geese

Every morning we hear geese flying over our garden on their way inland. I'd been thinking about where to go for my November bivvy and decided to choose a site on the Solway, so that I could see them leave at dawn. The entire barnacle goose population of Svalbard overwinters here - about 40,000 of them - so it can be a noisy place.

At 10pm, I parked at Castle Corner, near Caerlaverock, and walked about half a mile into the Nature Reserve. Across the bay I could see the lights and hills of Cumbria. The sky was clear and there was already a hard frost, so I'd come prepared with plenty of clothes and my new sleeping bag, which is army surplus and supposed to be good for very cold weather.

It was magical out there, very quiet and so many stars visible above me - I lay and looked at them until I fell asleep (which didn't take long!). I slept very well and at dawn I packed up and walked back to the van. The sliding doors were frozen shut, so I couldn't get access to the gas canister - a cup of coffee would have to wait. Instead, I got my binoculars and went out again to watch the geese flying up past Criffel. Once the sun was properly up, the doors unfroze and I made breakfast and read my book for a bit before going on a walk up Wardlaw Hill and down past Caerlaverock Castle.