In conclusion

What a great week and a half!   The highlights for me were many:    Completing the Scottish coast was the big one I guess, but that was expected.   The Morecambe Bay coastal trail in all its glory was wonderful too.  And then there was revisiting St Bees and Ravenglass.  I confess to being a bit tearful at some of the golden memories of being there with two excited young boys as the train chuffed off.   Can you believe that camping was a highlight?  The freedom, the peace - watching the sunset from my tent.   And the early starts, with no-one about except the birds.  The weather was unexpectedly good too - dry throughout; cool mornings at the start of my time, and very sticky afternoons at the end.  And there things that make such an adventure memorable every year - nice people you meet, cafes, peculiar things and special places you discover.  I always enjoy the slight frisson of taking a calculated risk: not booking accommodation, or setting off down a dodgy track.   I would be less inclined to do this if I was with other people - but usually it works out one way or another.

Regrets:  I've had a few... I'm not sure I did justice to the first few days around Ayrshire and Dumfries & Galloway.   Was I too focused on "getting there" rather than "being there"?  I could have lingered in some of the towns a bit more, to get a feel for them.  Maybe it takes time to slow down to that pace of life.   The problems with the blog app were extremely annoying: having to split the photos and the text makes the blog less interesting, I think; and quite often I would have to spend an hour and a half or more typing and re-typing a blog post after it was mysteriously lost - time which I couldn't really spare.

This year I've definitely 'progressed' from the wilderness of the Highlands, to very heavily populated places, and to my surprise, quite liked them.  From Ullapool, where the journey home took four hours on a bus then an overnight train journey, to Warrington where you are whisked home in a little over two and a half hours.

I'm sorry if I went through your favourite place & didn't write about it glowingly.  One drawback of a coastal ride is that it's one dimensional - you pick a line through a place and don't always see the highlights.  I hope you enjoyed joining me on the journey.  Thank you for your comments, if you commented - it's encouraging to see them.   I've just got to do a bit of washing now, and then I'll post some mileage charts and some maps of where I went.   Au revoir, as they don't say in Liverpool!