Scotland Day 1 - Like fine wine, the start refreshing, the middle was okay, I then had some doubts And THEN the finish was spectacular!!

The morning dawned bright yet a little breezy with the forecast for the day ahead to be a little mixed as I reached the end of the days riding on the Ayrshire coast. After a hearty breakfast I got on the road relatively early and soon picked up my route where I had left off last time on the outskirts of Carlisle. It was quickly out through Kingstown and Cargo before being brought to a halt by a level crossing just after Rockliffe. Unfortunately I didn’t get my camera out in time to catch the high speed express flashing through. Well it was really travelling.After this the map gave me the impression that I was going to either get on to the A74 or at least cross it, however with the upgrade to Motorway status there is a small road that runs along side it, separated by a barrier and a screen, a little way along this I was able to pull over close to a farm entrance to get a shot of my first look at the Solway Firth beyond the power lines. I then got a move on, I wanted to really cover the miles today, so it was into Gretna and then immediately out on the B721 through Eastriggs before changing to the B724 in Annan to continue the run along the coast before turning on to the B725 which took me down to Caerlaverock Castle (41) it is a 13th-century triangular moated castle in the Caerlaverock Nature reserve.

Being very close to the border with England, it had to be defended several times against English forces. One such occasion was the Siege of Caerlaverock of 1300 by Edward I of England who had eighty seven of the most illustrious Barons of England in his host, including knights of Bretagne and Lorraine. The Maxwells, under their gallant chief, made a vigorous defence, showering upon their assailants such heavy missiles that they retired time and again; but in the end the garrison were compelled to surrender, when it was found that there were only sixty men all told, and that they had defied the whole English army for a considerable period. In recent years, Historic Scotland has organised re-enactments of the Siege.

Possession of the castle was subsequently restored to Sir Eustace Maxwell, Sir Herbert's son, who at first embraced the cause of John Baliol, and in 1312 received from Edward I an allowance of £20 for the more secure keeping of the castle. He afterwards gave in his adherence to Robert Bruce, and his castle, in consequence, underwent a second siege by the English, in which they were unsuccessful.

But fearing that this important stronghold might ultimately fall into the hands of the enemy, and enable them to make good their hold on the district, Sir Eustace dismantled the fortress, a service and sacrifice for which he was liberally rewarded by Robert Bruce.

I pulled up in a small picnic area close by with what appeared to be a very strange sign.

Behind the high gorse bushes and high hedges was part of the Nith Estuary, just to the right of the picture was a very overgrown stile giving access to the marshes and sand flats beyond.
I decided to go and stand on a Picnic bench close by and was able to get a much clearer view of the estuary that runs up to Dumfries. A little further on I stopped on the banks of the Estuary to get a better picture and came across a local tradition for the first time. Although the picture and caption talks about catching fish in the nets close to this spot it also talked about Flounder Tramping. This method of fishing was used in the coastal waters and river estuaries of South West Scotland for centuries. Once trapped the fish were often secured by impaling them on a leister before being bagged. A leister is the local name for a trident or three pronged long handled spear.

It was then quickly into Dumfries for a quick refueling stop before heading down to the village of New Abbey, I hadn’t originally planned on stopping to take a picture of the Sweetheart Abbey but entering the village it provided such a striking image I just had to turn around and come back to this spot.It was a Cistercian monastery, founded in 1275 by Dervorguilla of Galloway, daughter of Alan, Lord of Galloway, in memory of her husband John de Balliol. His embalmed heart, in a casket of ivory and silver, was buried alongside her when she died - The monks at the Abbey then renamed the Abbey in tribute to her. Their son, also John, became king of Scotland but his reign was tragic and short. The depredations suffered by the Abbey in subsequent periods, have caused both the graves to be lost. The abbey, built in deep-red, local sandstone, was founded as a daughter house to Dundrennan Abbey; this Novum Monasterium (New Monastery), became known as the New Abbey.

