Brilliant morning sunshine fooled me into thinking it might be a good day to be out on the bike. When the bike in question is the Tenere there isn’t much protection from the elements – especially when I don’t have the heated grips connected —

Was mobile by midday and pointed her in the general direction of Moffat for coffee by the Rumblin Tum before taking a ride up to the Devil’s Beeftub.

Beautiful – well worth the ride —

Snow glistening on the tops above the Beeftub and more serious snow capped mountains hiding in the clouds over the Lake District far to the south —

Must have spent too long over coffee and admiring the views for it was bl””dy freezing as I made my way home the long way round – over the still icy roads by Leadhills and Wanlockhead where our very own ‘Gold Rush’ took place many years ago.

One of those fine days I’m going to pack my ‘hot wok’ and go pan for gold up there. I havn’t been watching all those ‘Alaska Gold’ programmes on Discovery Channel for nuthin you know.

But not today – it was even too cold to stop for photos. I had my hands full dodging the icy patches on the road and still hadn’t learned anything by the time I reached Thornhill where instead of taking the quick way home by Dumfries and Castle Douglas I turned by Moniave and Dalry.

Thankfully I found a patch of sunshine in Wigwam Country and was only too pleased to stop and chat to a bunch of horses gathered by the roadside —

This fine fella came complete with dreadlocks —

While his bossy mate didn’t take long to shoo him away — and pose for pics herself —

If I had forgotten just how cold it can be on a bike at this time of year —

I got a rude awakening this afternoon and was pleased to see my local Galloway Hills silhouetted in the distance as the sun went down in the west 🙂