Raiders Roads
- poulterjim
- Jun 21, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 22, 2023
I'd been wanting to head North and combine seeing a very old close friend and some bikebiking in a more remote part of the UK, for a while. So my summer sabbtatical seemed like the perfect time to do it. So, booking well in advance, I managed to get a return from London Euston to Dumfries for £78, including the all-important bike booking.
It's a four hour plus journey, combining the super slick (and long, bike carriage at the front btw) Avanti West Coast service, with a two carriage chugger from Carlisle to Dumfries. Once there I stayed a night with my mate Matt. We caught up on over a decade's news and early the next day he drove me to my start - New Galloway.
The route
I'd cobbled togther some of the sections from what looks like a great three days of gravel-related mayhem called Raiders Gravel. It was a bit of a bodge, but gave me something like 80kms to cover over two days. Well within my capability I hoped.
The kit
After much dithering in the end I took my trusty (but old) hardtail - an Orange P7. This was way too heavy and overspecced for waht I needed. The trails were mostly forest roads and old railway lines - lots and lots of gravel - with hardly a berm or tree root in sight.
For the bags and bike kit I have a rather odd selection of stuff from Alpkit. It's well-made (mostly in the UK I think) and I really respect their ethos. I also have have their Kraku stove - which gets a starring role in the video. Super teeny and super loud! I used a very old, and thin, Snugpak sleeping bag. I also used a silk liner from Decathlon - which kept me the right side of cold
The experience
In the end I managed 60kms both days - with a fair bit of walking on both. Navigation was mostly OK (though you will see in the GPX a section where I followed the wrong gravel path for nearly 2kms!
But I really enjoyed this trip. The fantastic weather may well have played a part in this, but what was really amazing was the sense of isolation. I barely saw a soul all day. And wild swimming in a peaty loch, then bedding down for the night beneath the Dark Skies of Dumfries with literally not a sight or sound of any car, plane, train or person was genuinely profound. And to be able to get there from London in just a few hours, without driving or flying, was an important plus to me.
The scenery is expansive and exhilerating, particularly around Cairnsmore of Fleet, including eye-catching yet hard to find sculptures.
The shout out
The music on the video is thanks to some Berber drummers on the Northern edge of the Sahara. Hardly the same as bagpipes North of Carlisle I know; but it's a great sound and frankly I can't stand the digeful wail of the pipes.
But the biggest thanks to my mate Matt. A generous host, a genuine original and that's the....
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