The Paddle Bandit

After a cold frosty early start, myself ( The Paddle Bandit) and my friend Stephen Ellis (Montrose Kayaker) went up to Backwater Reservoir, which turned out to be one of most memorable paddles I have had in a while, brisk conditions, with no wind and mirror flat water. When the sun broke through the the early morning mist, it turned out to be a 6 miles of really enjoyable paddling and would highly recommend a visit to Loch of Linthrathen as well, which you would have passed on your left about a mile from the Backwater turn-off .    

 This is a Wee Loch I found near Aboyne, on the East coast of Scotland, it is roughly 4 miles in circumference and is situated in a very picturesque part of Scotland in the Cairngorms.   This was a early morning paddle in perfect conditions, with not a ripple on the water, no wind and the sun just peeping its head over the horizon, there is a walking and cycling track around the complete Loch. Entry on to the Loch requires a short walk, from either the car park in the town of Dinnet or a layby just a few miles after the town.

My Swan Song   It all started on an overcast morning on a wee fishing loch, Rescobie in Angus,Scotland. I have taken up Stand up Paddle boarding to help me come to terms with a recent bereavement and while paddling saw that the loch had a large swan population that I liked to take photographs off, as one of my hobby's is action and wildlife photography. On this morning while passing a small reed bank in the middle of the loch a large Cob swan came rushing out of the reeds right at the board, I had been warned by one of the members, not to get too close to the birds as they can become very aggressive if disturbed or frightened, but this bird seemed some what different, it stopped around 5 metres from the board and just sat there looking at me, a realised that maybe I had startled it, so not to cause any more anguish I started to paddle away, but to my amazement the bird started swimming next to me, getting closer to the board as if it wanted to steer me in a certain direction which ...

Went on a long weekend paddle with my son Andy down to Keswick, we did  the first part of Derwent Water in challenging conditions and the rest the following day in near perfect conditions, we moved over to Ullswater Lake to finish off a perfect weekend and managed to do half the lake on this visit.