Our New Year's Day paddle is another day which is becoming a tradition. Usually a nice wee paddle across and round to Inchcolm for a spot of lunch, then back to Silver Sands. This year we were planning on doing the usual, but the forecast said a breezy force 6 to gale force 8 and with us having a couple of very flat water paddlers with us, we decided to have a wee loch trip instead. This was possibly just as well as Hubby-dear was suffering from man-flu. Being the wee trouper he is, he still wanted to come out for a paddle, probably so he didn't feel as though he was missing out on anything. We got him filled with paracetamol and chocolate. He's decided chocolate is good for a cold. He obviously doesn't listen to me. I've been saying for years that chocolate is good for anything including a cold.
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| Grabbing a bit of shelter |
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| The sun did still manage to make an appearance |
Kevin, Sarah T, Heather, Hubby-dear and my good self met up at Lochore where it was still a bit refreshingly breezy. We headed up the side of the loch, then up the other side of the island hoping for a bit of shelter, then up to the river. We've been up here before with playboats when the water wasn't so high and we could limbo under the bridge, however the water was too high to do that today so we had a short portage here. The good thing about the higher water was there is a small weir and we could paddle straight up it without scratching our bottoms! Once we fought past a few overgrown branches, (very few boats go up here) we were into another small loch, part of the nature reserve. It was nice and sheltered here. We never got any further as the farmer had a gate across the river. Last time we were there, we kept paddling and ended up paddling up a small burn surrounded by big cows (they are big when you're sitting low in a wee boat). There had only just been enough room to turn a playboat in it, just as well we hadn't taken the sea boats that far.
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| A bit overgrown |
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| This is the closest Hubby-dear is likely to get to gardening |
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| A lovely sheltered stretch |
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| Heading back |
It didn't take long going back the length of the loch with the wind behind us. It was quite a short paddle, but long enough for Hubby-dear who by now was needing to get back home for a hot toddy and more chocolate.
Here's hoping we get lots more paddling again this year on both rivers and sea.
