Loch Doon

We'd been thinking about a dog crate for Arlo in the car for several reasons, one of which having to take a crate with us when we want him to sleep somewhere which is really difficult to fit in the car - he only properly sleeps somewhere else when it is quiet. So having done the research and considered the options, we decided to visit the place that makes them near New Cumnock today.

Despite only 89 miles away, sheesh, 2.5 hours to get there. Unless you are travelling Edinburgh to Glasgow, they don't make it easy to travel east to west. Anyway we got there at 3pm, saw it on the floor and thought, oh that's small, then tried it in the car and went, that's not so small. They were very helpful, Arlo initially reluctant to jump into his usual space cos something else was in it, but once in settled down fine. I've watched him before in the car, he tries to sleep but doesn't, head hanging/wobbling over a basket. Now he can snuggle down as he pleases. After leaving, suddenly we started thinking of more benefits, which was a bonus.

We headed up the road to Loch Doon. I am not familiar with this part of Scotland, west of the M74, south of Glasgow, north of Castle Douglas. I was surprised how lovely it all was. At Loch Doon we did 4.5km castle loop walk, which took us up the hill for some amazing views over the loch and beyond. This could easily have been in the highlands or lake district, with far less tourists.

On the way back we missed a right turn and google maps just updated the arrival time home to 6 minutes later. So we thought, fine, it'll want us to take the next right turn... until I started to think and checked... it was taking us to Ayr, Glasgow, Edinburgh then south home, I think an extra 40 miles, yet only 6 minutes longer, eh? Nah, we had planned our dinner in Biggar, back we went. That was a good example of how slow it actually is travelling east/west/east. anyway home by 9pm, all pretty tired, but a grand day out.