Family returned back to city of birth and then we set off back in the van this time heading north.
Both Dr Fred and I love Dumfries and Galloway and we have some favourite secret spots we like to visit and wild camp in so that’s where we headed. Asage creeps upon us we seem to be becoming creatures of habit (I’m definitely getting more tidy ha ha haha) so our usual stop off at a wee place near Kirkbean was to be out first stop for the night – we’ve been there loads, kipping in the van in the village car park, having a meal and a couple of pints in the local pub followed by a wander down the beach - all with a sea view – it’s a very nice location. Imagine our disappointment when we get there to discover huge NO OVERNIGHT PARKING signs – our peaceful evening dashed. This is becoming more and more common in the spaces we like to wild camp, it’s a real shame as we know quite a few like minded camper vanners and we all feel the same. As in every walk of life there are some people that spoil it for others leaving litter and debris with no thought for others until local people or councils rightly so get fed up and stop vans parking. This in the long run is detrimental to the local economy as vans will find somewhere else to park and make do with van meal rather then spending £50 in the pub!
To be fair on this occasion the pub kindly let us use their car park as we were buying a meal so it was all as we intended in the end - I purposely didn’t have the steak and ale pie as I was sure it wouldn’t live up to the last one – although I think I have had it there before and not been disappointed.
It was a beautiful evening, the wind dropped and we walked off our dinner down the beach. It was very low tide and we watched the birds feeding on the waters edge – there were at least five herons in sight – sublimely graceful standing to attention and then occasionally swooping around the bay as it to stretch their massive wings.
As the dusk fell we walked along the shingle towards the looming blackened and algae covered limbs of a long lost pier. It was quite ethereal, the light was slipping and the beach was making funny noises as we walked – it was the ground sucking air into the cavities left by the water draining as the tide went out.
The beach fell away quite sharply at one point adding to a weird feeling of excitement about walking somewhere where only a few hours ago and indeed in only a few hours more it would be totally submerged and under the sea! Mostly it was rocks and mud but along from the pier was a post with a small buoy attached and a long chain of huge links almost totally buried in the sea bed. 
The links were massive, at least 10 inches each, and they were covered in barnacles, gungy stuff, cockles and whelks. To my delight I found three links semi buried which had somehow come adrift from the rest – it was solid, mucky, very heavy but treasure and so it got lugged back to the van – garden sculpture? Interesting to draw definitely!
We were fast losing the light now so it was time to bed down – night cap of Irish coffee and we fell asleep to the sound of distant waves and nearby seagulls!
In the morning the tide had been in and gone out again – I went to look for more treasure and while I could find the post with the buoy on there was no sign of the chain it was completely buried waiting for the sea to uncover it at another low tide!
The next day we went back to Monreith – we had had a fab few days earlier this year at the Old Place of Monreith known locally as the Dowies. I used a lot of the drawings I did there for my college inspiration last year, this time we had no luxurious tower house to stay in - we wild camped down on the beach, it was lovely. Completely empty other than the occasional dog walker and almost sheltered by the looming crags along the coast line.
This was an early stamping ground of Dr Fred – he and some climbing pals ‘discovered’ the crags – working out in detail the climbing potential and consequently the right to naming the different routes. 32 years on, he went to see what, if any, he was capable of! I think it was a rewarding experience, so so much as a lack of climbing – not to be done solo and without ropes but a confirmation of discovering good routes – which still remain challenging and are withstanding the test of time even if some of the names leave common sense to be questioned ( do barnacles bite?, Fireball XL 1 and a quarter!!!)
Again in the evening the wind dropped and the tide went out far enough so we could walk round the crags, they are covered with cormorants now but still loom magnificently – stunning examples of Gallividian Silurian Greywacke rock formations. Strangely green with beautiful curved washed out by constant sea water bashing and then suddenly dark fissured with amazing marbled patterns and leaning as if squeezed.
There is lots of treasure to be found on the beach but like much of nature that's where it belongs, that's where it looks its best... photographs have to suffice - there is something quite wonderful about knowing its non permanent - transient ever changing yet beautiful in its moment.
As it got dark the lighthouses on the mull of Galloway and the Isle of Mann started flashing and the odd ships light shone across the horizon.
We witnessed a most beautiful moon rise. Alerted at first by a sumptuous cloud outlined in gold we realised the moon was just about to pop over the hill and so it did, it was truly magnificent a pale gold gibbous moon enhanced by some very light cloud cover and as it rose it had a gate and drystone wall silhouetted against it – it looked completely amazing – very much a moon illusion looking at least ten times bigger then normal but as always just the size it usually is!!
In the morning we were woken early by the cormorants and seagulls circling and screaming, not so much a dawn chorus as a cacophony of primeval screaming - haunting and wild.... time to move on find breakfast and check out a weather forecast to determine that coming days adventure.
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