Thanks to Lucy Colquhoun for the basis of an idea for this memorable weekend. Mark, Neil and I were originally planning to take part in Scurry festival of swim-run events this weekend, but with uncertainty around them, and a new suggestion of a Callander hostel/swim/bike adventure from Lucy, we decided to switch our allegiance to that. A wise move. In the end, Lucy couldn’t make it (something about sharing a hostel with me, Jim, Neil and Mark might have put her off) so in the end we took the booking, managed to have all the other guests kicked out and had a room each. Bingo.
We travelled up separately and met in Aberfoyle, given the landslip and closed road on one side of Loch Katrine, we had to adjust our Saturday plans and decided to cycle to the Loch, do our first swim there, then make our way back the way we came, taking in swims on route. On the way to Katrine we stopped at a house with, to be fair, an impressive monkey puzzle tree. Mark was so impressed that he talked (bored) the houseowner for a while until he said something about us ‘getting off his land before I set the dogs on you’.
Having not swum for about a month, and the air temperature being decidedly fresh, it was a pleasant surprise to find the water a good temperature. In fact, for the rest of the weekend the water temperature wasn’t a problem (despite there being a frost when we woke up on Sunday morning). So suitably attired and sporting our new Carnethy swim caps (Yellow stands out better in the water than red, we decided) we plunged in and made our way around Factor’s Island for a swim of around a km, then back on the bikes (wetsuits still on – a good look) and down the road in taking in further swims in Loch Arklet, Loch Chon, Loch Dhu and Loch Ard. We then cycled the last stretch into Aberfoyle before heading for the hostel in Callander, where we spent a memorable evening eating take away food since we (I) forgot to book anywhere to eat.
So, day 2: We woke to a frost. Hmm. Made our way to Drymen where we discovered that we weren’t getting any further by car, so jumped on the bikes for the 7-mile trip into Balmaha (swim caps and wetsuits on – we looked like the GB time-trial trio). After a brief stop to try to dump our bikes at a campsite (giving Mark another opportunity to hone his diplomacy skills) we stopped at Cashel where we decided to start the day’s adventure. For those who don’t know (and I didn’t) in addition to being the largest lake in Great Britain by surface area (and the largest in the UK after Lough Neagh and Lough Erne in Northern Ireland, the loch contains thirty or more other islands, depending on the water level. We decided to swim and run on a loop over seven of them: Inchlonaig, Inchconnachan, Inchtavvanach, Inchmoan, Inchcruin, Inchfad and Inchcailloch.
The first swim was long, or at least felt that way, but we emerged on the beach on Inchlonaig to surprise a couple and their boat who probably thought they were safe from intruders. This island, one of the biggest, was a true wilderness. No real trace of regular life and only faint deer trods to navigate. We spent almost an hour wandering around semi-lost, losing each other, meeting up, arguing before finally getting to where we wanted to be ready for the next swim. Another long one, but this time we were met with a much more runnable prospect, Inchconnachan, with cattle tracks and signs of activity. And so we continued – swim, island, with each one being its own mini-adventure until the final island Inchcailloch. We ran up to the highest point where there was an old graveyard dedicated to the Clan MacGregor, still used until 1947. Then a short swim across to Balmaha. We then had approximately 5km of running on the Highland Fling route back to the bikes for a round trip of 5 hours, before cycling back to Drymen. All in all, a testing but very enjoyable weekend of bickering interrupted by a bit of swimming, running and biking.
Mike Lynch