I didn’t go much further before stopping again to get a photo across the Solway Firth.Although it doesn’t show on the photo but I could just make out the aerials at the former RAF Cardunnock; I then spotted an information point that gave some details on what could be seen, back down the coast towards Caerlaverock castle and further along to Carsethorn.The small port of Carsethorn, even something as small and out of the way as this it still has made it’s mark on history. When Edward Longshanks was attacking the nearby Carsethorn Castle he moored 97 ships here full of troops and supplies. It is also the port from where the founder of the US Navy; John Paul Jones, who we have mentioned previously for his attacks on the Royal Navy off the coast of the UK and his abortive and somewhat comical assault on Whitehaven, sailed when he emigrated from Scotland in 1760 aged 13.

Back on the A710 it was a great road and I was quickly into Dalbeatie and back out on the A711 and I shortly came to the most amazing banner outside a Campsite at Palnackie. The World Flounder Tramping Championships, yep! you read it right.

On the first Saturday each August, this small village on the Urr Water, hosts the World Flounder Tramping Championships. Several hundred competitors walk out onto the mud flats of the Urr Water estuary, south of the village, at low tide. They feel for flounder hiding beneath the mud with their toes, and trap the fish beneath their feet. The competition is held to raise funds for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

Along certain parts of this morning’s ride I had been getting views of a huge offshore wind farm if anything the largest one I had seen so far on my trip EON one of the UK's leading green generators, announced in 2007 they were starting offshore construction of its £325m Robin Rigg Wind Farm in the Solway Firth. It is now well under way.

The company used the jack-up vessel MV Resolution in the mammoth task of installing the 60 turbine foundations, each weighing up to 280 tonnes - the equivalent of around 70 fully grown African elephants - and two substation foundations.

The Resolution will used six massive legs, each almost half the length of a football pitch, to lift itself out of the water and create a stable platform for the work. Using an 80 metre crane to lift the foundations off the deck of the vessel and then drive them into the sea bed with a 140-tonne anvil a form of incredibly powerful hydraulic ram.

Each foundation consists of a monopile, which is a steel cylinder 50 metres long and 4.3 metres in diameter, and a large yellow transition piece, which is fixed over the top of the monopile and forms the base to which the turbine towers and substation platforms are fitted. The turbines supplied by Danish firm Vestas and are 80m to hub height with a blade diameter of 90m, meaning they are a maximum of 125m above sea level.

The MV Resolution is the world's first purpose-built vessel for carrying out the installation of offshore wind farms and is one of only a handful of vessels capable of carrying out the construction of what will be one of world's largest offshore wind farms.

Now my point on all of this, having seen so many wind turbines as I have been going around the coast and a large number stood apparently idle I am now starting to question what we are doing here. There is a huge green lobby calling for more and more of these, a current government that seems to encourage their use, yet I don’t see any form of lobby about the environmental and wildlife impact of these things, The Solway Firth is the home of a large number of migratory birds, that come to winter and feed on the muds flats. Has anybody done any research on what impact this huge artificial reef will have on the currents and the mud flats in years to come. There were a number of well documented reports of these Wind Turbines causing the deaths of migratory birds in the past.

Secondly if any body tries to convince me that these things are Carbon Neutral, watch out, I believe they have a huge Carbon Legacy, that will take years to recoup, in fact I would suggest, each one has legacy that will last beyond it’s useful life. Don’t get me wrong I am as worried about the future of our planet as anyone else but I would hate to see propaganda drive us head long down another route to disaster.

Carrying on along the A711 I then turned off through Townhead and Balmae on the way back onto the A711 I stopped to take the following photo of Kirkcudbright Bay.

As you can see the clouds are starting to build up and it is still before lunch time. When I arrived in the town I was quite surprised by how quaint and touristy it was. It was nothing like what I had expected, possibly I had got the wrong impression about this part of Scotland, something that was reinforced during over 70% of the places I visited on this trip.

