Southern Upland Way – Part 2: Beehive Bothy to St John’s Town of Dalry

Day 3: Beehive Bothy to Caldons

A cold night and I never felt quite warm enough, but I seemed to have slept ok. Partly because I wanted to cherish what warmth I had, I was slow in getting up, and when I did emerge found Afke on the point of leaving, and Wolfgang and Sophie not far off doing the same. This gave me the opportunity to take some pictures and footage of the empty bothy.

Just along from the bothy were Laggangairn standing stones, where I lingered for a few minutes.

The trail then took me up through the forest to the top of Craig Airie Fell, from which I could look down on Loch Derry which I’d be passing soon.

Out of the forest and passing Loch Derry, I hit a stretch of road walking. This must have gone on for about 4 miles. The sun out, I was actually feeling warm and stripped down to just my base layer.

I was chased down the road by an escaped dog and had only just escaped its evil clutches when I caught Wolfgang and Sophie taking a break by a bridge. I stopped myself soon after leaving the road, in a nice bit of forestry, and was passed by Wolfgang and Sophie. Despite me clearly being faster than them, I somehow didn’t see them for the rest of the day.

The forest gave way to a road, which gave way to a rather pointless cross-country parallel to the road. Then I was in Bargrennan and debating whether a detour to Glentrool village, or the visitor centre would be a good idea. Feeling I’d be tight for the cafe at the visitor centre, I decided to leave it until later, as the trail loops back quite close to it – I could then pop in if there was time.

I didn’t particularly enjoy the initial climb from Bargrennan to join the Water of Trool – the woodland was on the side of a slope making progress a bit tortuous, at a time of day when patience was wearing thin.

As the nasty bit gave way to more normal tracks, I met a guy that said there was another hiker just ahead of me. Guessing this might be Afke, I upped the pace a little to see if I could catch her, falling in step with her on the banks of the river.

We walked the last few km together and on arriving at Caldons, both knew a good spot to camp when we saw one. We’d just passed a rather rubbish spot next to a bench – another 100m or so was this paradise. (Unfortunately, it later transpired that Wolfgang and Sophie stopped at the rubbish one, and missed out on both a much better camp spot, and also some top notch company).

Relaxed chat and dinner, sitting on logs in a clearing with the sound of the river rushing past. The best camp of the trip.

Day 4: Caldons to St John’s Town of Dalry

That was such a good camp, and it was a shame to leave it, especially making an early start at 07:30. But I had a lot to do and would rather have the free time at camp at the end of the day than waste it procrastinating over packing up.

The path alongside Loch Trool was stony, a sign of what was to come for the rest of the day. I saw three more campers along the loch, and one right next to the path. The path undulated a fair bit, which enabled me to see Afke about 10 minutes behind. I wasn’t going to wait for her – we both needed to do the day’s big distance in our own way.

I decided not to detour the several hundred metres to White Laggan Bothy – I didn’t need extra distance today, and it looked like it involved going up a bit. So I stopped for coffee on a bench overlooking Loch Dee., at which point Afke passed me and I never saw her again for the rest of the day’s walking.

Stony forestry tracks were very much the order of the day, and these really began to be felt underfoot – my XUltras were coming towards the end of their life, and this pair’s cause of death was going to be sole erosion.

Finally after a good 20km of stony track, I was climbing out of the forest and over some small hills, before road walking almost to St John’s. Tired now, I had my camping radar very much on, and would have happily stopped if I’d found a good spot.

But nothing took my fancy, and I also didn’t want to leave me a lot to do tomorrow, so found myself walking along the river bank into St John’s, stopping at the garage for provisions and then having a sit on a bench to decide what to do.

Part of me wanted some proper accommodation, but I wasn’t prepared to go to the effort, or expense, so pushed on. It was a slow climb out of the village, but topping out on open ground, I investigated several grassy spots near the path with a view to pitching, but wasn’t that taken with them, so pushed on.

A boggy stretch right at the end of the day, then climbing around Ardoch Hill, I spotted some better looking ground. And a tent pitched on it. As I drew closer it became clear that it was Afke. After saying hello and exchanging a few remarks about the hard going, I went and pitched a little way away, so that we could each have some solo peace and quiet.

A nearly 38km day, the longest of the trip so far, and the longest day’s walk since last summer. And my feet knew it…