into this beautiful area.







As you will see it was a gloriously sunny day. Just what we wanted after yesterday.

We reached Dumfries after about 30 miles,which we initially thought was a ghost town until we got into the centre. We went to a fantastic old bike shop. There the guy running it and his sister, cleaned and oiled both our chains, fitted new brake pads to my rear brakes that had worn down to the metal, pumped up Ray's tyre and gave us a half bottle of dry oil ( don't ask me, but it oils the chain! ).




While they were doing that, we went to a café/bar and had some very slowly served lunch. The woman running it had an old chip helping, but he was more of a hindrance than a help as he had to ask her about everything he tried to do and he could not deal with any customer request.

On our way out I'd Dumfries, we passed a wedding with a piper.




We then needed to decide whether we were going to take the northern hilly road or the easier but longer southern route. After talking to Dave, and a couple of people on route, we opted for a more southernly route but with some extra cycle path to reduce the hills.

The cycle path route gave us some exceptional good views.
Of areas where we were the only people for miles around.







To finish the day I had s puncture 6 miles from Newton Stewart, but Ray refused to take picture saying that I did not look like I was pumping up a tyre.

The hostel tonight looks rough on the outside but is really nice on the inside, with a friendly but brusk guy.



Although Ray was very keen to show the bike chain mark I got when putting the bikes into the bike shed, as apparently it is called an AC, for amateur chain mark.



Cheers
Paul

Riding the length of the UK so you don't have to ;)
You can sponsor me at
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