Early start this morning, the site is having some electrical refurbishment and so all power will go off at 10am. We both need to shower before then (or the water won't be heated).
We had both planned to shower yesterday evening (we only shower about every three days even at home, which is why I always manage to get a seat to myself down the pub or on the bus!) but couldn't. "Why not?” I hear you all shouting at once. Well, we got really quite wet walking back yesterday, raincoats, trousers, and rucksacks. Some very careful organising and we just about managed to get both raincoats and pairs of trousers hanging to dry in the van, whilst the rucksack were dumped in a waterproof stuff-sack overnight to be dried later today. So we couldn't shower last night for the simple reason, there would be no place to hang the wet towels to dry! Van life, eh!
Still it got us off site early and we arrived at our first port of call mid morning
Culzean Castle. I bit of a mix up at the gate, Liz though the property was managed by Historic Scotland so presented our English Heritage cards only to be told it was part of National Trust Scotland's portfolio so a hasty dig around in the handbag for our NT cards!
Pretty much as soon as we entered the grounds the penny dropped and we realised we'd been here before a few years ago. I thought we must have been en route we passed the Electric Brae
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/electric-brae - and once again as I took my foot off the accelerator on what appeared to be a decent downhill slope I witness the weirdness of the van decelerating rather than accelerating. It really is a strange illusion.
Anyway it was worth another quick look around, a fascinating chat with one of the guides who was also a conservator, and a pleasant, if short, walk through some of the grounds.
Onwards and southwards, past the opulence that is Trump Turnberry. At around that point the weather changed from bright sunshine to light rain. Still, unlike Trump, we didn't experience any stormy problems!
Stranraer is much smaller than expected, the ferry ports to Northern Island being a few miles up the coast. Nothing much there , nothing much to say, but did take a couple of pics
Theft from Tesco must be a problem, I've never seen alcohol so protected anywhere else
We did do a little drive around that curious area south of Stranraer but it really wasn't worth doing it all, although a glimpse of the Isle Of Man would have been nice
There is supposed to be an Aire just outside Newton Stewart where we could stop the night. We were definitely on the correct little side-road but couldn't find it, so a 20 mile drive to plan B where we'll sleep in a forest carpark for the night (it is a designated stopover). View is great
Can't believe it's been 120 miles today
