By Amanda Grant Comment Closed

On the second Saturday in December, 7 of us met at Kilcreggan pier for what was to be a very successful day of paddling. After a 6am start and a dark stop off at Balloch we were spoiled with a gorgeous sunrise on the beach. While loading our boats, there was lots of trepidatious chat about cold fingers and toes. I was told by those who’d been on the Bonfire paddle two days earlier that neoprene gloves were not the answer, and Misha pointed me to an article in last month’s Craic’n about keeping hands toasty on the water.

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We set off with two objectives in mind: firstly, to see as many of the nice houses along the shore as we could; and secondly, to try and spot the police boat keeping an eye on us as we approached Coulport. With Amanda and Ewen taking turns at the front, we were not disappointed. Shouts of “seal” from Ryan alerted us to a curious friend on the water while we window shopped for our future mansions on the shore. Then, as we travelled further up the loch, we became aware of the police boat pointed in our direction – not quite following us but hovering close enough by that we knew we were it’s prime target. We speculated about where the submarine was kept at Coulport and whether it could be under us as we paddled. Sadly, there were no sightings of it as we carried on our journey.

Crossing the loch, we then stopped at Ardentinny beach for a lunch break. We were all surprised and delighted to see a picnic bench and a row of public toilets – unexpected luxuries. We were even more delighted when Mark produced the DCKC soup flask from his boat (with no leaks). Hot tomato soup proved to be very successful in warming us up, and was quickly followed with a mince pie and some Stollen, brought along by Rob.

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With the fog closing in and the wind due to pick up, we headed back towards Kilcreggan. We hugged the shoreline to avoid the wind (and get better views of the nice houses). By this point, the police boat seemed to have lost interest in us. One more seal appeared, and we pushed through the slight chop to get home.

As we landed on the beach, we chatted about how lucky we were to get out for such a nice paddle in the middle of December, especially given the short days and recent poor weather. The route was new to most of us and had proved to be scenic and full of interest. For a few of us, it was the longest amount of paddling we had done in one day, with the route coming in at almost 25km on Amanda’s Strava. Thanks to Misha for organising, and to everyone else for a great day out on the water.

Ed’s Note: A few more photos are available on the trip’s SmugMug page – https://dckc.smugmug.com/

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