After a quick run down he back lanes through Borgue and Knockbrex it was back up on to the A75at Gatehouse on Fleet, passing Cardoness Castle (42) It is a well-preserved 15th Century tower house just south west of Gatehouse of Fleet, It was originally owned by the MacCulloch family of Galloway also known as the MacCullochs of Myreton. They abandoned the castle in the late 17th Century, following the execution of Sir Godfrey McCulloch for the murder of a Clan Gordon neighbour. Fleet Bay can be seen from its battlements. It is now in the care of Historic Scotland.

A little further on I came to Carsluith Castle in the village of the same name. (43) The lands of Carsluith were held by the Cairns family until 1460, when they passed to James Lindsay of Fairgirth, Chamberlain of Galloway. He was probably the builder of the main tower at Carsluith in the late 15th or early 16th century. His son, Sir Herbert Lindsay, was killed at Flodden in 1513. The castle then passed, though a daughter of James Lindsay, to Richard Brown. The Browns (or Brouns) of Carsluith added to the castle, building the stair tower on the north side in the 1560s. A Roman Catholic family, the Browns feuded with the Protestant McCullochs of Barholm, and in 1579 Richard's son John was fined £40, when his son, also John, failed to appear on a charge of murdering the Mculloch laird of Barholm.

Another descendant of Richard Brown was Gilbert Brown of Carsluith, who served as the last abbot of Sweetheart Abbey, previously mentioned, before the Protestant Reformation. Later it was alleged several times that Gilbert was sheltering Jesuit priests at Carsluith, and in 1605 he was arrested for his Catholic sympathies. He was banished to France, where he became rector of the Scots College, Paris. He died in Paris in 1612.

The Browns of Carsluith emigrated to India in 1748, and the castle has not been occupied since. In the early 19th century, new farm buildings were built on to the castle, forming a U-plan steading which remains. Today the castle ruin is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, in the care of Historic Scotland.

Looking at the time I decided to push on it was now well past lunchtime and I had a personal target of getting beyond Ayr before pitching my tent, the forecast had been hopeful, although it did warn of showers at some point along the route. After a quick run into Newton Stewart it was back out on the A714 to Wigtown.

It is well known today as Scotland's National Book Town and is home to a wealth of second-hand book shops. And despite the time I took the opportunity of stopping over to have a look in some of them and see what I could find, as I hadn’t brought a book with me this time around. I was also looking to see if I could find a decent Map I had bee working off the Collins A-Z map of Scotland and although it wasn’t bad, it missed out on some the things I had become used to with the Ordnance Survey Road Series Maps, I have been using to date, such as contour lines and better definition on points of interest, such as castles etc, but the two worst points were the size of the text, I struggled to read it, as well as missing out complete villages that I came across on my ride which at times made me think I was going wrong. To cut a long story short after searching in four or five of them, I didn’t find anything I really wanted to read, although a couple of Ellery Queen classics had me interested but they were special edition hard backs and I didn’t want to buy them and end up ruining them by getting them soaked during my travels, nor did I find the type of map I was searching for.

Leaving Wigtown and heading the Isle of Whithorn which is at the tip of The Machars peninsular I passed airfield (40) the former RAF Wigtown, an airfield that has pretty much returned to agricultural use. The area was originally covered with anti-invasion defences at the start of World War II, to deny its use to enemy aircraft, but these were cleared once the site had been allocated for wartime use.

The airfield opened in 1941 as a training school, and hosted No 1 Air Observers School from September 13, 1941, to February 1, 1942, and operated in conjunction with a tracked target range near the coast to the southeast. Initially constructed with grass runways, flooding of the land soon caused these to become unusable, and two concrete runways were installed during 1942.

Operations at the airfield came to an end in 1945 with the end of the war, and the field passed to Maintenance Command and was placed in care and maintenance, transferring to No 14 Maintenance Unit from July 1, 1946, to March 1, 1948, when the airfield was finally closed.
A quick stop at Garlieston for a quick picture of the harbour and I was quickly underway again.
On to Isle of Whithorn and the following photo.

