It didn’t come to much surprise: After being completly free of any rain yesterday nearly no sleep was possible during the night. A serious thunderstorm passed by the camping site.
Heavy rain and lasting thunder are not that easy to take in a tent: even the often useful Ohropax could not hide the fact that it was too loud, especially for a not-so-experienced camper. Well, eventually I was tired enough to find some refreshing sleep anyway. At about half past eight the rain stopped so I could prepare my first morning coffee straight from my air bed. The anticipation of the cycling day ahead made me even more happy.
What should be counted as a complete failure in the after math was the plan to start with the idea of finding a proper breakfast just on the way. The nice ladies at the camping site had explained a route to a good coffee shop to me. But to get there I had to roll straight downhill. Since this leads to a steep uphill afterwards I skipped this. I don’t want to speak of a complete bonk (really the right word? Please comment in case you know), as the German cycling legend Jan Ullrich (what has he become nowadays, poor chap) once had in the Alpes, when he could not follow Marco Pantani anymore. But for sure I had no good legs this morning and the first hill became longer and longer. After about 45 minutes I had to let my hope go to get a breakfast soon. I tried it with some energy bars and made it to Dumfries, eventually. There I found a not so warm welcome by serious rain that came down. Even the scots were seeking dry places and I heard one say: „Oh dear, that is more than a wee shower!“ Okay, so I could stand under a roof for a while as well.
After a few minutes it was safe to find a nice place to have a late but even more delightful breakfast that included haggis and pancakes. After the meal a crisis arrived that could never have happened a few years ago: my iPhone refused to be charged. A brief moment of panic: Why? Why me? Why here? Why? But after a some effort it was just the cable, so no real harm done. A new cable should be available anywhere in this town. The omnipresent red provider of telecommunication services – btw it red as red can be, as I can recall from a project I did 15 years ago: rgb 255,0,0 – was able to help me out. But you have to pay off a price for everything in life. In this case the cable was worth 19 Pounds and I happily accepted.
After that episode it went on to go up, permanently. Or better: up and down constantly. Well, there will be an accustoming eventually. Hopefully.
No further special events on that day and so I arrived in Kirkcudbright – the artists‘ town. Actually, there were some pices shown in the harbour. So, I enjoyed a relaxed and nice sunset while having really good fish&chips and being inspired by a trojanish horse.
The night brought nothing but the quietest night I ever had on a camping site which prepared me perfectly for the upcoming leg.
The official cycgo rating for today: points deduction due to heavy rain, no golf, so it is 3 of 5 blue bikes.