Leaving Edinburgh this morning we varied our route slightly by taking the A701 down to the motorway. The hills, forests (both coniferous and deciduous), the river and various places and footpaths to stop and explore mean that this is a road to come back to in a good light for photography.

There was snow on the highest hills and on farms with lowland fields, the first lambs enjoying the break in the weather. Coming into Dumfries & Galloway, James commented that the sun on the tussocks of last year’s grass which were glowing yellow, resembled Donald Trump’s hair. They were certainly not scruffy enough to look like Boris Johnson’s. North of Moffat we passed the source of the River Tweed and a path up the flank of a hill to a ridge which promised good views and which we must do on a dry day. There are a variety of bridges over the river, some in use, some not. This one is almost camouflaged by the surrounding foliage.

Moffat provided a good coffee stop before hitting the M74. The first few miles were fairly quiet and we braved the crowds at Gretna outlet village to get some outdoor kit we needed and which we had not found in Edinburgh. Having escaped from there, it was a reasonably easy run with everybody else returning from their Easter break and HGVs. There was predictable slow traffic through the roadworks near Lancaster and nearer home. The two examples of bad driving seen were both provided by BMW drivers. Now I must check that the holiday rail works have not overrun or been delayed by the storms and hope I can get to work on time tomorrow.