Dumfries to Abington

Travelling without fixed deadlines allows loose plans to be laid then pleasure taken in having the freedom to adapt as circumstances change. Today two major changes caused the late (11 am) start. The first was notification of the early arrival at the Amazon collection point of a rackless saddle bag for the awaited new bike. Would it be able to hold my tent, the bag of which is torn by the thousands of miles on a rack? The second change was the actual weather which was clearly cooler than predicted so removing the need for an early start. With the cool breeze and variable cloud cover the conditions throughout the day was fine for enjoyable cycling.

The route used cycling Route 10 towards Ae then after the quarries turned right at the crossroads and right again to pass the entrance drive of Amisfield Tower at 10 km. This continues as part of the Coast to Coast cycling route via Amisfield and Shieldhill as far as Temphill, where my left to Beattock diverged from the C2C.

On another whim today, my interest in determining the nature of the "services" at Beattock advertised with a road sign to the left was rewarded by a surprise finding of the Old Stables Inn open for food. The cafe has been open for only 3 weeks (midday to 3pm daily) after which the pub fare continues. The light meal including good coffee was delicious and saved me a few miles and a tough climb in bypassing Moffat.

Most of the remaining 19 miles followed the old road north (which our family used to take before the A74 M was built), usually with a cycling lane of variable quality if not a good purpose-built cycle path separated from the road. Traffic was light (as one would expect running parallel with the A74M) but sometimes very fast. The most enjoyable stretch was the final 5 km from Crawford, along a narrow lane running roughly parallel to main road, train line and river all the way to this campsite on the edge of Abington.

Fiona, while booking me in, revealed that she not only knew about the pub cafe 19 miles away, but knew the owners as a lovely couple. She had worked with them in
Lockerbie! I said I would be calling in on my return (to try their all day vegetarian breakfast) and would mention her to Richard.