We have just enjoyed a visit from Gail and David, our friends from Houston (and Montana). We had some good weather and we were able to sample a range of activities around the local area. The blackberries were fruiting well this year so we spent part of their first day getting them to collect their own food. Here are the blackberry team in the iron-age fort known as “the Borg” just along the coast.

We had some light winds and calm seas so we got out the kayaks for a trip along the coast. Here are David and Gail with Kirkandrews in the background.

No visit to Kirkcudbright would be complete without sampling the fish and chips from “Polar Bites” down by the harbour.

David had brought his climbing shoes and harness with him so we made a visit to the sea cliffs at Meikle Ross. Here’s David following up “Twin Cracks”.

We also rigged up a top rope to try out a couple of harder routes on the wrinkled face at Fox Craig. This one is “Rez’s Route”.

We went for a walk up in the Cairnsmore Nature Reserve where there a number of sculptures by Matt Baker hidden away in the landscape. You can get a card with some cryptic clues for their locations from the visitor centre but you still have to do a lot of hunting around to find them. This one is called “Heart” and consists of two carved faces on opposite sides of a wall in the ruined village of Little Cullendoch.