bitsofbobs

Well it had been on the cards for a while now, Loch Awe. It was booked last week. A full week up in a log cabin on the banks of loch awe. Me and Lee made the executive decision to get the train to taynault and cycle to dalavich (home of loch cabin). Lee had been there before and knew what the 15 mile trek to dalavich…this was the problem…no he didn’t. Miles upon miles of hills…mostly up. It took 3 hours to get there with bags and bikes.

Upon arrival (roughly at about 3) we soon realised all shops in the area were shut. Having taken no food with us we had to settle for pasta and chicken gravy (the only food the cabin had to offer). Venturing to the local pub we got some top scran (see below). let it be noted there was an extra bottle of kopparberg but lee fell over and smashed one.

next day up relatively early to hire a boat and go fishing…no luck..well I caught a pike, but not off the boat. Then to the pub for food. Dalavich has a post office and a pub. tis all. The pub did great food..I had scampi…magic. The food in the post office was limited, Even the loaves were frozen!

Saturday richie and his lady friend come over to play. Arriving at about 5 we took a bbq to the beach after richie brought with him some manly supplies (mostly meat). From here the midges took charge and chased us away. Then to eurovision. My favourite occassion. My Money was on france…awesome tune. not to be…lost a fiver. The finals were on in the local pub…who knew? from here it was back to cabin until this…

Sunday seen us jetting round loch awe doing some island hopping. Including an island with a castle and breaking a boat trying to get to a graveyard…mostly my fault . ritchie had to go home so there was no other option but to go to the pub.

Monday my folks were heading over to say hello. So just a bit of fishing in the sunshine just infront of the cabin until they arrived. No luck but topped up my tan . when they arrived my mum cooked up a top notch sheppards pie then back to pub…hoorah. Monday consisted of walking my folks dog. I found a snake turned out to be a slow worm.

we got a lift back to train station…ahh luxury. back to normality…well a public enemy gig

Well what an adventure weekend I’ve had. Yesterday me and Lee went back to Loch winnoch for another spot of fishing. Not to be disappointed Lee took a disposable bbq…it wasn’t till later he admitted he had bought his own burgers…I was fishing for my dinner!. It was an absolute scorcher…even got sunburnt. Beer, BBQ, fishing and a monster pike….brilliant. Lee also caught one but it got away (better say that or he’ll go in a huff)

Oh and I did put it back and it swam off happy as an evil looking fish could…

Another weekend of jaunty spontanious fishing. This weekend found me and lee at Lochwinnoch. Just 20 mins on a train from central, we did a bit of research and found it comprised of 3 big lochs supporting all sorts of fishing and water sports. Once at Lochwinnoch we walked just 5 mins to the RSPB Lochwinnoch visitors centre to find out where we could go to fish. From here we walked another 15 mins round the banks of Castle Semple Loch to another big shoreside visitors boat house that hired out allsorts of boats. Here we purchased our “fishing permits” which turned out to be the wee guy at the canteen who supplied us a receipt for £2 each. Quids in we walked up the side of the Loch till we arrived here.

we walked past a load of people fishing but wanted to be hidden away so no-one would ask us questions and rumble us as being to be honest ridiculous amateurs. Trawling through loads of mud we settled. Lee on the Friday went to our now local fishing shop and stocked up on all sorts of goodies, including a bait box, spinners, maggots and worms. Not knowing what we were doing we went straight for maggots. Lee refused to touch them and settled for using forceps. Hours of so of fishing not one bite. Then a friendly man sauntered passed gave us some top tips and we were sorted. Changed to spinners and went for pike.

bomp within an hour landed a wee pike. I thought it was a baby one. Speaking to my dad he informs me these are the male ones and don’t grow much bigger. It’s the females that are the monsters and frequently eat the males. I was over the moon. About 40 mins later I landed another one…whoop. Lee needless to say was not happy. It was a lovely sunny day until c2 phoned (he lives not far away) and told us it was snowing round by him. Minutes later c2 the weather jonah was correct. It got windy horrible and freezing. We stuck it out…only cause lee was determined to catch something. Ended up staying until about 7pm when it brightened up again. From here we went to the corner bar where we drank a well deserved pint of tennents. And so to food. Just up the road from Lochwinnoch train station there’s a wee hotel called The hungry monk. It was here we discovered it was actually quite posh and we were caked in mud…no worries we had to wait an hour for train anyway. It was quite posh and expensive but we didn’t care. It seemed to specialise in nice fancy seafood dishes…me and lee unphased straight for the burgers…lush. Train home followed by bus…magic. Quality saturday.