Just about to leave Scotland and re-enter England. Comfortable stay at the Elphinstone Hotel in Biggar night before last - with a full cooked breakfast. Got myself a slightly gippy tummy though! I'd arranged a 'warmshowers' stay South of Lockerbie for last night. I wore shorts and t-shirt for the first time this trip. Best view - devil's beeftub - before a long and exciting drop into Moffat. 'Rumbling Tum' cafe full up and no room - so I went to another, where, for the first time, the proprieters declined to charge my bike battery.
Rest of the 49.97mile trip was accompanied by the roar of traffic from the motorway (sustrans route) - my host Tim commented that he really doesn't know why Sustrans goes that way, as there are much more pleasant back lanes. Mabli had her freedom for the last 3 miles or so down to Tim and Rosie's house by the river Annan - an old Manse, complete with graveyard next door.
St Mungo's is enormous, and the couple are gradually doing it up, as it hasn't been lived in for the past 10yrs. Came with land - woods - and what turned out to be the perfect workshop for Tim (he makes cargo e-bikes) buried in the brambles. I had a comfy bed in the music room. Mabli got to play with their two yr old collie Ember (and pinch her breakfast). We had a deliciius vegan barbecue for supper - with icecream for dessert. Imagine mozarella and sweetcorn fritters made in a wafflemaker over the barbie - sat on the terrace overlooking the river with haymaking going on in the fields across the way.
This morning I was sad to leave - Tim and Rosie and their youngest daughter were delightful and generous hosts. Tim even fixed the wheel permanently on the dog trailer (because the thingy that holds it in place had broken/fallen off somewhere after Edinburgh). So - pleasant riding today along NCR7. And now in Gretna on my way to anorher Warmshowers host in Southwaite, past Carlisle.
Looking at the photos reminded me of how overgrown that old railway path got, in the morning. The E-bike picked up a lot of grass and mud along the way.
Rest of the 49.97mile trip was accompanied by the roar of traffic from the motorway (sustrans route) - my host Tim commented that he really doesn't know why Sustrans goes that way, as there are much more pleasant back lanes. Mabli had her freedom for the last 3 miles or so down to Tim and Rosie's house by the river Annan - an old Manse, complete with graveyard next door.
St Mungo's is enormous, and the couple are gradually doing it up, as it hasn't been lived in for the past 10yrs. Came with land - woods - and what turned out to be the perfect workshop for Tim (he makes cargo e-bikes) buried in the brambles. I had a comfy bed in the music room. Mabli got to play with their two yr old collie Ember (and pinch her breakfast). We had a deliciius vegan barbecue for supper - with icecream for dessert. Imagine mozarella and sweetcorn fritters made in a wafflemaker over the barbie - sat on the terrace overlooking the river with haymaking going on in the fields across the way.
This morning I was sad to leave - Tim and Rosie and their youngest daughter were delightful and generous hosts. Tim even fixed the wheel permanently on the dog trailer (because the thingy that holds it in place had broken/fallen off somewhere after Edinburgh). So - pleasant riding today along NCR7. And now in Gretna on my way to anorher Warmshowers host in Southwaite, past Carlisle.
Looking at the photos reminded me of how overgrown that old railway path got, in the morning. The E-bike picked up a lot of grass and mud along the way.
RSS Feed
