We had Sunday service timetable on the railway to contend with today. The first train was at 11.00pm, which meant it was nearer noon before we reached the starting line. Once we set off, howver, it was a trible-free, relaxed day of walking in beautiful surroundings, albeit slightly longer than we anticipated.
The delay to starting worked in our favour as low tide is occurring later and later in the day. The consequence was that we walked the majority of the day on the beach. The weather was ideal with bright sunshine but a nice, cool breeze coming of the sea. Underfoot the sand was relatively firm, if with occasional sections of clay where care was required to avoid the boots getting covered in mud.
The scenery was beautiful, even stunning at times, with the Galloway Hills slowing revealing themselves in ever greater detail as the day wore on. Initially, the colour palette was very cool greys, silver's and blues, with greens and yellows of the Galloway foreshore coming in to play later in the day. It was a leisurely day's walking with stops to sit on the beach, feel the sun in your face and just slow down the pace of the day.
While there was not a hill to be seen all day twelve miles walking on the sand can be heavy going, whatever other delights may be available and in the approaches to Silloth we were happy to leave the beach and move on to a former track. The occasioned a walk round the edges of a local golf course before coming in to the back of the town. From the little we have seen of the town it is a lovely little place, known as a great place to watch the sun set over the Solway Fifth and the Galloway Hills.