A buoyant character, a guru and two malts.

As we rounded Gull point at the south end of Little Cumbrae, we literally bumped into an old friend, Richard Cree and his two companions from Garnock Canoe Club. Richard is a very buoyant character in the waters of the Scottish Canoe scene. He gives a lot of his time to help others in the sport. In addition to being current commodore of the Garnock CC, he is also the Regional Coaching Officer for Strathclyde West (and a former Director) of the Scottish Canoe Association.


After a good chat, during which the merits of clockwise or anticlockwise circumnavigations were discussed, we retired to the castle for luncheon. After medium rare roast beef and horseradish sandwiches, we had home made Christmas cake washed down by two fine malts. We started off with an 18 year old Glenfiddich which was simply superb. This was followed by a 12 year old Speyside malt. This was good but the consensus was that it would have been better to start with this and move up to the 18 year old.


We chatted with the caretaker who is employed by the new Indian owners of the island. They plan to open the island as a base for the teachings of an Indian Yog Guru Swami Ramdev. I am not sure if roast beef and whisky will be on the menu. They owners waiting at Largs Marina to see if the weather would break. The caretaker tidied recent storm debris from the jetty in preparation for their arrival. He had also been employed by the previous owner. The quad bike looked a fun way to get round the rough tracks on the island.


As we left the landing site by the castle, we could see the promised weather had broken through far to the south. Ailsa Craig shimmered on a sunny horizon.