{"id":836,"date":"2025-05-08T20:57:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T20:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fatblokeonabike.com\/?p=836"},"modified":"2025-05-18T21:15:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T21:15:16","slug":"day-06-dalbeattie-to-creebridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fatblokeonabike.com\/?p=836","title":{"rendered":"Day 06 – Dalbeattie to Creebridge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another beautiful morning! \"\"<\/a>Dalbeattie was quiet as I left. The breeze so gentle, it felt as if I had a headwind in all directions.<\/p>\n

I diverted to see Orchardton Tower. It was well worth the extra mile.\"\"<\/a>Down the road at Dundrennan, a wicker figure stood guard on what must be the site of the famous former Wicker Man festival.\"\"<\/a>The coastal ride was stunning. I could feel the heat of the sun deepening my odd, one-sided tan. It wasn’t long before I was tucking into a cheese scone at the very popular Mulberries in Kirkudbright (“Keer-coo-brie”).\"\"<\/a>Talk of the town was that the bridge is closed. Years of heavy vehicles using the\u00a0 100-year-old reinforced concrete structure means it can’t safely hold even cars anymore. The closure is only two months old. Footfall and takings are down at the shops, apparently. I checked out my detour distance (6 miles) before asking if the bridge is open to pedestrians. It is!\"\"<\/a>The quality of the road surface was awful today. So awful that one of the smoothest consistent sections was a forest track that route 7 followed to avoid riders using the A75 on the way into Gatehouse of Fleet.\"\"<\/a>Gatehouse was lovely. I started to think about accommodation for the evening while I was drinking my coffee in the afternoon sunshine.<\/p>\n

There is no coastal route from Gatehouse to Newton Stewart that doesn’t use the A75 and I don’t have a deathwish. That meant following route 7 over the old military road. The bump on the ride profile looked significant. It was to these legs. I kept telling myself it’s a longer andd shallower climb to the same height as a climb I do regularly at home.<\/p>\n

I was slow. There were logging trucks to avoid. And I saw a pine Marten. I saw a pine marten! I had to describe it to Gemini to identify it. And that’s what it was. The description said they are ‘often elusive’. I adore these moments on my bike.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reaching the top of the, military road, I was looking forward to a lovely long roll downhill. It was a necessarily slow shake, rattle and roll. The pitted and potted road surface made me long for that forest track again.<\/p>\n

Avoiding the A75 meant a climb up to another fabulous former railway line. \"\"<\/a>Then a very steep climb through a forest on the old military road. I kept telling myself that it was similar to the hill through the village I live in. Then I tld myself that this afternoon I’d have been walking up that too.<\/p>\n

I finished the day on the dedicated cycleway alongside the A75 into Creebridge.<\/p>\n

Day total: 57 miles, 2988ft climbed<\/p>\n

Tour total: 388 miles,\u00a0 14,424ft climbed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another beautiful morning! Dalbeattie was quiet as I left. The breeze so gentle, it felt as if I had a headwind in all directions. I diverted to see Orchardton Tower. It was well worth the extra mile.Down the road at Dundrennan, a wicker figure stood guard on what must be the site of the famous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-irishsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fatblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fatblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fatblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fatblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fatblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fatblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fatblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fatblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fatblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fatblokeonabike.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}