Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Cheers Steve. Yes a stunning area and a great area to tour & not far from Cairnryan too, so very handy for folk from N.Ireland.

Will hopefully get to continue with the report this evening.

So, it was back to Gatehouse of Fleet to meet up with an old mate who had travelled up from near Birmingham. After some catching up over coffee, we headed back to Newton Stewart and turned into Millcroft Road/Cumloden Road, then crossed the Penkiln Burn and followed a lovely un-named single track road which eventually took us to Glentrool. From here it was a left, then a right and North on another great un-named road towards Straiton

From Straiton we headed east along the B741, through Dalmellington, then joined the A713 to Carsphairn, then the B729 to Moniaive - again, all great roads surrounded by great scenery and all helped by the very pleasant weather.

The B729 became the A702 at the far end of Moniaive,which we followed to Thornhill and then took the A76 south to Drumfries and to our 1st B&B for the night in Locharbriggs

Saturday 19th June.

The weather appeared to be holding, a bit more cloud than the day before, but dry. After the full Scottish cooked breakfast, we were back on the road for 9am. We headed off back up the A76 to just North of Sanquhar, then covered the B740, B797, and the A702 ending up in Elvanfoot. If anyone here reading this and has travelled these roads on a motorbike you will know just how good they are! The pictures dont really do them justice.

From Elvanfoot we headed south on the B7076 that ran alongside the A74(M). We then took the B719 and the A701 where we had our one and only short spell of rain just before arriving into Moffat for a spot of lunch

So after lunch we continued north out of Moffat on the A701, then turned right onto another un-named single track road that skirted alongside Talla Reservoir, then climbed steeply up and over to run alongside Megget Reservoir before joining the A708. Yet another fabulous road throwing up great scenery along the way.

A right turn onto the A708 and a stop at the Cafe at St Marys Loch where we would meet up with another old mate who would join us for a few miles
Stunning - no wonder it is so popular with bikers and wild campers

That looks bloody excellent, glad you managed to get a trip in .

Cheers Bob - yes a lovely part of the country for sure.

So, with Kielder Forest around 50 miles away we thought we would pay it a visit, we headed off along the A708 to Selkirk where our mate had to peel off back home. Two of us headed along the A7, A6088, B6357 to Saughtree and left onto an un-named road and across the border into Northumberland and the start of the Kielder Forest drive - 12 miles of un-surfaced road, and,like the Raiders Road a £2 Toll fee applied. A great road leading through the heart of Kielder Forest - needless to say a very enjoyable route
After this it was North on the A68, back into Scotland and up to Galashiels for our 2nd nights B&B

Sunday 20th

After breakfast we start to head back east. I have an evening ferry to catch and Jon will be heading back towards Birmingham.

We head back to St Marys Loch & stop at the cafe for a quick break