Day 19 - Kirkcudbright to Newton Stuart - 60kms

This is what tour cycling should be like a relatively short distance meandering down country lanes with fine coastal views, the sun out (now 2 consecutive days) and taking the time to talking to locals and sampling local food fare - the downside Is though at this pace it is likely to take us about 3-5 years to finish !

We left out B&B accommodation late given the short distance and were soon cycling along roads with great coastal scenery of the Solway Firth.

We struck up an interesting conversation with the owner of a property we thought to be a rather unusual church near Barogue which amazingly turned out to be a structure built by a 20th C eccentric owner for his 12 cows - see the property at http://www.castle-haven.com/

A cow shed !!!

An amazing cycle ride through beautiful forest brought us out smack bang in the middle of an estate complete with its manor house style hotel and own golf course. After Kev provided those teeing off with his complete golfing knowledge (about 5 secs worth) we rode into the quaintly named town of Gatehouse of Fleet for a picnic lunch in the warm sun (must have been at least 20C).

A wrong turn and we rode the next 20kms on the main road to Stranrear with traffic sometimes banked back as we rode up the occasional incline

In a stroke of luck we rode into Creech in time to persuade a barmaid to turn on the TV to watch Cadel's triumphing the TDF. Its hard to watch a grown man cry (Kev not Cadel) so we were asked to move on with Kev still making his victory speech on behalf of Cadel to the pubs patrons which inluded a mam and his 2 dogs

We competed the days ride into Newton Stuart with a climb and a steep descent - Kevs a narrow miss with a 4wd !


Had a good dinner in town with passionate adventurer and fellow end to ender James Davis check his site at www.James-Davis.com for his story interestingly he is the last man standing of
his 3 person group after injury claimed his 2 riding partners one his brother who'd flown from Sydney to take part

There's some serious climbing ahead but the journey to Troon and the ferry across to Ireland is only a day away!