Gretna and sand flats

We are staying on someone's driveway basically but only costing us £10 a night so can't complain. Having said that it's a big drive with enough room for 10 campers.

We are staying in Gretna so it was almost an essential trip to the famous wedding venue.

It had to do with the difference in marriage laws in England and Scotland. In England the exchange of vows and marriage was enshrined in law to give church and state control. In Scotland as long as you exchanged vows with a witness you were legally married. It was called an irregular marriage and was legal until pressure from the English forced the Scots to change the law in 1940. That's why people who were young or forbidden to marry in England jumped across the border. Anyone could do the marriage and you didn't need parental permission!

We paid the money to look around the visitor center. The whole place is now a massive tourist attraction.Huge souvenir shops and restaurants with 3 hotels attached. Worth a look if you're in the area but I would not recommend a massive detour.

We drove down the the road towards a town called Annan. We had seen that there was a potential place to park the van. It was beautiful but totally unsuitable for a van. Single track road led to a tiny turning point. The tide was out we had checked before we went. Some muppets recently had parked on the sand to wake up with their vehicle submerged. There's a 7 ft tidal raise.

It was beautiful and all we had for company was birds. It's seldom if ever that you get a space like this on a day like today totally to yourself.

We had to be a little cautious at times as the sand was in places a little unstable. Given the rain of yesterday it was a glorious day today and very warm. No wind and the sea was like a mill pond.

It was a little tricky picking our way through these tussocks on the way back. We all managed it and returned safely to the car.

Tomorrow we head back into England. Stopping in Carlisle hopefully. That's as far as we have planned so far!