Day 18 - 20 Mathrown of Mabie in Mabie Forest

4 - 6 August 2014

Day 18
Getting there
It was pretty straight forward to get to where I needed to go; catch the bus to Dumfries then jump on another bus to a stop just next to the forest. I'd caught the first bus no worries but while I was waiting for the second bus I had a thought, "if I'm going to the forest, I might need to bring food with me". I ran waddled with my bags down to the supermarket and grabbed a few things and dashed back to the bus stop in time for the bus.

I'd looked on the map and thought I knew the name of the stop so I asked the bus driver to drop me there but something went wrong because I got dropped in the town of New Abbey and not the bus stop at the bottom of the trail up to Mathrown of Mabie, the hostel I was staying at. I could've waited for the next bus in the opposite direction but instead I chose to walk the 3 miles back. After all, I was there to do some walking so why not start now.

It wasn't the best because I had to walk along the highway and because the highways barely had enough room to fit cars, I had to get off the road each time a car came. In the end I made it to the stop before the bus that I could've caught went past me, WINNING!

Entrance sign

On the way some cows were interested in me walking past them.

Friendly cows

More friendly cows

Then it was a 1.5 mile walk up hill to the camp.

The resident dog greeted me. I'm not sure if it had eyes

After party
There had been a party at the camp/hostel over the weekend and there were still a few people left. They were nice enough to invite me to have lunch and some drinks with them and we spent the evening having a chat. When it was dinner time, one of the guys cooked a lovely chicken curry and once again, they were nice enough to share with me. It was really lucky too because I hadn't brought enough food to last me for the days I had booked.

More people left during the evening until there were only 3 left. The small group of us had a look through the photos from the weekend and they told me some stories about the good memories.

Day 19
We had left over curry for breakfast before going for a short walk up the hill to the campsite to make sure everything was tidied up. The remaining 3 people took off in the morning, but not before I grabbed a group selfy.

The Scottish party people and myself

They were headed to Edinburgh and said that I should come. I'd have to think about it because I'd booked a few days in the forest and had a flight to Norway planned.

Hiking
There are a bunch of walking trails on the Mathrown mountain so I grabbed a map from the hostel and took off to have a look around and see if I could find the highest point because that's how you win, right?

The trails I walked

I went the wrong way at this intersection the first time.
Plus, it looks like someone went nuts with the tree stamp tool in KidPix

The northern most point of my walk

Looking east from the yellow trail

A bit more of an alpine feeling section

Looking south from the highest point

Not how this tree fell over in the middle of the forest, it shouldn't get that windy

Proof that I was there

There was a leafy pond

A cool owl carving

The trails looked a lot longer when I was planning my day but I covered the whole lot in a few hours. So, it was back to the hostel where I scavenged some left overs from the party and made spaghetti and bacon with salsa for dinner.

Spaghetti, bacon and salsa

New room mates
I had the dorm to myself for the first night but a father and his daughter joined me for this night. During the night I heard someone snoring and assumed it was the father but it turned out to be the little girl :O Ear plugs saved me though.

Day 20
Change of plans
I'd planned to do a bit of walking in the forest but I finished all the trails faster than I thought. So, seeing as my flight to Norway was from Edinburgh airport, I decided I'd take my Scottish friends up on their offer to hang out with them.

I cancelled my remaining nights in the forest and headed down to the main road to catch the bus into Dumfries. As luck would have it though, some other people from the hostel drove past as I was part way down the trail to the road and offered me a lift into town, yay!

Cool retro bike in a shopping centre in Dumfries

From Dumfries I caught the bus to Lockerbie, where trains go direct to Edinburgh and they're cheaper, and jumped on the train for Edinburgh.

Thoughts on Mathrown of Mabie

• It was a nice mix of a hostel and camping
• The walking trails were interesting and gave some good views
• I was lucky to meet some really nice people there. It would've have been as good without them.
• It was a bit harder to get to than your usual city hostel but it was worth it