Galloway

Another long weekend and another holiday. This time we headed down to Galloway and stayed at the Castle Cary Holiday Park just outside Creetown. It was our first camping trip with the kids in a tent and a brand new tent too. The park was really good although we were lucky to get flat pitches with power hookups. The new tent was awesome, we joked about parking the car inside, but seriously we could have if we had wanted to!

As ever the holiday included some Geocaching and our first target was a cache in the Galloway forest at Kirroughtree. This cache Penninghame Postcards 2 - The Lade Walk is located along one of the many trails through the forest near the 7 Stanes venue. We'd already been for a cycle with the kids on the gentle Green trail so I left Mrs SC with the kids at the excellent playpark and headed off solo to try to make the find. We'd looked for this cache the last time we were there so I headed straight for the same place but upon arrival the GPS was saying I'd already passed it. After a short back track I spotted the first part of the clue given with the cache description. This was actually very tricky to spot and not at all what I'd expected but from there the second half of the clue led me directly to the cache.

In the afternoon we headed down to the Mull of Galloway but on the way stopped at Glenluce to find a cache hidden at the Luce Viaduct. At first this one looked like it was going to be difficult and upon reading some of the previous logs we thought one of us was going to have to go climbing but after a good look around and a think we spotted a more likely hiding spot and sure enough it was there.

The Mull of Galloway is actually the southern most point of Scotland and is actually further south than Penrith. There's a lighthouse station here and magnificent views over the Irish Sea to the Isle of Man and even Northern Ireland. The visitor centre is really good and there's some interesting knicknacks in the attatched shop. Upon leaving we spotted a cache Gallie Craig was only a short distance away so went to find it. This cache turned out to be disabled due to lack of permission for placement within an SSSI but we managed to rescue a Swiss Geocoin which was trapped there and so logged the cache as found anyway. The cache has now sadly been archived. Hopefully someone else will be able to get a replacement set up either outwith the SSSI or with special permission from the RSPB.

On the way back to the campsite we took a detour via Stranraer to get some supplies. Whilst there we noted there is only one cache in the whole town and so had to go and find it. It turned out to be a simple park and grab so a bit of a disappointment but at least we can say we've found every cache in the town!

The next day and we jumped on our bikes and headed through Creetown and up into the hills beyond to visit the Balloch Wood. This is a beautiful place with some very nice woodland trails and ponds. hiding the bikes amongst the trees we followed the Oak trail in search of the cache Balloch Wood. It's difficult to describe how nice this short walk was with carpets of bluebells lining the path interspersed with wild primrose. The cache proved quite easy to find despite the coordinates being out but the box was soaking inside. We emptied it's contents and took a break whilst we waited for it all the dry off a bit in the lovely sunshine that was streaming through the trees.

Unfortunately Super Kid had a pretty major fall of her bike at high speed on the way back down the hill but after a sit down and a cry she bravely got back on her bike and made it all the way back to the campsite. What a star!

In the afternoon the weather was still holding and it looked like it was going to be a nice evening so we packed provisions in the car and set of to the south to do a spot of caching and to find a beach where we could have a barbecue.

First stop was in a lay-by to find Ravenshall Hotel (formerly Skyreburn Hotel). This was so easy we spotted it from inside the car. Next came The Wicker Man - Here lieth Beech Buchanan which was located next to an old Graveyard that had apparently featured in the film The Wicker Man. Myself and Super Girlie had a bit of trouble finding this one but Mrs SC and Super Kid found it right away when they finally decided to get out of the car.

Venniehill Viewpoint was next and for this we parked at a small carpark which appeared to be the correct location. Steps led down to a raise circular walkway but we found no trace of the clue and the site didn't really match the cache description. Returning to the car the GPS suddenly changed it's mind and decided to point in the opposite direction. The problem was that it was now pointing into some private properties. Guessing the spot would be behind these gardens we started looking for a path that would lead us around the back and eventually found a way into the field at the bottom of the road. The name of the cache suddenly made sense as this wasn't a nice flat horizontal field, it was nearly vertical! By the time myself and Super Girlie got to the top we were exhausted. We spotted the clue item right away but no cache. After a good hunt we were ready to give up when I had a quick check behind a rock in a wall (not allowed I know!!) and there was the cache. Great view from up there but very tired by the time we got back to the car.

Our final cache of the day earned a favourite point. Not because of the cache itself but because it led us to a wonderful beach where we had a great barbecue for dinner and lit a small driftwood fire to keep us warm while we watched the tide race in. Mossyard Bay is a wonderful little curved sandy beach with interesting rock formations and rock pools where kids could play for hours. There's also another cache here which we didn't go and find but that simply gives us an excellent excuse to go back another time!

We found three more caches on our journey home. The first two, Peea, Peea, Pee, ano. (go on sing it!), and Reclaimed Land were located in parking places near the Cairnryan Ferry Terminal. We also attempted a third nearby but were thwarted by a lorry driver sitting right at the GZ. Having read previous logs we suspect this may have actually been the cache owner but as we didn't know we didn't want to expose the cache to a muggle. The third cache and final one of the holiday was Cruiser Varyag. This is located at a memorial for a Russian warship just outside Lendalfoot. The find was simple but the wind here made it difficult to stand up never mind get to and back from the monument.

Over the course of the weekend we also dropped off about 5 trackables we've been carrying around but ended up picking up another 5 too.

We had a great short break which felt more like a week than three nights and found 12 caches along the way. Love this part of Scotland so will definitely be back for more!