Isle of Whithorn

Nido's in free parking in a field looking over the Isle of Whithorn harbour (///dabbing.anchorman.cookers), with the Isle of Man visible on the horizon; O2 sent me a 'Welcome to the Isle of Man' SMS, telling me I'm now on my Roam from Home package!  It's quite sloping so we're on the levellers.  Thankfully it's still dry as I don't think we'd get on (or off) here if it was wet.  Just outside the field is a portacabin toilet, with a free motorhome service point, which I've taken advantage of.  We've stayed here before - back in September 2018 - but then we parked on the harbour front, which is no longer allowed.

Joanne from Trundlebus Travels contacted us on Twitter and asked if we could put the What3Words link on my blog posts.  I have used W3W in the past, but hadn't thought about using it on the blog; I thought it's a really good idea to help others identify the location and navigate to it.  So in these and future posts you'll see the hyper-linked W3W, rather than a link to Google Maps.

Wigtown Harbour was very quiet overnight.  I woke at about 0615, so was up and walking the dog nice and early.  We walked up to the bird hide where I sat and watched a heron and lapwing in the mud of the empty river, with about ten mute swans higher up on the salt marsh.  We had a naughty breakfast today - haggis and a fried egg in a Scottish morning roll; naughty but so nice!

Cathy had her online Welsh lesson on Zoom this morning, starting at 1030, so I took Salty off for a good walk, following the path we took yesterday all the way up to the road, then turning left up the hill towards the town.  On the way we passed the Parish Church and I popped in to take a look at the graves of the martyrs, who were tried and sentenced to be tied to a stake at low tide, then drowned as it flowed in; what a horrible way to go.  The war memorial was just outside the churchyard and it was sad to see so many names from the First World War, especially several with the same surname.

We wandered into town and did a couple of circuits before sitting outside Cafe Rendezvous for coffee and lemon meringue pie. At least that's what I had; Salty had three small gravy bones!  As we sat there I heard the beautiful and joyous sound of swifts and looking up, saw a group of about six flying around the rooftops.  I just love these birds.  I hardly get to hear them unless we're in France in the summer; their call just lifts my spirits. I also bought a slice of the pie to take away for Cathy.  Back at the van she was still 'siarad Cymraeg', so I sat outside watching the tide ebb.

The drive to the Isle of Whithorn took about half an hour and after choosing a spot to get as level as possible, we walked onto the headland before taking a turn around the harbour.  On arrival I'd walked to The Steam Packet Inn (2 minutes away!) and booked a table for tonight.  The rest of the afternoon was spent chilling, before we walked to the pub for an extremely delicious meal; highly recommended.

All's quiet now.  Salty's been walked and we're letting our lovely meals digest as the tide rolls back in.