Rockcliffe to Creetown

I woke up feeling pretty ill after seriously overeating the previous evening. My family was leaving that day, so I had to repack everything and we didn’t set off until 11. We all walked from Rockcliffe to Kippford along the shore, which didn’t take long at all. The beach was completely made up from shells and crunched like snow.

The others then headed back to the car, whilst I continued on up the river on the road towards Dalbeattie. They picked me up and we drove to castle Douglas to check out the Sulwath Brewery there. I was still feeling rough so didn’t enjoy it as much as I could have, but mum and dad ended up with 3 crates and Jon and Jade with 1, so the guy did well. After that we had lunch in a nearby pub before I was dropped back off by the river and they made the long journey back to Portsmouth.

I was on the main road down to Palnackie but the weather was fairly nice at least. At Palnackie, I took a lesser road out to the headland and then joined a path around that. I then tried to get across to the next point with some success at first, but then having jumped over loads of little river gullies I hit one I couldn’t get over. Back to the road it was. I did have the fun of using a tree as a bridge though.

At Auchencairn I was able to leave the main road again and head out to the coast proper. It was half 6/7 when I got to the point, but had seen a loch on the map I wanted to stop at so carried on along the coast path to Rascarrel. At the top of a climb, I had an awesome view. Rockcliffe to my left, St Bees head in front of me and Isle of Man to my right all in the evening light. When I got to the loch I had another treat as the sunset and sky was mirrored in the waters perfectly. Unfortunately there wasn’t much space for tent pitching though. I carried on and found an ok spot eventually and collapsed for the night.

I slept really well and felt a lot better in the morning. The path took me back out the coast and to a foot bridge. Over this, the path went along the shore but disappeared very quickly leavinge to clamber over rocks. There was an awesome rock bridge in one mini bay though. Still, I needed to get up so I scrambled up through brambles and nettles to the fields above the beach. There was actually a path up here as well.

Soon I reached the point where I would have to go inland, but first I had to get across a little stream valley. It would have been easy if it wasn’t for the fences. Got treated to seeing a roe deer there. I found the path and made my way in through fields and past pheasant coops. After a brief road spell and a load of dirt tracks, I had to head back to the A road. This took me round yet another rifle range.

When I left the A road to go along the side of the range I seriously considered lifting one of the flags as a souvenir of all the ranges I’ve gone around. The road looped round onto the coast and took me into Kirkcudbright. I was starving when I got there around half 2 and found a supermarket as soon as possible. I ate my pasta pot and stuffed food into my bag before continuing on my way.

After crossing the river my route took me back out again right along the shore. By a layby someone had made lots of pebble sculptures on the rocks which were really good. Soon the road turned in but I was able to head back out where it split further on and head to Ross bay. It’s a pretty little bay which I then left on a path over the hill to brighouse bay. The holiday park was the opposite side of the bay so I made my way round and headed to the camping area.

I didn’t get up until 9 in the morning after being kept up by the rain during the night. Packing up took me a while as well but was eventually heading off up a dirt road through the site. I may have forgotten to pay the ridiculous £15 price.

The rain got quite heavy quite soon so I had to put on my waterproofs. The track took me to the road up to Borgue which I headed up. This took me inland but I was soon heading back to the coast at Knockbrex. There was a path here that I took around Barrhill then onto Carrick shore past a few small islands. Once through a holiday home park I stopped on the beach for a bit of lunch as the rain was on a break. After that it was a long long road off the coast up to Girtham then along a cycle route through a forest. A quick scramble through the trees got me onto the A75 to get over the river. I was then stuck on this for the rest of the day as it runs right along the coast.

I basically put in my earphones and trudged along oblivious. For the last hour of the day it was really sunny and I was sweating like a trooper. I’d obviously de-waterproofed earlier in the day. The campsite was quite a good one and I set up in the sunshine with a possibly burnt face. There was a pub on site so had a pint there after my noodles. I was hoping for a socket to charge my phones but no luck. I ended my day sat in the toilet block by a socket writing a blog. The things I do to update you all.

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