We woke up this morning to quite strong winds. The title of this blog is a bit of an exaggeration but I think there's some truth in the saying judging by last night's super calm waters compared to the waves on the loch today.
We enjoyed a breakfast of American style pancakes made out of one of Betty Crocker's all purpose mixes. There are about 50 recipes you can make from it on the website, and I wonder if push came to shove we could use it to repair the canoe or the tent?
Our first destination this morning was to the next island to try and find a church marked on the map. After wading through a forest of bracken we found a ruined building surrounded by gravestones, some old, some new.
We got back in the boat to paddle over to the mainland to look at another castle and go to the wine shop. However, after rounding the corner of the island, we found ourselves in rather turbulent waters, and were struggling to make any progress whatsoever. We felt safe and weren't afraid of capsizing, but it was clear that we weren't going to make it to the mainland anytime soon.
So we went back to camp and have spent the day doing all the camping things we've been unable to do on our trip due to the midges.
Making a good fire pit, collecting firewood (by canoe, from the neighbouring island), reading, attempting to make fire by rubbing sticks together (that was what Claire was doing while I was reading).
Eventually Claire lit the fire with a lighter and we're now keeping warm in front of it and thinking we didn't really get enough firewood. And mourning the lack of wine.
We've seen a few other people today, mainly fishermen in annoying noisy motor boats. Fishermen and canoeists have a tradition of not really getting on as we're often in each others way, although things are normally more relaxed on big lochs like this.
Today's fishermen were rather annoying though as they insisted on fishing right in front of our island, and starting the engine every now and then to reposition themselves by a few metres. I think the fact that I keep finding discarded fishing hooks and line all over the place made me find them even more annoying, even though it probably had nothing to do with them.
Tomorrow we are planning for an early start. What should be a half hour paddle across to the car will probably take us well over an hour unless the wind drops, and we want to be on the road by midday. We are booked into a nice hotel with a spa tomorrow night and want to make the most of it.
We've been studying the map, and have planned a route across the loch which will hopefully keep us sheltered from the waves at least some of the time. We may have to abandon the canoe on the shore and walk to the car though.
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Location:Loch Awe
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