A year ago, when we made the identical journey to this one, we had stopped as early as Worton to spot hot air balloons. They were not going to be in evidence on this rather blustery day so the journey – some 360 plus miles didn’t have an early break after an 8 o’clock start.
In fact our first stop was to the north of Birmingham a ‘comfort’ stop at the Hilton Park services in Staffordshire. As usual, the M6 was busy and we could only go with the flow. There was no point getting stressed about sub 70 speeds and for the most part all was straightforward. The most notable hold up was near Lancaster, which had a short length of closure of one lane. But nonetheless, it was only about ten past one when we rolled into the Tebay service area to enjoy our picnic.
Tebay services ought to be special and they are different from others being a part of no national chain. I think they have become a victim of the success of daring to be individual. They are well known and many people stop there. It was very crowded at 1.30 when we went inside. But for me, the real pleasure of Tebay is being able to watch trains in a pretty impressive landscape as they tackle the once notorious hill of Shap. Steam engines struggled with Shap and a loco shed at Tebay housed large numbers of powerful little locos, which could assist the main engine with the task of lifting the load up and over these Cumbrian Fells. Today, with ‘Super Voyagers’ passengers will hardly that the train is on a hill.
We hit the road again and continued the northward dash, past Carlisle and into Scotland. We turned off near Lockerbie to enjoy a change of scene. Sue picked out Lochmaben as the place to visit.
We were delayed very slightly by a horse and carriage. It looked sombre and black and we thought it must be a funeral but in fact it was taking a bride to a wedding. The lake at Lochmaben looked pleasing so we pulled off into a car park, which was full of wedding people. There were 4 vaguely adult bridesmaids and a young one. There were men in kilts and there was a lady with what I’ll call a Mrs Schilling hat. We kept a little aloof from wedding activity, knowing the bride – we had overtaken her – was on her way.
Another chap, out walking his dog chatted with us. He told us off for calling the loch a lake (and I got my equally good humoured own back when he called the horse and carriage a horse and cart) was Tower Loch and we had to imagine a former tower with Robert Bruce ensconced. What we saw was water.
Oh, and ever hopeful ducks as well.
It seemed like we tourists were rare in this small town. He wondered why we had turned up to sup coffee. But we had a good chat – very enjoyable before posing for a photo.
We drove by back road to Moffatt by which time the rain was falling and the hills had all but vanished, so we returned to the motorway to take us up over Beattock (another former railway hazard) and down past Elvanfoot where we left the motorway to head for our B and B at Thankerton. We arrived just before 4pm and soon were enjoying a cup of tea.
After a rest we set out for Biggar, stopping at Covington Mains to spy things.
I think all places in Scotland like to claim a connecting with Robbie Burns – so why not Covington Mains – which really was the name of the local farm.
Can I confess to being completely bamboozled by this sign? I wondered why they had upside down Scottie dogs as a motif.
There’s one turned round and I must say that having done it, it doesn’t look much like a Scottie. But honest, it wasn’t until I had the photo on a computer that I realised it was a pair of kissing Friesian cows and not upside down dogs. The man is stark raving bonkers, quite clearly.
This is the farm, which Robert Burns stayed at.
And here is its rather derelict dovecote
And that will do for this first instalment. Next time we’ll look at Biggar and the Clyde at Thankerton.
