Beeswing - The seventh step ... London to Edinburgh via Land's End and John o'Groats - CycleBlaze

June 27, 2019

Beeswing

Beeswing - that's the name of the village near to where we are camping tonight.  It's actually named after a horse.  It was originally known as Lochend but was renamed to honour the famous racing mare, Beeswing.

We crossed into Scotland at Gretna after a few kilometers riding on some nice quiet roads this morning.  Gretna is where English couples would elope to if an early wedding was needed because of the more liberal marriage provisions in Scots law compared to English law. "Gretna" has become a term for a place for quick, easy marriages because of this.

Crossing the border into Scotland.
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The infamous Old Toll Bar.
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It is interesting to note that we have already covered more than the entire distance of a standard LEJOG but are barely halfway there.
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The Devil's Porridge Museum in Eastriggs. I snuck in to use the loo but I can imagine it could give quite an interesting view on the the First World War.
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Most of the day's ride was flat and easy with very little traffic.  Along the way we past the first fully loaded cycle tourist we have seen so far, an old Englishman called Terry who was cycling in the company of Michaelo, a vibrant young Italian on a recumbent.  Interestingly, Terry's bicycle had a Rohloff hub employing a chain tensioner, the first rig of this sort I had ever seen.  

Part of the way was close to the sand and mudfalts along the coast south of Dumfries where we were delayed by the delivery of a prefabricated house.

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We had a long slow pull up a hill before Dumfries and then down again before climbing some more up the Old Military Road.  We were heading for a campsite we had spotted on Google but it turned out to be little more than an unserviced field. 

We needed more than that today because today was probably the hottest we have enjoyed since we got to the UK and we were keen to have a shower if at all possible.  So we continued for a few more kilometers over the hills to Beeswing to a lovely small campsite whose only failing is its proximity to the busy A711.

Tomorrow we will head back to the Old Military Road and head on down to Kirkcudbright, home to McCleland Castle.

Today's ride: 74 km (46 miles)
Total: 1,597 km (992 miles)

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