I thought as i began the planning of the Loch Lomond Swim i would review the longest swim of this year

DATE = August 25th VENUE – Luss to Balloch – DISTANCE = Should have been 8 miles

After meeting at 5.40 at the usual car park we left 2 cars and drove to our starting point at Luss Pier.

Kevin, John Big Chris and myself parked the cars and a few of the team armed with wet wipes needed to head into the bushes to do “what bears do in the woods” before heading off in a southerly direction down the Loch.

A cool air temp of 8 degrees was quickly met with a pleasant water temp as we set foot into the Loch.

It was a stunning morning, barely a ripple in the water until we showed up, i wish i could share my photos with you but they are all lodged in my grey matter and i will take some fantastic memories to my grave.

“Does anyone know which way we are going?” at this stage we should have been a little more prepared but everyone relied too much on the other 3 and made a basic error, looking at the map afterwards and with that fantastic but never on time attribute; Hindsight – within the first mile we should have clung right to the shore and followed a pretty direct 8 mile route all the way; However we were taken aback by the beauty of the loch and the scenery we decided inadvertently to visit every island south of Luss, you may think i am kidding, well i’m not.  Inchconnachan, Buchinch, Inchfad, you name them we saw them all.

What i will say though if anyone gets the chance to swim (or boat!) through the enclosed area to the east of Inchconnachan, give it a try; stunning! we had an eerie mist descend on us just prior to heading into the secluded area but we can’t blame this on navigational cock ups as that happened practically as soon as we left the car. sunshine and dense fog, again a stunning memory.

Once we finally discovered Inchmurrin was on our right instead of left we headed towards Duck Bay in the distance and i have to state, i never liked that Fecking place even before i start swimming, now i detest it as i’m sure it moves further away the more we swim, either that or a bugger of an optical illusion.

Anyway we all flapped along passed Duck Bay and Cameron House and onto the sticks and eventually home to the beach at the side of the “Maid of the Loch”, 5 hours after beginning and probably in excess of 10 miles due to detours, John and Chris slightly more majestically and quicker than Kevin and i, but we made it.

Back to a fully tourist packed Luss to collect the cars and we hit the Coach House for soup and monster rolls with ham and a huge gloat and smile all round

This was a cracking day out, the weather was immense and certainly planted the seed for swimming further in 2014.