We set off to see the area via geocaching. The only thing we had in mind was to get to Ayr to visit the Robbie Burns Centre.

We had great weather which made such a difference . We saw the sea in a few places and more than one loch and the blues were much 'bluer' today. Also we started on a good note as we were NOT attacked by the seagull.

We went first to a small seaside/seaport village as there was an intriguing cache called Funny Faces. We drove through the pretty little village of Kippford to find the cache was actually a memorial to the previous granite industry. However, near by a local had made a series of quirky statues which certainly made us smile. We passed a few people as we walked to the site and everyone was smiling and lots of happy greetings passed between us. There was also a man selling books with an honesty bucket. Luckily John had a coin with him so we could buy a couple although, unfortunately, he found one he wanted so I could only get one.

We then did a series of caches that gave us views over the area before heading for the Ayr road beside Loch Ken.This also gave us lovely views of the loch from various sites . We were mainly on an A road although some sidetrips were on unnamed roads which were only 1 car wide but with fortunately a number of passing places.

We arrived at Alloway, near Ayr, where Robbie Burns was born. We went to the cottage to find that the cafe was at the new main centre so we walked back to this site. Unfortunately I was silly enough not to change from jandals so ended up with a blister. This was the only bad note. We had cheese and crackers then walked over to the Burns memorial. They had famous statues of the people from "Tam O‘Shanter" in the area, but as I don’t know this piece well it didn’t mean much to me. The café had been the Tam O’Shanter and there was a 15 minute video about it but we didn’t see the video so I am still none the wiser.

We did see the Brig O’Doon bridge, which is very picturesque. We walked past the Brig O’Doon hotel which was run by a family called Costley and judging by the red carpet at the front and the fancily dressed staff there it almost certainly was! We stopped at the Old Kirk then John had a brief snooze in the car while I went into Burns Cottage. Robbie Burns was actually born in this cottage and it is now a Scottish Heritage property. It had a video display of life at the time the had been done with humour as there was a mouse and a cat in the barn area. The next rooms had quotes from Burns and the final room was the kitchen and included the bed that supposedly he and his siblings had been born in .

The town seemed to consist of Robbie Burns attractions and posh houses. We went past Lovett House, Earls Court and Queens View. They all had double garages, wells, sweeping drives and at least 2 new cars out front. It didn’t quite fit the man of the land poetry.

We drove around the coast next, looking at the sea views. We could see what we think was the Isle of Arran and there were a number of cars parked by the road with the occupants enjoying the view from the top. We went down to the fishing village of Dunmare and then left again. There was no chance of park as it was ‘summer’ for the day. We also kept seeing a smaller island which we think was Ailsa Crag. Later we also went into Girvan, a nice looking port town, and also did not stay because of the crowds. As we left we had to pull over for a lifeguard van – which was heading inland with its siren blaring. John also noticed a sign asking you to look out for otters.

We found a couple of inland caches and also stopped at Crossraguel Abbey. The ruins were more intact than many we had seen and the grounds were very well cared for. The steward was in the grounds so the office was empty but we did find her on our travels. We are starting to recognise the outline of abbeys. We were told that there are many enigmas associated with the abbey, which could well be worth further research . There may have been a Pictish site here, and some people suggest that the abbey may have a Templar connection. Crossraguel was a Clunaic abbey (like Whitby), which was a branch of the Benedictines, and the monks were known as the 'Black Monks' from the colour of their habits.

We then did a series of caches along the Queens Way. The local forestry commission supports the caches and they will give 2 cups of tea or coffee to anyone who finds all 6 caches in the series. It must be in their interest to encourage people to visit. There were 5 on our route, including one at a viewpoint built over the forest, one at a deer park (we didn’t see any unfortunately) and another at a place with a waterfall. The most interesting was the last one because it was at a Roundhouse. This was an Iron Age Roundhouse on the banks of a Loch and Robert the Bruce was said to stay here in 1307 prior to the Battle of Glentrool.

We found a country pub at the end of the forest road and it had space for us. The food was OK but the conversation was fascinating as a man behind us was talking non stop to his tablemates about farming. He repeated just about every comment at full volume as he lectured the rest of the table about the intricacies of showing sheep – then he said he had never actually done this himself. I was intrigued by the trivial as usual and found that the ladies toilet had 2 toilets but 4 small basins.

We had time to go back down the other side of Loch Ken although it was getting darker. The light on the Loch was lovely although it was dark under the trees. There were a lot of avenues of tree with them meeting overhead. There was also a warning to watch out for traffic lights for cows. We realised this was for places where they must need to cross the road either for milking or to change paddocks. We did a last cache near a statue of a Kite (bird). There was a lot of mention of these all around the area as they are hoping the numbers can be rebuilt. We arrived back in Dumfries just before 10.