Day 5: St John’s Town of Dalry to Chalk Memorial Bothy
Rain at first light meant a bit of a lie in, and when I finally peeped out around 7am, I saw Afke packing up. She’d gone by the time I was properly up.
I set off handrailing through the forest and went wrong almost immediately, somehow missing a left turn and ending up on the road a little earlier than I was supposed to. I don’t mind a bit of road early in the day as it helps get the legs into a rhythm.
When it was time to turn off the road, I took a small break and with signal and now some certainty around which day I’d finish, sorted out a hotel for the next night. Getting past St John’s had given me that clarity.
The descent to Culmark from Culmark Hill was dogged by some iffy waymarking, but eventually I was on the track leading away from the farm and heading up towards forest.
This was quite boggy to start with, and it was a relief to find a convenient rock on which to perch for lunch. I still had quite a bit of work ahead of me.
It was a long slow slog up onto Benbrack with the Striding Arch at the summit. I could just see another arch on Colt Hill through this one.
Now it was a case of rollercoastering over some lesser bumps, all following a fence line. Opting not to divert to Colt Hill, I struck off at the edge of the forest heading for Allan’s Cairn, meeting a couple of ladies coming the other way working to “fill in” a gap in their SUW walk.
Allan’s Cairn was a bit underwhelming so I pushed on, keen to finish the day’s walk. A descent on stony track brought me to Chalk Memorial Bothy, and sticking my head inside I found Afke.
I was in the woodshed attempting, without a lot of success, to break up a pallet for the fire, when Wolfgang appeared and essentially took over. He’s a fireman and it turns out he is as good at making them as putting them out. From then on it was his baby.
Meanwhile, I sat in an armchair and very much felt like the old one in the room.
Day 6: Chalk Memorial Bothy to Sanquhar
One thing I learned in the night was that Afke’s sleep mat is really noisy. How she managed to sleep on it beat me. There was a lot of general noise from people tossing and turning in the night, so I called it early and was the first to leave. With this being my last day for this trip, it meant I wouldn’t see the others again.
Away at 8am, I headed down the track to Polskeoch. Today’s walk was a simple matter of a track/road walk followed by a climb over a hill and a drop into Sanquahar. I spotted the first painted post where the track turned right and soon after became a road.
It was an easy road walk down to Polgown, punctuated every so often with more painted posts.
I went offroad, climbing at a slant towards the top of Cloud Hill. Boggy in places, and hot from the exertion, I shed my raincoat and walked in just a base layer. Any hopes of keeping dry feet disappeared crossing the top of the ridge.
As I topped out, and looked back, I saw figures approaching me. As the trail crossed a track, I took my break and Wolfgang and Sophie caught me. With Sanquhar in view, we had our last chat. It didn’t last long as I’d decided I could make the early train at 12:30 rather than wait another two hours for the next one. I struck off down the ridgeline, on a wavy and indistinct path, and had my first slip of the trip.
This bit of the walk never seemed to end and I was relieved to hit the road, opting to take a direct line to the station rather than skirt the town on the SUW. I got there with only a few minutes to spare, and then found the train delayed – I might have just made it if I’d gone the long way around.
It wasn’t long before I was in Dumfries, where I’d booked my hotel for the night, carefully chosen to be handy for parkrun the next morning (literally outside).
