Route D – SWC300 Top Half
Day three & the first time we had to choose a route. Normally on the RogueRunners trips we look at the weather & select the route where the sun shines - or the rain is intermittent, but this morning there wasn't so much as a cloud forecast right across the region, so what to do? The only criteria that affected our choice was some of the cafes were not open Monday or Tuesday, this being a Sunday, it seemed wise to try one of those routes. In the end someone mentioned that they fancied seeing the seaside, so that's what decided it.
This trip took in the northern half of the new “South West Coast 300” route, it stuck to the route until Girvan when we had to head east to keep the mileage manageable in a day. We left Ecclefeckan going west on the B road parallel to the A74(M), this was a fast wide road & all the traffic was on the motorway - brilliant.
At Elvanfoot we picked up the Leadhills road, which is a wonderfully serpentine strip of tarmac, then south to
Wanlockhead – which when I was writing the route had a note on google maps saying “highest
village in Scotland”. When I was reviewing the route, the note said “One of the two highest villages in Scotland”, so presumably it’s sunk
a bit?
We travelled through the Mennock Pass, over Beer Burn & met the A76, which was a bit frustrating, it's a long straight A road with a lot of lorries heading presumably for Stranrear, but they are restricted to 40mph & there was too much traffic coming the other way to get past. But when we got to the A77 & crossed the River Doon, where we turned aside to visit “The Coo Shed” for coffee. We carried on west, but bent round to the south because the land ran out out, so we ran parallel to the coast down - or possibly up - the “Electric Brea” a staple feature of “The One Show” type programmes in the ‘70s, it’s not electric, it’s not a local aberration in the earth’s gravitational field, it’s just an optical illusion that makes you think you’re going uphill when you’re going down & vise-versa.
Next, we didn't see Culzean Castle (pronounced Cullane) as it's too far from the road. Trump Turnberry just looked like a horribly corporate "resort" shipped in from somewhere else & just down the coast was Dipple & then Girvan, south of which the route moved away from the coast & starts winding along beside the River Cree.
Heading east again & just after Talnotry there was a “wild goat park”, for the sake of our upholstery, we didn't stop there! The A712 was possibly the best road all day, as we headed east back to the hotel, where we found that Brian had arrived. Now then, when we arrived the day before there had been a conversation on WhatsApp about the food & Brian - still in England at this stage - said he fancied the cheese & onion tart, so as we knew he would be arriving, we ordered it for him in the morning when we all ordered our tea. However - when Brian arrived, the good folk at the Ecclefeckan Hotel asked what he wanted for his evening meal & Brian by this time fancied something else. Oh how we laughed when both of Brian's meals arrived.