Back up to Gasserton and then onto Monreith, I stopped to take a photo of this very hardy group in the sea and the grey skies out to sea, it looked increasingly likely that I was going to get wet at some point. I then had the great fun of riding up o Glenluce on the A747 before turning off to take the back lanes through Stairhaven and then Milton before joining the A75, which was an experience all by itself, Since leaving Gretna the traffic had been fairly light and certainly none of the huge 40 tonne atics. As I waited at the junction 6 of these leviathans blasted past on their way to either Stranrear or Cairnryan for the ferry to Northern Ireland. There was a huge line of traffic held up behind them but I was soon able to get out and finally past the cars and eventually the artics as they slowed to climb a small rise.

No sooner had I done this when my turning onto the B7077 and B7084 came up, this brought airfield at West Freugh (41). Dating back to 1936, RAF West Freugh first opened as an Armament Training Camp in 1937. With the arrival of World War II, its facilities were expanded to provide training for observers, navigators, and bomb aimers, with the addition of a bombing range and creation of a Bombing Trial Unit. The airfield remained operational after the war ended, and a large area of surrounding land, and sea within the bay, now serve as an MoD bombing range, MoD West Freugh, located three miles (5 km) northeast of Sandhead and five miles (8 km) southeast of Stranraer, extending over the foreshore and much of Luce Bay. The site has also been developed as a satellite ground station, primarily used for the reception of satellite based imagery. Although full time operation of the airfield ended in 2001, it still maintains a main runway of 1,841 metres (6,040 ft), and a secondary runway of 914 metres (3,000 feet) on care and maintenance by defence contractor QinetiQ, who took the facility over at that time. This allows the range to be reopened on a campaign basis to provide a controlled air space in which bombing trials can be conducted and monitored, and short range surface to air missiles (SAM) and rockets can be fired. Fixed and rotary wing machines guns may also be fired into the land or sea ranges.

There was no stopping at this stage it was on to the A716 and down to Drummore at the tip of The Rhins Peninsular before coming back up using the back lanes towards Port Logan and then into Ardwell for the second time where I overshot the turning and had to retrace my steps, as I have said the map I was suing is not the best and I had gone over my route using a highlighter pen which if anything had made things worse. All of this was compounded by the lack of a road sign. I finally worked out that the single track lane I turned on to was the only option and thankfully it became clear I had made the right choice when I went through Ardwell Mains, although it wasn’t on my map it made sense I was going in the right direction. Although it was signed as a Single Track road with passing places, it was actually much wider than that and I could pass a car coming in the other direction if they used their brains and pulled out of the centre of the road. The only downside was the fact that it appears that the local council had decided to re-surface these lanes with that horrible tar & chip application, that leaves a big pile of stone chips, right on the riding line, so when I braked or applied any power the bike would try and get away from me, so I slowed right down to make sure I made it in one piece.

At the end of these lanes is Portpatrick and Dunskey Castle (44) It is a ruined, early 16th century tower house. The three-storey L-plan structure is sited on a promontory, with a rock-cut ditch, although the building is now a roofless shell. The north-east wing is of a later date, and the foundations of a south range are visible. Near the castle are the remains of a watchtower, built on the cliff edge.

A medieval fortification on the site was destroyed in 1489 by Sir Alexander M'Culloch of Myrtoun. The present Dunskey Castle was built by the Adairs of Kinhilt, who also possessed the Castle of St. John in nearby Stranraer, around 1510. In 1620, it was acquired by Hugh Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery, who extended the building. In 1648 it passed to the Blair family, but was ruined by 1684. The current owners have restricted public access to the castle, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Category A listed building.

