The BBA V2 completes the circuit of Dumfries and Galloway to Linlithgow

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Should we or would we, that was the question this morning?
This conundrum was of course, as to whether we got our our fiery toaster and cooked ourselves some toast to go with breakfast in our Travelodge room in Dumfries. The thought of jam or peanut butter on just bread was just not apetising enough for us and so we braved the machine again but with great care with no Skype calls to distract us from popping the toast up before the bread became too toasted. And we got away with it!
The rain was still falling when we loaded up the car and we decided to give away any idea of a walking tour of Dumfries as there was no point of getting wet so early in the day and having travel ahead of us.
Today we are heading west to Stranraer which is located in the bottom south west corner of Scotland and then we will drive north up the Galloway coast before heading inland and north east to a stay in Linlithgow with friends we made on our last visit, Alan and Alison, whose flat we stayed at in Edinburgh.
There are not a lot of alternative roads in this area of Scotland to the A75 so we stuck with the principal road which would give us scenes of countryside as well as seaside as we drove west.
Not far out of Dumfries we noticed a road sign that we can’t recall having seen since we arrived in the UK and that was one of ‘Climbing Lane’. As expected it was where there was a second lane on an uphill stretch of the road but everywhere else we seem to recall this would have been called a ‘Passing Lane’.
Some of the towns and villages on the A75 required a short detour to actually pass through them while others required a slow down to 50kph.
As we descended to the coast just past the town of Gatehouse of Fleet (unusual name) we came upon a short stretch of roadwork’s where one side of the road was having the old tar sealed lift and a new seal put down.Now, we have passed through many, many roadwork’s in the nearly 30,000km of driving on the BBA V2 but this was the first where the short line of traffic had to wait for a convoy vehicle to lead us through the 500 metres of works. This seemed like an overkill except for the number of workmen on the site, so many that we were sure there wasn’t enough for them all to be doing something as there were a number just standing around in their glow suits.
After that it was a straight run into Stranraer which is big enough to have a Morrison’s supermarket and a pub on every corner, or so it seemed about the pubs that is.
The town sits at the end of Loch Ryan and it was interesting to note that there were many Irish names in the area such as Ryan(Loch),Kennedy(Castle town nearby) etc which is all understandable given that Northern Ireland is just a short ferry ride away across the Irish Sea.
The town is a maze of narrow streets and has the look of an old fishing port although today the fishing in no longer prevalent and the two major ferry company’s operating to Northern Ireland have moved their terminals out of town north on the A77.
WE had lunch at the water’s edge and then took a walk around town. We were almost persuaded to alter our plans and stay the night when we spied a flyer in a shop window advertising tomorrow’s football match between the home team and Arbroath. However, a couple of nights with Alan and Alison are already booked so we headed out of town on the A77 which follows the coast north and with the sun now appearing from time to time we got some expansive sea views as far as the coast of Northern Ireland.
At Girvan we drew level with the unusual cone shaped, uninhabited island called Ailsa Craig which was formed from a volcanic plug from an extinct volcano.
A little further north we could have stayed on the main road and headed inland but instead we took the coast road, the A719 which took us past the exclusive Turnberry Resort and its 3 golf links and into the outer suburbs of Ayr, the birthplace of Robbie Burns.
Changing direction to travel north east we joined the increasing Friday afternoon traffic to bypass the centre of Glasgow and changing highways seamlessly a couple of times we were soon on the M9 and approaching Linlithgow where Alan and Alison live.
We beat them both from their workplaces but their daughter Debbie and husband Paul were home to greet us. They are shortly to finish their jobs in Scotland and head off to Pretoria in South Africa to do sponsored social work with local black people in a village.
They had read about the burnt toast/fire alarm incident at Cumbernauld and we all had a good laugh at what had transpired.
It was Alison’s birthday and after a takeaway dinner of fish and chips with white pudding and haggis they headed off to Edinburgh to see a performance of The Fiddler on the Roof while we entertained ourselves with some television including a couple of programmes celebrating Elton John’s 50 years in music.
We were after midnight before we finally got to bed but with the promise of no need to get up until breakfast at around 9am we should make up for it by the morning.

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Comments

[BlancaCBraun]

Absolutely loved your photos. I always wish I would see the Isle of Man. This almost reminds me of the photos I've viewed from there. Thanks for sharing!