Story 16: Paddling, cycling and soaking up the scenery on a sunny September weekend

The weather over these past few months has been incredible in Scotland and Autumn has started with a flourish of sunshine too. I went paddling on Sunday . Yup, paddling. In a loch. In Scotland. At the end of September. Brilliant!

I could write screeds about the fantastic time we had during our couple of days away, cycling around the Loch Lomond area, but I'm going to be lazy (yet again) and let my video clips do the talking. (I'll never be a published writer at this rate...!)

Day One:

We were based in Drymen for the weekend, a nice wee place frequented by West Highland Way walkers and very noisy Wedding Party guests. The latter kept me awake most of Friday night, but that didn't stop me getting on my bike on Saturday morning and setting off for the 22 mile round trip to Rowardennan and back. And, boy, am I glad I did:



Many moons ago, I studied Zoology at Glasgow University. The department regularly used Rowardennan's field station for student trips and, sitting supping my half-pint in the beer garden of the Rowardennan Hotel on Saturday, I had fond memories of the boozy nights spent in the hotel's pub. How we ever made it back to the field station - after a fair wee walk in the pitch dark and a paddle in the loch - I'll never know. I might be twenty odd years older now but some things never change...



I found the cycle back to Drymen pretty tough. Those pesky undulations! However, the beautiful surroundings definitely helped take my mind off how knackered I felt:



An ice cream stop, amongst the throng of the tourists in Balmaha, set us up nicely for the hilly few miles back to Drymen. I had some gear issues on one of the hills; I'm not great at judging which gear I should be in and, as a result, my chain often comes off - usually when we're half way up a particularly steep hill - because I'm faffing about trying to change gear and forgetting to keep peddling at a rate that'll allow the chain to jump from one cog to another. And, poor Alex sometimes has issues with my gear issues...


A lovely meal in the Drymen Inn finished the day off good style, and I slept like a baby that night. The undulations, the paddling, the fresh air and the good fun on our bikes made sure of that.

Day two:

After stuffing ourselves with buffet breakfast (mmm) we set off for a cycle in the opposite direction from the day before. Our intention was to cycle to Balloch, stop for coffee, then cycle on to Luss (basically following National Cycle Route 7 before joining the West Lomond Cycle Way), stop for lunch, then cycle back to Drymen. It was a lovely route, on quiet cycle paths nearly the whole way, and it was yet another gloriously sunny day:



Coffee in Balloch was followed by a wee detour to Cameron House, one of the really posh hotels on the banks of the loch. Our kids had bought us a voucher for a flight on the sea plane, which takes off and lands by Cameron House, and we'd booked our seats for the flight last Friday (and a room in one of the not-so-posh hotels in Drymen to make a weekend of it). However, Loch Lomond looked like this last Friday:

So, we've postponed the flight till next year (which is great really as it gives us the perfect excuse to have another weekend of cycling at Loch Lomond next June!) But, we couldn't resist cycling down to have a wee look at the plane during our Sunday cycle. As sheer good luck would have it, the flight came in to land just as we arrived:

I really struggled during the cycle from Cameron House to Luss. It's not that far, about 5 miles or so, and it's practically flat all the way. But the wind was in our faces and I think my legs were starting to give out from the day before's efforts. However, we did eventually make it and sat down to another sunny al fresco lunch in lovely Luss. The whole way through lunch I was thinking about the cycle back. And every now and again I'd say things like, "I wonder if there's a bus from here to Drymen...?" As luck would have it, we found something better than a bus:



So, there we go, another great weekend of cycling under my belt. I'm wondering if it's weird that I enjoy recording snippets of our wee trips just as much as I enjoy the actual cycling! Ocht, whether it's weird or not, I love having this wee record of our trips. And, hopefully these not-so-serious-stories and snippets might entice some of you, dear readers, to jump back on to your bikes too? You'll love it - I'm serious!