N 55.03227°, W 04.16947°
Spent a couple of hours pootling around the RSPB reserve this morning. The surrounding landscape is fantastic. Much salt marsh, plenty of semi natural woodland / grasslands and loads of heath vegetation allowed to prosper in between the arable and pasture. Many birds on the reserve but once again the stars are the geese. Thousands of barnacle waiting for the right time to go. Apparently the whole Svalbad Island (northern Norway) population winter on the Solway.
From the reserve we drove inland and took a chance with an unclassified road looking for a lunch stop. Found a church in a tiny hamlet that was just like a French experience. Absolutely nobody to be seen the whole hour we were there and utter silence. The churchyard was amazing with some of the most imposing stones and detailed epitaphs I've ever seen. A real jewel of a place half way up a white road in the middle of nowhere.
Spotted a 'forest drive' road not long after that and headed up it. The whole thing is an unsealed single track smack through Bennan forest and it must be about 12 miles long. We found a spot off the not-at-all-beaten track with a magnificent vista and called it a day. Spent the afternoon idly birdwatching and mooching about. Utter silence but for the birds and a gentle breeze in the trees.
We both ran today so not feeling too guilty about the lazy afternoon.
Impressions of Dumfries and Galloway so far are massively positive. Loads of semi natural landscape, very sparsely populated, and tourism hasn't overly spoiled the place.
Currently feeling kind of glad that most everyone that heads for Scotland bypasses this bit without a second thought.
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