What a wet day. It did nothing but pour down all day long. Consequently, when I arrived at the HCC boat containers at the RNCYC, I wondered if anyone was actually going to turn up. But then Steve arrived, closely followed by Kate. With a club boat loaded onto Steve's car, we set off for the put-in near Coalport. Al was waiting in the lay-by near our launching point. The proposed five paddlers for the trip became four – Al, Steve, Kate and me. It was still raining, and all of us agreed that we didn't really know why we were there!
No sooner had we put onto Loch Long than the rain stopped. Loch Long was very calm, and the mists swirled around the hills mysteriously. It was very dramatic.
As we neared Ardentinny Beach, we could see a police RIB making its way towards us, and sure enough, the two policemen on the RIB wanted to check out what we were doing. They told me they hadn't received the message from KHM, whom I'd phoned earlier, giving details of our trip. They were very polite, though, and a few jokes were exchanged before they left us to it.
We had a leg stretch at Ardentinny Beach before paddling back past Ardentinny village and heading back to our launch point. As we arrived back, the rain started again...
4.1 nm 2 hours
Fab!
GPS track