Leaving Portpatrick on the B738 I set out on my loop around the northern part of the peninsular I made really good progress, all the way around and into Kirkcolm before getting on the A718, during which I felt my first rain but thankfully , I seem to keep ahead of the shower all the way until I reached St Mary’s Croft, unfortunately I wasn’t wearing any waterproofs at this stage but thankfully it was very quick and I was soon in Stranrear, where I immediately pulled over into a filling station, so I could not only refuel but also shelter whilst I put my Waterproofs on. I just wish I had paid more attention when doing so.

Close by the Filling Station was the aforementioned Castle of St John (45) The Castle of St John is a medieval tower house in the centre of Stranraer. It was built around 1500 by the Adairs of Kilhilt, one of the most powerful families in Wigtownshire. Over the centuries the Castle has been used as a home, a local court, a military garrison and a prison. Videos and reconstructions are used to tell the story of: the medieval landowners who built and lived in the Castle; the Government troops who used the Castle as their headquarters during the "Killing Times" in the 1680's; and the criminals and debtors imprisoned in the Castle during the 19th century. It is currently run as a Museum by the local council.

Back on the A77 Northbound towards Ayr I was brought to a sharp halt by the following scene over Cairnryan a few miles further on.

It was seriously throwing it down and I wondered whether I should stop for a while find a diversion, find a hotel/campsite around Stranraer, unfortunately the nearest campsite is right in the middle of that rain storm, it did not look nice. I thought what the hell, I’ve got my waterproofs on so I went for it.

I didn’t take long before I was regretting not paying more attention when putting my waterproofs on. The water started coming down my neck, it was running up off my hands and up my sleeve, and I was even feeling wet around my waist, which I couldn’t understand until I stopped much later to see the bottom of my jacket was sticking out beneath my waterproofs and it was acting like a huge sponge and just the water sucking up. I didn’t have much time to even think about how wet I was getting as the roads where more like a river, and given all the lorries coming and going form the Ferry Port at Cairnryan my eyes were on stalks looking for the telltale signs of diesel on the road.

Thankfully is was very intense but relatively short lived and by the time I got to Ballantrae it was starting to ease and by Lendalfoot it had stopped. Along this section I passed the signs for Glenapp Castle, however I have not listed a couple of castles of this type previously and I have decided not to count this one either, Glenapp Castle was built in 1870 - a strikingly beautiful example of the Scottish Baronial style of architecture.

Designed by the celebrated architect David Bryce in 1870 for Mr James Hunter, the Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Ayrshire, the castle’s mellow sandstone battlements are topped by soaring turrets and towers, earning Glenapp a rightful place as one of the most romantic castles in Scotland.

The castle was purchased in 1917 by James Lyle Mackay, who later became the 1st Earl of Inchcape. The Inchcape family owned the castle until 1982, during which time they expanded the estate considerably and enlarged and altered the castle to its present form. Local hoteliers, the McMillan Family purchased the castle in June 1994, by which time it had, sadly, fallen into a very poor state of repair. Their daughter and son-in-law, Fay and Graham Cowan, made the castle their home and embarked upon a lengthy restoration following which it opened as a 5 Star Hotel.

Then I got to Girvan the sun was actually out and I was able to get my first real sight of the famous Ailsa Craig.

Shortly after leaving Girvan I came to Turnberry the home of the 2009 Open Championships a few weeks before I visited in fact a full two weeks after the final Saturday some of the temporary stands and scoreboards are still in place.

As you can see from the sky the time is getting on and given how wet and cold I was feeling, I decided I was going to get myself a room for tonight, try and dry my gear and get another early start tomorrow. However before that I had a few more sights to see.

In fact I was sat on one of them RAF Turnberry (42) was a World War I aerodrome and World War II airfield which occupied a small headland, now better known as Turnberry Golf Course. The A719 Maidens to Turnberry road passes through the site of the former airfield. Turnberry aerodrome served as one of a pair of air gunnery schools located in Ayrshire during World War I, and operated by the Royal Flying Corps. Air Gunnery School No 2 was located at Turnberry, The aerodrome opened in 1917, and closed in 1918 with the end of World War I.

