Steve Parker's Photography

Steve's 2019 Loch Lomond Holiday

Photos from my short walking holiday by Loch Lomond

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Monday Afternoon
Monday Evening
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday

Totals for this week's holiday:
57.21 miles walked
9,061 feet ascended (that's two Ben Nevises)
28.13 hours of walking

Monday 17th June - Arrived!

Monday Afternoon - Walked down to Loch Lomond

Left home around 11 on Monday, had lunch in Penrith on the way up (better than stopping at Tebay), arrived at 3pm to check in to the cottage. Had a walk down to Loch Lomond in the afternoon, then a walk around the back in the evening.

Monday 17th June - Evening Walk

Evening Walk (photos taken on mobile phone)

Really wish I'd brought the (new!) Canon E200D tonight, but wasn't expecting the marvellous sunset that Scotland laid on tonight, so these photos were all taken on my Motorola Android One mobile phone.

Tuesday 18th June - A tough walk!

Set off thinking a fence on the map was a path! Not very clever. Then fought my way through a tight wood, with streams running through it (the one photo here doesn't show how Tolkeinesque the wood was to get through), and eventually made my way through to the road on the other side. Already had one wet foot, and a few grazes from thorns.
Found a route via the Ordnance Survey app, which claimed to take me from there to Luss, rated "Leisurely", 12.73km (under 8 miles).
What I think happened was that somebody took quite a challenging walk, then uploaded the route later, without any particular regard for accuracy. This meant that trying to follow the route as laid down was very frustrating, particularly towards the end where the route was almost impossible to finish without either walking through tough bracken growing on marshland, climbing over barbed-wire fences, through fields of rams, and through private property.

So I was pretty cross with OS and the person who'd laid this down as "Leisurely" by the end of it, although the walk itself (without the problems caused by the lazy route-plotting) was (or could have been) very good. It took in a lot of hills (some of which were totally cloud-covered when I walked it, but at times the clouds parted to allow some views), and I did get to Luss eventually, where I got a coffee and cake, and took on the 6 mile walk back to the cottage along the A82 (well, there are a few quieter paths which go alongside the A82 for much of the way).

See the Strava Statistics / Relive video

Wednesday 19th June - A day off!

I'd done the Francis House 3 Peaks Challenge (14 miles) on Sunday, came to Scotland on Monday (walked 8 miles), had a tough walk on Tuesday (18 miles, followed by a further 5 miles in the evening to a restaurant), so spent Wednesday doing relaxing touristy things, to give my thighs, knees and hips a bit of a rest!. Went up to the power station, took some photos, (sadly, that killed the Canon 200D camera's battery, so later photos are on my Motorola Android One mobile phone), then down to the visitor centre at the south of the Loch, then up to Balmaha.

Had another stroll around the back of the cottage in the evening, as my thighs, knees and hips were back on form!

Thurdsay 20th - Ben Lomond!

Went to Ben Lomond in the morning (was late starting, didn't get there until nearly 11) (Strava / Relive Video).

Was a bit disappointing, so went up Conic Hill too. (Strava)

Then back to the Duck Bay Hotel for dinner (Strava)

Friday 21st June - Final full day

Friday's plans were to go home at lunchtime, in time for the Solstice walk up Shutlingsloe (with Cheshire East Council Rangers). However, plans were changed at the last minute. So I stayed in Scotland (the cottage had had to be booked until Saturday morning anyway), drove to Oban and took some photos.

Relive the morning walk

And then home.