Dumfries, Galloway and Great Cumbrae – Quite an Adventure

Well, that was quite an adventure! We were bound for the island of Great Cumbrae just off Largs on the North Ayrshire coast of Scotland. I was due to take part in a kayak race around Great Cumbrae so we planned a trip in the campervan. The idea was to take our time heading up, maybe stopping off en route and then spend some time on Great Cumbrae before making a similarly leisurely way back. We were in ‘Ramsey’, our VW camper so could stop where the fancy took us. I’ll post about each day as it unfolded but for now, the overview is that we:

  • Stopped at Cheshire Oaks for some retail therapy on the way up.
  • Stayed overnight at the Strickland Arms Britstop near Penrith – which was a little weird!
  • We had a morning in Penrith.
  • We went to Ae Forest for some mountain biking.
  • We drove through the Galloway forest and stayed overnight at Glentrool.
  • I went mountain biking at Glentrool in the pouring rain.
  • The van broke down but we limped to Ardrossan where we called the recovery company.
  • We made it to Great Cumbrae and explored the island.
  • Great Cumbrae consisted of kayaking, biking, running, snorkelling, swimming, geocaching, BBQ and beaches, seals, birds and seaside strolls.
  • We had a day trip back to the mainland to meet friends in Largs.
  • We struggled with various garages, breakdown cover and recoveries companies and eventually spent close to 24 hours making our way back on the back of 4 different recovery vehicles!

Fun was had though and despite the breakdown, the moments of weirdness and the stress and expense of it all we all had a good time. We could just do with some time to recover now though!

Camping on Great Cumbrae

Camping on Great Cumbrae

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Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

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