The Middle of Nowhere: Dumfries

When I was in Copenhagen I was offered a locum contract in Dumfries. Where is Dumfries you may ask yourself. That was my initial question also! Dumfries is in a region known as Dumfries & Galloway in the South West of Scotland.

My job contract only ended up lasting 3 weeks which is just as well as it pretty much was in the middle of nowhere and my friend Chris from South Wales also states he is from the middle of nowhere but found Dumfries to be a lonely town.

Prior to what the British call 'summer' in the UK there was a tone of rain so when I arrived everything was a lush green and thriving. I was also thrilled to find a lot of similar plants that grow in Norway during the summer so I kept trying to believe that I was back in Norway instead.

One great thing, there is the 7 Stanes which is the home of many well known and world class mountain bike trails in Scotland. After being referred to by my friend in Copenhagen 'as a danger on the road' in reference to my cycling I was out to prove him wrong. Chris has got really into mountain biking over the past year and was keen to take me out on the trails for my first ever experience on a mountain bike.

Chris on the single track

Chris is very patient when it comes to taking people kayaking and luckily he was the same with me on a mountain bike. I was serious when I told him he could leave me behind and just do a few laps and I would meet him in the car park later if I ever made it back in one piece but he stayed with me the whole way and encouraged me. He even told me I did very well which I find hard to believe as the single track intimidated me a fair bit. I always find when I am so worried about an obstacle such as a tree that is where I end up going!

We had a good ride though and did 1 full lap of one of the blue trails and another lap on the blue taster trail which added up to a solid 2.5 hours of biking. My backside definately reminded me about my experience over the days to come!

We finished up our weekend with a BBQ in my backyard which was successful in the sense we managed to cook our food but unsuccessful in the sense that it took over 2 hours to cook due to us both having issues keeping the fire going! 

The BBQ... not so much to our plan

My cat Tinks putting herself in my bag when my contract ended in Dumfries