During the 1930s the site was reactivated, when it was then described as an anti-aircraft landing ground. The airfield had been used as a base by the Auxiliary Airforce until 1942, when a tarmac runway was laid. The airfield was then used for training units of the RAF in torpedo bombing at the nearby River Clyde torpedo ranges, and for air sea rescue missions. It seems some 1,200 men were stationed at Turnberry.

Reconstruction of the airfield by Wimpey had started in 1941, when it was structured as a formal training facility. The airfield reopened in 1942, but the layout of the surrounding land meant there was no possibility for expansion, and it closed in 1945 with the end of World War II.

In use, the layout proved less than ideal with approaches being made over the sea, or from the hills to the east. Both routes were compromised by the prevailing winds which generally blew inland from the sea.

Following the closure of the airfield, the accommodation was used to house Prisoners of War (PoW) until 1946.

Abandoned after the war, the airfield reverted to its use as a golf course - which has reclaimed a section of one runway, but much of the runway network has survived to some degree, and is clearly visible in aerial images of the area. The main runway 04/22 ran northeast to southwest and was 6,250 feet long, with two subsidiaries: 00/18 ran north to south and was 4,500 feet long, while 09/27 ran east to west with a length of 3,900 feet. The hills to the west housed the bomb store and technical site.

The former control tower is now a private house, and there may be a few other remains scattered around the site. The remaining serviceable section of runway, running southwest to northeast, were reopened during the 1960s and serve as a private landing strip for light aircraft which sees regular use during the annual Open Golf Tournament held on the golf course.

At Turnberry I turned off the A77 and went along to A719 along the coast and past the first of two castles in fairly quick succession, Culzean Castle (46). It was the constructed as an L-plan castle by order of David Kennedy, 10th Earl of Cassilis. He instructed the architect Robert Adam to rebuild a previous, but more basic, stately house into a fine castle to be the seat of his earldom. The castle was built in stages between 1777 and 1792. It incorporates a large drum tower with a circular saloon inside (which overlooks the sea), a grand oval staircase and a suite of well-appointed apartments.

In 1945, the Kennedy family gave the castle and its grounds to the National Trust for Scotland (thus avoiding inheritance tax). In doing so, they stipulated that the apartment at the top of the castle be given to General Dwight Eisenhower in recognition of his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War. The General first visited Culzean Castle in 1946 and stayed there four times, including once while President of the United States. An Eisenhower exhibition occupies one of the rooms, with mementoes of his lifetime.

Since 1987, an illustration of the castle has featured on the reverse side of five pound notes issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

In between the two castles is a phenomenon famous throughout the area and even beyond. This oddity at Croy Brae famous, though under its more usually applied name of Electric Brae, a name first given by someone who presumably thought that gravitational forces were being overcome by some sort of electric force.

There is a warning sign about slow vehicles as people experience the feeling of rolling uphill a Layby had been constructed in recent years to make things a bit safer.

The truth is less mysterious. As the stone placed by the layby explains, the effect is the result of an optical illusion. The inland end of this stretch of road is actually 17 feet higher than the coastal end, giving an overall gradient of 1 in 86. Yet because of the way the surrounding landscape slopes, the road appears to incline the opposite way, from its coastal end down to its inland end. The illusion is a powerful one, and the resulting effect is very weird, even when you know its cause. The layby was full so I had no space or time to take a photo so I pushed on to a viewing point a little further on.

Dunure Castle (47) stands in ruins on a rocky promontory on the Carrick coast, protecting the small Dunure harbour. The site dates from the late 13th century; the earliest charter for the lands dating from 1256, however the remains of the building are of 15th and 16th century origin. One tradition is that the castle was built by the Danes and another states that the Mackinnons held the castle from Alexander III, as a reward for their valour at the Battle of Largs.

