A bit slow getting going today because of all the hills yesterday. Also the first half kilometre from the farm was up quite a steep hill. Anyway after a breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns, haggis and blackpudding we were off.
After backtracking to Hethersgill we struck north west for Gretna and the Scottish border. We went for seemingly ages (= about 20 km) without passing more than the odd farm and red Royal Mail Post box.
Christine at one point said to the effect ‘what was that on the fence?’ A quick examination revealed the dried carcasses of about 40 moles. At a guess the local farmer wasn’t a fan of moles digging up his grazing paddock, and went on a poisoning spree. Bad luck if the ravens eating the dead moles got a dose as well. Just speculating.
The weather came on wet and cold by lunchtime but there was nowhere to get food or coffee (John was suffering) until about 40 km in at Longtown. There we got a sandwich and coffee at a garden centre also frequented by seemingly every blue rinse maiden from the local old people’s centre.
A few kilometres on we hit the Scottish border at Gretna and spent 15 minutes acting out the Scottish/English rivalries. Nice little border marker.
Then on to Gretna Green (no-one proposed to anyone), saw the tourist trap that has been built around the famous blacksmiths anvil and went on a long search for a grocery store in neighbouring Gretna township.
Often we have difficulty getting oriented in the UK because the sun is in the wrong place, and in midsummer rises and sets so far north that using sunset for west doesn’t help. On top of that it is often so cloudy that there isn’t a visible sun or shadows to help. And the old town streets run every which way so there is little in the way of a grid to organise yourself on.
Anyway, we found a shop, stocked up on dinner things and rode another 11 km to Kirtlebridge and our BnB for the night. Kirtlebridge turned out to be more a locality with a few houses somewhat closer together than usual rather than a town.
And that was it.