The Perimeter

I was woken every hour last night by the noisy, windy tent and after packing up in the dark morning, my priority is finding drinking water even though it’s raining. Sourcing drinking water is a peculiar difficulty of the uninhabited coast as, although frequent, most […]

Four firsts in one day. Auchencairn has a public toilet that is both open and has hot water, a village shop that’s also open and, best of all, I was just called “Doll”!  

This morning in Dumfries I was told to “Go doon the Vennel”. If I hadn’t been asking for directions, I’d have been sure it was a special insult reserved for Sasanach (A Scottish term for “Englishman” with mildly derogatory undertones) backpackers. My ultralight backpack is […]

I’ve been put up for a couple of days by fellow travel bloggers Esther & Warren, who cycled around the world for three years finishing up their odyssey back in Scotland. Like me, they experienced nothing but kindness in all their time of being strangers […]

Carse Sands, the first beach in Scotland, makes for joyous walking after yesterday’s road slog. I can see England across the Solway but the coastline feels very wild here already, I was expecting to head a lot further north before the landscape would feel this […]

A heavy mist has descended on Dumfries turning the ancient bridges picturesquely monochromatic. The mist gradually ebbs and flows in opacity, so I wait a while with the camera for the optimum moment of abstraction. A mischievous lad approaches me by the river and with […]