{"id":316,"date":"2007-04-17T22:20:00","date_gmt":"2007-04-17T22:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/?p=316"},"modified":"2024-01-29T11:09:15","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T11:09:15","slug":"annan-to-johns-town-of-dalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/?p=316","title":{"rendered":"Annan to John’s Town of Dalry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Day 13 – 17th April 2007<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We left the Old Vicarage at about 9.30 in bright sunshine. On crossing the river Annan we took some photographs and a local chap, out walking his dog, helpfully pointed out the Sustrans route, down a flight of steps, which took us out to the seaside. I hope I didn’t sound to ungracious when I told he we were going to stick to the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We hadn’t gone far when a bank of cloud appeared to the north-west and threatened rain. It was enough for us to don our waterproofs, but it was not many miles before we had removed them again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point, a dead rabbit lying in the road attracted my attention as it started to move across the road towards the hedge. A stoat was attempting to drag it away. I stopped the bike but of course that scared away the stoat, but we could see it running up and down a labyrinth of tracks in the bank, willing us to leave so that it could secure its lunch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Bankend, we came across a “ROAD CLOSED” sign precisely where we wanted to go. We ignored it as normally it is possible to get a bike through where a larger vehicle would have to turn back. Here, though, we appeared to be scuppered as the entire carriageway was blocked by a wide trench bordered by Heras fencing. It was Chris who noticed a small footbridge over a stream so we took the luggage off the bikes and manhandled them over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once in Dumfries, we particularly liked the river Nith, and on its waterfront we found a basic Italian takeaway which served delicious pasta and tomato. We each had some, and some coffee, so suitably refreshed, we were ready to tackle the hills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These were long, grinding climbs, in contrast to the repeated switchbacks of Devon and Cornwall a week or two ago, and Jan and I cycled up all of them, albeit very slowly. Our big problem was that when a downhill did appear, our progress was restricted by the strong headwind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we struggled all the way to Dalry, as it seems to be called. We stayed at The Porridge House, which is very comfortable. We were supplied with a pot of tea and the most excellent fruit cake, we ordered a 7.30 breakfast and a packed lunch, the shower was most refreshing and the pub only 50 yards away. It served some very tasty Deuchars bitter. Janet and Chris had lamb casserole, I had the steak and ale pie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had mentioned that today was our wedding anniversary and when we returned, our hosts offered us a wee dram of malt whisky. Chris and I enjoyed ours – Jan, of course, declined.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Day 13 – 17th April 2007 We left the Old Vicarage at about 9.30 in bright sunshine. On crossing the river Annan we took some photographs and a local chap, out walking his dog, helpfully pointed out the Sustrans route, down a flight of steps, which took us out to the seaside. I hope I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":322,"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gentlemancyclist.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}