The castle is the point of origin of the Kennedys of Carrick, who once ruled over much of south western Scotland and were granted the lands in 1357. This family though should not be confused with the famous American Kennedy family which came from Co. Wexford in Ireland.
In August 1563, Mary, Queen of Scots visited the castle for three days during her third progress round the west of the country It has another more gruesome part in the history of this part of Scotland. In 1570, a dispute arose between Gilbert Kennedy, 4th Earl of Cassilis, and Allan Stewart, the succeeding lay Commendator of Crossraguel Abbey over the ownership of some of the abbey lands and their rental income. The Earl's uncle was Quintin Kennedy, the last true abbot of Crossraguel. Gilbert had expected to secure the Commendatorship, however Allan obtained it through the influence of his relative, Captain James Stewart of Cardonald. Gilbert, with sixteen men, caught Allan Stewart unawares in Crossraguel Woods whilst a guest of the Laird of Bargany, and tricked him into journeying to Dunure. At the castle he was deprived of his horse and weapons and guarded by six of the Earl's men.

For two days Gilbert left the commendator to consider his fate and because he was obstinate and refused to sign over the lands and rentals he tortured him twice, roasting and basting his feet and body over a brazier in the Black Vault of the castle, aided bizarely by his cook, baker and pantrymen. As a result of the torture sessions of the first and seventh days of September 1570, the lands were signed over to Gilbert.

The Commendator was rescued from his confinement by the Laird of Bargany, Allan's brother in law, who arrived with a body of men; first hiding in the chapel and then storming the castle. The rights to the abbey lands were settled, partly by the Earl providing Allen Stewart with sufficient funds to allow him to live 'comfortably' for the rest of his life. In the meantime he had been taken to the Cross of Ayr where he had denounced the Earl of Cassillis. The Earl however was never fully brought to book for his actions by the Privy Council and Allen Stewart never walked again.

It was now the relatively short run into Ayr and to start the search for a bed for the night and to try and get my gear dry and a game of cat and mouse with 3 Italian guys in a hire car.

I tried a private but relatively large private hotel at the northern end of town just before it becomes Prestwick first, and as I was asking the manager if he had any space one of the Italians was behind me, when I had finished, he waited to get exactly the same information and directions.

I then tried the Holiday Inn Express as recommended as I thought I could use my priority points, but again they were full. The duty manager was more than helpful and pointed me in the direction of a couple of hotels, as I now had the Italian behind me again, I thought I would throw him off the scent by making him think I was going elsewhere, more fool me, he had signal on his phone and was able to phone ahead and get a booking, thankfully I was still able to get a room in the Stair Inn, wow! What a find! If you are ever in the area, either on business or pleasure, this should be your base, very inexpensive and better quality than most things you find. I had been informed about a Country House Hotel a little closer but that would have come in at £120 a night, The Stair Inn were apologetic, that they only had a Twin Room left at £50 for Bed and Breakfast and to be frank the Bedroom was top rate, I would be more than happy to take someone there for a romantic weekend, the bathroom was Snug shall we say, but adequate, deficiencies were more than made up for by the staff, everyone had a smile on their face. The food is better than good.

One other guest asked me what I was doing and when he heard his comment was ‘you’ve lucked out here’ and I totally agree with him If it was only to meet Caroline at the Stairs Inn. It takes a bit of finding but you’ve just got to make the effort.

After getting a quick shower it was now rapidly approaching 8.00pm so I wanted to get down to the bar and get something to eat. I had not ate anything since 8.30am this morning so you could say I was a little hungry.

A lovely meal, washed down by a couple of pints was just what the doctor ordered and took some time to write up some of these notes as I sat there, tiredness soon started to lay its heavy hand on me, so it was off to bed, for a great night’s sleep despite a busy pub being underneath me. Before I did I made sure that I had laid my gear out in the best way possible so it could dry.

Take care and as Mick says ‘You don’t stop riding when you get old, you stop when you find a little jewel!.