What an Easter weekend I’ve had. Me and Lee decided a while back we were going to go camping. Even with all this talk of snow and britains coldest weekend of the year…pah. We worked friday and left early for Bute. Rothesay ticked all the boxes for our adventure. Including a ferry ride…woohoo. We found 2 bays, one on the Southern Tip (glen Callum) and one on the east coast (Ettrick Bay) of bute. The buses on Bute run pretty much bay to bay so we thought we would have one night on each. We arrived on Rothesay at about 5 and knew we would have to be pretty quick getting a tent up before it’s dark. We soon descovered that the buses to Ettrick Bay didn’t start running until April…Doh… That made or decision a bit easier so we headed south for kilchattan Bay a bus ride that lasts about 20 mins. Here we found the West Island Way, a walk that runs 30 miles around bute. Had no idea it exsisted but it looks great. we walked for about an 1hr when it got dark very quickly we found a great spot at a place called Glen Callum nice and shelttered. Lee gathered wood I put the tent up. We quickly discovered it was freezing cold and windy and a fire just wouldn’t work. On with the pasta and stir in sauce…champion. It was officially the worst nights sleep I’ve ever had. I took 2 sleeping bags…good job otherwise I think an easter dose of hyperthermia would have easily been on the cards. In the morning (about 7) I took this picture.

Was an amazing place we never really got a chance to see it before it got dark. So next on the adventure ticklist was fishing. Me and Lee had bought Some telescopic rods and a load of spinners. so to fishing…we didn’t catch a thing but it did feel very manly. after 3 hours of spinning we went to put on our breakfast…bacon and beans only to discover the bacon had gone….this was the last straw. Sleep deprived we took down the tent and headed back to kilchattan bay in the hope there was a pub. It was only here we realised how rough the path we walked the previous night was. I don’t recommend it to anyone in the dying light…A bit tipsy. back in Kilchattan bay we found the st blanes hotel were we had a well deserved burger and pint. Here we waited 5 pints for the bus back to Rothesay…might I recommend reading up on the bus times first. Once in Rothesay we had to make a decision on what to do…we couldn’t just go home. So In town we found a cheap B&B at an amazing £35 a night for a twin room. We had a knocked down price as the shower didn’t work. Me and Lee were dead on our feet. straight to bed at about 7pm on a Saturday night….hardcore.

I awoke at 6am to this…

Gentle tapping on the window followed by endless squawking. This fella just sat outside watching me sleep. I quite liked it in the end…I want one for my flat.

Revitalised we booked the hotel for another night (we eventually fixed the shower but you couldn’t turn the temperature down…we just took it like men!) and headed for Ettrick Bay. The buses were now running there for the easter weekend…boost. However the bus we got only went as far as port bannatyne about a 3 mile walk away. Armed with our fishing gear we headed north up the coast for about 45 mins until we found a great spot. Still didn’t catch anything and lee lost 3 of our 4 decent spinners. The rest we had didn’t have enough weight to cast any good distance at was at this point lee considered using some old keys as weights before quickly realising he would probably never see them again and that he did actually need them. Defeated again we headed back to the ettrick bay tearoom for coffee and burgers…magic.

Back to hotel for some rothesay fish and chips…amazing. We decided a big nightout in rothesay was on the cards…what could a sunday night in Rothesay have instore? First to the Black Bull…just round the corner…empty, eneded up having some banter with the owner an old man who had one huge knuckle, about how things were done back in the day. Onto the next the brandane bar was playing really nasty beepy techno but was clearly where all the action was. It was here the next song on the jukebox was boys to mens end of the road…we left. Next up was the taverna lounge bar. A strange we pub where it was clear we were not local but it was playing mostly glam rock which I enjoyed. Our last port of call was the Argyll Arms where we were informed they would have live music. What a performance. One old guy 2 keyboards and a guitar i don’t think that was his band name. He was playing sweet home chicago…which i know was originally by robert johnson…I had to tell him…that I to was a robert JOhnson he was very happy at this outcome and played other robert johnson tune dedicated to robert johnson. I was very happy…I Bought him a drink Whiskey and tonic £1.60. As we left I shook his hand then he said “I’ve never touched a robert Johnson before” It was a bit weird. but now i might make it a t-shirt “have you touched a robert johnson today?” Back to the hotel where I passed out on the bathroom floor then woke up at a 6am Monday to my feathered friend. Today we went for lunch on the pier then caught the ferry home (just). Back on the mainland we discovered that we just missed a train literally by seconds and that the lines to glasgow central were closed. Got the money back for our wemyss bay to glasgow journey bit, turns out the ferry across to rothesay only costs £3.50…genius. We hopped on a bus…then I had the fun of walking through the centre of town a bit stinky and muddy with a tent and a fishing rod. Loved it…Anyone fancy the west Island Way? Also put some more pics up on my flickr

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 10:10 pm and is filed under Take a PicNic, Twaddle, fishing, holidays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.