Jetting off for some winter sun on Costa Clyde

From the mouth of the Doon we paddled under the grim walls of Greenan Castle, which is perched right on the edge of the cliff. Castles are one of the great features of paddling in Scotland. They are a reminder that what are now apparently remote places were once lived in (and fought over) by our ancestors.

We bumped into Richard, from Ayr, who was trying out his shiny new Rockpool GT. I particularly liked the deck, which blended from dark grey at the stern to white at the bow, very smart!

As we headed south, round the Heads of Ayr, our ears were assailed by a terrible racket...

...which was made by an Antonov AN-123 (Alpha Delta Bravo 1859) heavy lift cargo aircraft taking off from Prestwick airport. Fully loaded these weigh 405,000kgs, no wonder the engines are a bit noisy. About 3 years ago, I saw its even bigger sister the AN-225, which has a maximum loaded weight of 600,000kgs, taking off from Prestwick. The air was crackling!

Once round the Heads, all was quiet and we even found shelter from the cold northerly breeze.

A convenient tree, which had no doubt come down the river Doon, ...

...made a wonderful seat for an early luncheon.

Sitting there in the winter sun, it was hard to imagine the snowy chaos which had enveloped most of Scotland.

Gently flows the Doon.

Our first port of call was the River Doon.

It was high tide so we were able to paddle right up to the tidal weir...

...and give the kayaks a quick rinse...

...before heading back downstream. Since the 1930's the Doon has lost a third of its flow, which is pumped through the hills of its watershed into the catchment of the River Dee. This river flows into the Solway through a series of dams which generate electricity. Now the Spanish power company, Iberdrola, plans to reduce the flow by diverting another 40% into the Dee.

No wonder we made progress at a gentle rate, past the unused salmon fishers' cottage (there used to be more salmon) and...

...back towards the river mouth and...

...the Firth of Clyde beyond. Hydro Electric is green energy. I do hope the critters, in the river Doon, such as the freshwater pearl mussels, sea lampreys, salmon, otters, kingfishers, saucer bugs, white water kayakers etc. appreciate that this green initiative is jolly good for them.

"Did you see those three madmen at Seafield?".

After the recent snows, the Ayrshire coast was one of the few places in Scotland not to be under a blanket of snow. Even the Arran mountains seemed to have escaped with a light dusting. However, a chill northerly breeze kept the temperature down to minus two Celsius.

Phil, Jim and I had left shuttle cars at Maidens and then driven back to Seafield at Ayr for a trip past three of the four castles of Carrick. It took longer to get ready than usual as dog walkers, joggers and cyclists all stopped to enquire about the state of our mental well being.

Our destination, and two of the castles, lay well beyond the distant Heads of Ayr.

The cold breeze helped us on our way,

Although the first castle, Greenan, was in sight, it was not to be our first port of call...

Snowy Glasgow

We had a little more snow in Glasgow yesterday, we have had snow in the garden since Friday 26th November.

It took over 4 hours to get home from work yesterday. My wife abandoned her car but I picked her up and was mighty glad to get the car home. A rear wheel drive automatic is not the best on snow but winter tyres made all the difference.

We were lucky some people had to spend the night in snow bound traffic jams as the country ground to a halt.

I hope it thaws enough to go paddling at the weekend! We are lucky having the Gulf Stream to paddle through the winter. I would hate to only have pool sessions for  a winter kayaking fix.

Winter has arrived on the Clyde.

The sun slipped away behind the Little Cumbrae and Arran.

We now started our crossing of the Hunterston shipping channel.

As we approached the Hunterston deep water ore terminal we could hear the noise of the grab cranes unloading the MV Red Gardenia.

She was built in 2005 and has a dead weight of 76,300tons. After unloading here for another 36 hours she left for she left for Port Skaw in Denmark then Kokkola in Finland.

The sun was well down by the time we landed at Largs. We packed our gear in the light of our car headlamps. It was so cold that my finger tips are still numb 9 days later. Winter has arrived on the Clyde.

Mad dogs and seakayakers smitten by the cold in the Tan.

Rounding Gull point at the south of Little Cumbrae island we now faced a 10km paddle into a cold NE breeze. The big chill had begun!

We sought some shelter by taking the inside passage between Little Cumbrae and Castle Island.

I wonder if a committee chose the name of this little and if so how many times they met?

Tony said hello to the caretaker's friendly but barking mad little dogs...

...before we set off across the Tan again. Great Cumbrae's largest settlement, Millport, nestles round the north side of the Tan.

HMS Smiter, an Archer class RN patrol boat, sped past us. She belongs to the Univerities' Royal Naval Unit of Glasgow. We carried on at a steady 6km/hr.

Only 40km from the City, escape to a Clyde wilderness.

As we left the lighthouse, the container ship MV Canopus J was making her way down the Firth of Clyde from Greenock to Bilbao. She was built in 2004 and measures 140m x 20m. She is equipped to carry dangerous cargo in hold 2.

Back at sea level we had time for a second luncheon and enjoyed the silence of our isolation and escape, from the everyday World...

...before hitting the sea again. As we paddled below the 1995 lighthouse, Tony noticed the lighthouse spoil heap below a gap in the cliffs. No doubt this will make interesting digging for future archaeologists.

On our left the rocks of Little Cumbrae fell steeply into the sea.

To our right the low winter sun was dipping to the horizon in the SW.

The low sun gave the cliffs a warm glow which belied the winter chill in the air. We felt remote from civilisation but the wild SW coast of Little Cumbrae is only 40km from the outskirts of Glasgow!

Alan got his camera out again in the calm of the lee of the island.

As the cliffs fell away to Gull Point, we slowly returned to civilisation. Above the point, we could see the wind turbines on the mainland were turning quickly in the north wind. It would be a stiff cold paddle back to Largs and reality...