Their story, in their words….
We traveled on coach from 11 to 10, stopping to have breakfast at Carlisle. From 10 We walked through Newton Stewart headed North following our route. On the way we passed a few little waterfalls, having lunch next to the lake. We then continued on towards a loch campaign there having walked 22km. On the Second we slept in leaving around 10. We walked East following a path along several Loch and their rivers. On this route we can across an ancient battle site, several waterfalls and set up lunch near one. We then continued on eventually camping near a quarry (after taking a detour through a bog). For the first two days the weather had been cool with occasional interludes of light rain. The third day decided to not to keep this happy pattern. It started off with torrential rain getting us thoroughly soaked – despite waterproofs. We headed down south towards the road, seeing a variety of lochs and eventually stopping for lunch on a hill overlooking a giant water reservoir. We continued South camping on a path adjacent to the road and towards otter pool. Friday was our rest day, so we headed down towards otter pool, leaving the majority of our equipment behind at our campsite. We stayed at otter pool for some of the afternoon without any otters, disappointed we headed back and rested for the rest of the day. On Saturday we headed off and decided to take a more difficult/adventurous route and ended up walking through multiple rivers. Sufficient with our trench-foot we followed a more manageable path eventually finding an ideal campsite between two loch and underneath Murray’s monument. Saturday night happened to be clear and we are able to gaze at the stars. Looking up you could see the entire milky belt and able to spot planets like mars and venus. The view appeared to be almost painted with white droplets of heaven peering out against a purple canvas of beauty. The Romans believed stars to be holes to the aether and the galaxy to be handcrafted individually by the Gods. A view such as this certainly gives credence to such a belief. On the last day we hiked into Newton Stewart through Cumloden forest. We rested through the afternoon and entered our coach at 7. We returned to Victoria Coach station battered yet sufficiently satisfied and we were all home to rest by 7. The hike through Galloway was marked by drinking Chlorine water, exhaustion, Barnaby almost pooing himself, mesmerising views and the variation of the weather. In the end, we made it and will certainly remember our time in Galloway forest
