Brighouse Bay Campsite - a small victory!

We've had the tent for almost a year now... the blow-up bed, the lamp, the fridge... but we hadn't tried it out. It's only a two-man tent and was very cheap - hopefully OK for beginners to see if camping is their style.

The weather forecast was for sun, sun and more sun, so we booked a place in the campsite at Brighouse Bay; we'd been to the beach recently and liked it, so it was just the very place. We set off stopping on the way for provisions, and arrived at about 2pm. Set up camp after choosing the plot carefully (at the back next to the hedge - nice and private). All the other more seasoned campers had enormous palacial tents, we felt completely inadequate... was quite funny seeing just how small ours was!
I took a sneaky pic over my shoulder, so as not give them the satisfaction!


We spent some time at the beach, looking for crabs and brightly-coloured periwinkles, paddling in the outgoing sea and building a little grass-covered house. B spotted a standing stone in a field nearby.




At tea-time B went to get a Chinese takeaway from Kirkudbright, which was nice. We sat on our little mat with our back to the sun (and the other residents who were cooking BBQ Banquets!)

Well it started to get chilly and dewy about 9pm and I retreated to the tent - but really there wasn't much room to do anything inside so I lay with my head poking out, reading a book!
Finally gave up about 11.30 and settled down to sleep. Others were coming back from the Golf Club and we fell asleep listening to their giggles and stage whispers about our little tent! That and the cacophany of crows roosting in the trees near the beach.

Woke at 4 then at 6, birdsongtastic. Got up quickly and rescued our stuff from the condensation. Had breakfast, showered and packed up and were offsite for 8.30!

Our conclusions were that next time, we need a bigger tent (!) and a table.

We were at our first site early enough to use the low sun to bring out the wonderful carvings. We were being watched and squalked at continously by what we think was a buzzard. She presumably had a nest nearby.


Second site was hot too... but worth visiting for the wonderfully-preserved carvings, you could see the little peck marks.



It was a blisteringly hot day, thankfully a little breeze too. We drove up to a TV mast and considered walking down to a carved panel but I chickened out. Maybe another time.

Driving out towards the coast again, we found an unusual church in Kirkandrews, resembling a castle.



The floor of the vestibule was a pattern of pebbles, also used in some of the nearby gardens.



There was a ruined kirk in the same village which has some fantastic gravestones and those fantastic windswept trees!





One of the gravestones was gorgeously naive, with and angel and flowers and a picture of an adult and a child, bearing an inscription,
"Weep not for us, Our Race is Run, It Was the Lord, His Will be Dun."


This Angel motif was used on a few on the gravestones, as if carved by the same mason.

Later we went to Kirkcudbright Wild Animal Park - just had a cuppa tea whilst being entertained by a pair of Macaws (I think their names are Polly and Molly)



We then changed in a carpark (we are well practised at this now) and heading down for a meal at the Nith. Nice!