Back in February we drove through snow showers to arrive in Portpatrick which nestles round a rocky inlet on the Rhins of Galloway. It is an interesting little place...
...which is just as well because Tony and I had to spend some considerable time waiting for David and Phil to arrive. We spent the time looking at the large pots and transport of the Lighthouse Pottery. We were fearing they had run off the road in the snow when, at last, a call came through. David had rescued a pheasant that had been injured on the road. The plan was that he would leave it in Phil's car while we went paddling then take it home to his surgery afterwards. The poor thing would need some sustenance so David and Phil were searching Portpatrick for supplies of pheasant food.
Fortunately Portpatrick is a small place and their search was not protracted. The only thing resembling pheasant food was a packet of scotch broth mix found in a small supermarket. This was duly purchased and left with the pheasant on the floor of Phil's car. Phil was looking pretty dubious about this but David reassured him that it would be OK. The pheasant obviously liked the mix as it proceeded to stuff itself with the contents of the packet.
At last the kayaks were carried down the slip...
and onto the sands of Portpatrick harbour. Colourful buildings cluster round the esplanade and amongst them we spotted the Crown Hotel . We made a mental note to call there later.
As we prepared to depart, Tony and I sympathised with a still anxious Phil. Much as we felt sorry for the pheasant, we thought a better use of the scotch broth mix would have been to make a lovely big pot of soup.... with a nice pheasant stock!