Saturday 21 June 2014

Project 365 week 25 15th -21st June

Sunday

Bob has been away at cub camp since Friday evening. Two whole days with no relative around. A huge learning curve for him, as it is for any just turned eight year old. He was due to be picked up at the same time as Fifi was needing taking to swimming, So as I had the weekend off work I volunteered to take Fifi swimming. Was a nice night for a stroll along the beach, and picked up one cache. On the way back Fifi and I passed where there was another so we stopped and had a ten minute hunt for it, but we had no luck, so we went home.


Fifi looking for the cache



Monday

Day 1 of our holidays. A week of doing what we want with no thought to anybody other then ourselves. Turns out it was a beautiful hot, probably too hot,dry and sunny week. We had loaded in jackets, jumpers, body warmers and waterproofs as well as hiking boots for any muddy bits we may encounter caching. Not one jumper or jacket came out of the car all week, could have actually done with a couple of pairs of shorts I think.

On Monday we drove down to Castle Douglas via The Leadhills Mining Museum. I had e-mailed ahead and asked if they would like a review done, as a local place of interest for the upcoming school holidays so we got free entry. A blog post to follow.

The country side round there is stunning, the colours on the hills amazing, and the river water crystal clear, you just need to be careful of the free roaming sheep on the roads. And yes before you ask there are caches up there that we found. In fact we have now got the one that is located in the highest village in the UK.

That evening we went out exploring the local area and wandered round some very beautiful places, picking up caches as we went. You would be surprised how many there are everywhere up and down the country to fuel my obsession.


OH panning for gold




Tuesday

We had planned before hand that today we would do Threaves Castle, a Historic Scotland Property, and Threaves  Estate, a National Trust for Scotland Property, but due to their locality to each other one membership gets you into both. To get to the castle requires a boat, there is a bell to ring to summon the boat men, or in our case boat girl they come across for you and take you back when you have finished.

We then popped along to watch a family of Ospreys and along to a bird hide to see what else we could see.
The weather was wonderful again, not overly hot in the morning, but far too hot by lunchtime.

After tea we went back out to do some more caches, and walk round the lake again.



waiting on the boat to take us across 



Wednesday

This was move on day, we had decided two night in one place and two nights in another, as it turns out this was not really long enough and four nights in one place may well have been better. We were not seeing as much stuff as we had hoped to do. Not only was it to warm to be walking really we were also taking a lot longer to look round places than we had thought we might. But then there was nothing planned that could not be changed.

We were taking in sights as we went.  First we stopped at New Abbey corn mill, sadly this was not in operation as they were short staffed. Was still an interesting place to visit regardless. Then we went up to Sweetheart Abbey. This had been closed on Monday afternoon due to falling masonry so we could only look from the outside.

We travelled on through Dumfries, Moffat and Selkirk. The Moffat to Selkirk road is 32 miles of virtually nothing. For what is classed as an A road it leaves a lot to be desired. There are a scattering of houses nine out of ten of which seem to be for sale, one roadside cafe at  St Mary's Loch one pub (though how many people it gets I dont know as you would have to drive to get there) a small primary school.......oh and three caches. Not one village, or one petrol station just miles and miles of nothing.

We stopped at The Salmon viewing centre though it was not exciting at all not at all what we expected. Before going onto Galashiels and finding our accommodation.

That evening we went off exploring the area, chatted to a few of the locals, and had no success with the caches we were looking for. One was placed at a bench in a public garden but far to many people around to look with any success.


OH taking a picture of the heron ( in the middle of the pond) at the corn mill




Thursday

We had been chatting to somebody on a geocahing page, they had been looking for somebody to take a trackable down south, so they had posted it to us for us to drop off. I also had another that was trying to make its way back down south so we decided to help that one on the way as well.

So on Thursday we decided to set off south of the border do some caching, drop off the two trackables and visit some places in Jedburgh on the way back up. So we set off for our end point, Otterburn Mill, a busy tourist place with a cache to drop a trackable in and with a restaurant and toilets as well as a very reasonably priced clothing shop as well.

Various other stops were made for other caches, including one at "the hamlet of Cottonshopeburnfoot. It has the distinction of having the longest place name without spaces in England. and we found our 100th cache while we were out today, at a  picturesque little church that is part of the Penine Way.



helping celebrate our 100th cache, do you recognise them? 


We had to stop at the border as well and get the last cache in England.

Back up the Jedburgh where we did Jedburgh Abbey and then on to Jedburgh Castle Jail and Museum. It is free entry but did not have enough time for a good look round, will need to go back another day. Maybe stay in Jedburgh the next time.

Back to our accommodation. found some local caches along a road route and went out to do them before coming back so OH could watch the football.

Friday

Home. Wasn't really sure of what way to go home, but we decided across to Dumfries and back up through Sanquhar. This allowed us to go back on the Selkirk to Dumfries road and do the caches we did not attempt to do on the way across. Picked up another cache at Moffat.

We stopped for lunch in Dumfries but did not do much else there. On to Sanquhar for a cache, which actually I did not find, and then home.

Lots and lots of pictures to delete and others to edit to go into Google+ albums and share on Pinterest. Will take a while, but all nice memories of a holiday.

the river in Sanquhar







Saturday

A boring day of catching up with all the washing and the tidying up and unpacking that a holiday involves. Spent a lot of the day sorting pictures, lots still to do and watching the children while daughter runs her oh to work, save her sticking them in the car and taking them with her just to turn round and come back.

Fifi was out and so it was just Bob and the twins, so we took a walk to the park. As the twins were awake I thought I would put them on the swings. Put Minky on first as he is more adventurous than Dinky, he stayed on for maybe ten minutes being pushed gently by Bob. This is the first time Dinky has been on one, she certainly sat better than he did but was not quite so keen so she was only on for two minutes.

on the swings






TheBoyandMe's 365 Linky

9 comments:

  1. Stunning pictures, and beautiful scenery this week, and woah, what an action packed week, you have really jammed it all in, I love the geocaching that you are doing too, even if you are not finding them all it sounds like fun :)

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  2. what lovely views. I especially love the view of the castle.

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  3. We went to Dumfries and Moffat a few years ago :-) lovely pictures, it sounds like you had a great time. I love the picture of Fifi in the woods and arrrr the twins are getting big! Have a great week x

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  4. Sounds like a lovely trip. We spent a week in Kippford near Dalbeattie once and it was lovely.

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  5. sounds like a wonderful holiday Elaine so many things you saw and found lol you def have the geo caching bug!!! i really like the photo of you waiting for the boat to take you across the wate- love the reflection of the sky in the lake x

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  6. Wow, what a week! You certainly crammed in a lot :) My grandmother lived in Dumfries, and then in Glencaple just outside, and I love the area. I have fond memories of Sweetheart Abbey x

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  7. oh my i am so loving your peg folk!! we really need to get going on this geocaching thing!! i am going to rope in some friends i think as I am rubbish and hubby cant walk right now

    sorry for the late visit!

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  8. Oh my word what a busy week you had. Sounds like you had lots of fun for the most part though. I keep saying this but we must do some geocaching when the husband's leg is better. The Tuesday photo is beautiful and the peg people look brilliant! Sorry to be so late commenting.

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  9. What gorgeous scenery Elaine. Lovely photo's too. It looks like you had a fab holiday!

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