Loch Lomond

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The Wednesday of the KBS 2025 Glasgow conference has afternoon "Social Events" — trips to explore Glasgow and the area. There are a number of choices; some involve walking around the old city which we cannot do; another involves a bus trip to explore Loch Lomond (the largest fresh water lake in the UK). We are late to get our act together and the Loch Lomond trip, which we might have picked, is fully booked so alternate plans are required.

We have been exploring how best to get back to Heathrow for our flight out Saturday and have decided that we should rent a car instead of flying or taking a train (all the shuffling back and forth to the two airports would be impossible). I pick the rental up in the morning, a red MG CRV kind of car, and we have that afternoon to explore the countryside ourselves. Kate's friend Sam from ARF/CAMH comes with us. Sam took the picture of Kate and me canoeing on Loch Lomond. We used that picture for our 45th anniversary invitations and ads in the local paper.

From our AirBnB on Partick Bridge in Glasgow's west end it's an easy 40 minute drive on the A82 to the picturesque conservation village of Luss on Loch Lomond a little to the west and north of the city. We're aiming for lunch at Colquhoun's Loch Lomond Restaurant just a little outside of Luss with views of the Loch. Kate has investigated and it looks like a nice place to have lunch; good views and good food.

Google maps, which I rely on, lets us down. We drive past the village of Luss and end up in the village of Tarbet which is several miles to the north (about 8 miles, 10 minutes past Luss). This gives us a pleasant drive along the Loch — a long narrow lake (perhaps 30 miles). However, we recognize we've been led astray and Google leads us back to the restaurant. There's a lodge and spa, it's a quiet private retreat on the Loch.

We enjoy our lunch together and take a few pics on their floating boat pier/dock. There are pleasure boats and tour boats wandering past. And very aggressive swans that assume we will feed them and, if not, they're out to take a bite out of us!

The lake is at it's widest here with an archipelago of several very small islands. Just a short walk along the beach to the south of us is a public park and beach. You can't get there from here, there's a fence to make the beach at this hotel, restaurant and spa private. We drive to the public beach to find the Loch Lomond Leisure - Luss Beach kayak and canoe rental. We rent a canoe for an hour; we're all handy that way and explore the archipelago. It's an easy canoe trip, the lake isn't very big, the water is calm and there isn't a lot of boat traffic to get in the way.

The village of Luss is beside us, we didn't explore the village, and there's a pier there for tour boats that take punters like us on a tour of the lake. We wonder if any of our KBS colleagues are taking a boat from here (or perhaps from Tarbet where we were led astray). The water is warm, people are swimming, and brave young folks are jumping off the pier into the water. There are campers in nearby campgrounds. A beautiful day to explore the lake.

We had a pleasant day exploring the Loch. The drive up has revealed Blake's "green and pleasant land" (the poem "Milton") far removed from the hustle and bustle of the cities. I'm constantly amazed at the quiet pristine landscapes to be found in the UK.