Loch Lomond Seaplane Trip

Earlier on in the year some generous family members clubbed together to buy me a fantastic ??th birthday present; It was a seaplane trip from Loch Lomond flying over parts of the west coast of Scotland.
Despite several attempts to book this flight (which were all cancelled due to bad weather) I haven't been able to get up in the air until now. It was however worth the wait and here is the photos and video clips to prove it.
It was a calm but slightly cloudy day when we left to go to Loch Lomond, but it cleared up a little when we got there:

A Calm Loch Lomond

Preparing the Plane

Boarding the Plane

Ready to go

 The plane taxied (is it still called taxi-ing on water?) out to deeper water and then revved up for take-off. Moira did her best to capture the take off from the shore-line although it was a bit far away for her little camera:

Seaplane comes past headland

Travelling along the watery runway

Just airborne

Banking to the left

From inside the plane I managed to video the point of take-off:

The take-off was so smooth I barely noticed that we had left the water. We hadn't been airborne for long before the pilot banked to the left, flew over Inchmurrin island then headed over the west shore of the loch.

Inchmurrin Island

West Shore of Loch Lomond

We flew over land towards Helensburgh and our trusty pilot highlighted the sights that could be seen out each side of the plane, such as the Arrochar Alps:

Our Trusty Seaplane Pilot

The Arrochar Alps

We then headed west down the Firth of Clyde ............. or "doon ra watter" as they say in the local parlance. Here we passed by many of the sea lochs that make this a very popular firth (or estuary) with the boating fraternity............and also popular with the Royal Navy, etc.

Faslane on the Gare Loch

Coulport on Loch Long

Gairletter Point Caravan Park

Loch Striven

We also passed the inland Loch Eck, before heading to the Kyles of Bute:

Loch Eck

Approaching Kyles of Bute

The Island of Bute is surrounded on three sides by fingers of the mainland with only narrow channels of water separating them; on a map it looked like the island is being pinched by the mainland (sounds painful). The channels of water are known collectively as the Kyles of Bute, with Loch Riddon being the northern body of water.

Loch Riddon and the Kyles of Bute

Colintraive Ferry to Bute

Heading towards the Kintyre Peninsula we passed over the pretty villages of Tighnabruaich, Portavadie and Tarbert:

Tighnabruaich on the Kyles of Bute

Portavadie at the mouth of Loch Fyne

Tarbert on the Kintyre Peninsula

Tarbert sits on a narrow strip of land which joins the Kintyre Peninsula on to the mainland. On its east side lies Loch Fyne and on the west side lies Loch Tarbert, with no more than a mile of land between the two.

Loch Fyne with Tarbert in the foreground

After we crossed the Kintyre Peninsula our thoughtful pilot circled over the area known as the Sound of Jura, affording us spectacular views of the islands of Jura, Islay, Gigha and Arran.

Here are some of the photos I took as we circled round the islands.

Jura in the clouds

Islay (left) and Jura (right)

Towards Gigha

On our return journey we passed back over the Kintyre Peninsula and had a good view of the Isle of  Arran. I also managed to capture the ferry to Islay as it was leaving Kennacraig on the shores of Loch Tarbert:

Looking down the Kintyre Peninsula

Isle of Arran off the Kintyre Peninsula

Kennacraig to Islay Ferry

I was really enjoying this flight, not just for the spectacular scenery but also for the close-up views of remote places that you don't get from a road trip:

Low Stillaig

Ostel Bay

Rhubodach (Bute) to Colintraive Ferry

On the way back the pilot took us up the steep-sided Loch Striven which has quite a bit of WW2 military history as it was the place they trialled the midget submarines used to attack the Tirpitz as it lay in a Norwegian fjord and it was also used as the testing ground for the famous Dambusters bouncing bomb (without the explosives of course).

Loch Striven

After Loch Striven we continued our return journey heading East, passing by some of the sea lochs I saw in our outward journey, but with a slightly different perspective:

Dalinlongart and the Holy Loch

Holy Loch

Looking South down Loch Long

We continued East along the Firth of Clyde passing places like Rossneath, Rhu and Helensburgh:

Rossneath, with Gourock and Greenock on the other side of the Clyde

Rhu and Helensburgh

Travelling overland from Helensburgh we reached Loch Lomond, then the pilot headed North to give us view of the Eastern shore and also Ben Lomond:

Loch Lomond East Shore and the Island of Inchfad

Ben Lomond and the Island of Inchlonaig

The video clip below probably provides the best views of Loch Lomond and Ben Lomond:

After this we flew past Loch Lomond Golf Club before coming in to land on the loch.
The landing was as smooth as the take-off; and without the tell-tale spray coming from the floats you would never have known that we had touched down.

Moira had left the swanky bar in the Cameron House Hotel just in time to capture the seaplane landing:

Seaplane touches down

Heading to the pier

Arriving at the pier

Once at the pier I disembarked from the seaplane, thank the pilot for a most enjoyable flight and got the obligatory photograph with the plane:

Disembarking from Seaplane

A Happy Seaplane Passenger

I can only say that if you get the chance to do this then grab it with both hands as it was a great experience.
Thanks again to those family members who generously gave me this seaplane trip as a birthday present...........it was indeed a trip of a lifetime........... I one won't forget!

Take Care

TeddyEdward





Loch Leven's Larder

Please don't be confused by this post. It is not a review of the Farm Shop/Restaurant of a similar name. This post covers the 'real' larder at Loch Leven; I am referring to the natural sustenance that is available for wildlife living and visiting the loch and it's surrounding area.
I was fortunate enough to make a couple of visits to Loch Leven over the last few weeks and I would like to share some of the wonderful sights and sounds that I experienced.
The first of these visits was with my friend Grant back in mid-October and we started our visit at the RSPB's reserve on the southern shore of the loch (aka Vane Farm). It was a glorious morning and we were treated to some spectacular views as well as some fantastic wildlife:

Loch Leven and Lomond Hills from Gillman Hide

Across the Reserve to Loch Leven

These first two photos are views from the largest of the bird hides at Vane Farm, known as the Gillman Hide, which is only 100m from the RSPB café (for those of you who don't like to walk too far to see wildlife!). We saw quite a variety of wildlife from this hide including wildfowl, waders, birds of prey, finches, rabbits, etc. Here is a couple of video clips taken from the hide, one features Pintails (and other ducks) feeding and the other clip shows a 'raft' of Goosanders on the loch:

Whilst I was watching (and filming) a Whooper Swan feeding at the edge of the loch I could hear the distinctive sound of Pink-footed Geese and scanning over to the North side of the loch I managed to capture this eruption of Pinkies:

After an hour or so watching birds from this hide Grant and I took a walk to the Carden hide which is the furthest away hide on the reserve and can often get the best birds. We were not disappointed; in fact even before we entered the hide we got great views of a Water Rail feeding on the edge of the pond:

Once inside the hide we were treated with sightings of Snipe, Little Egret, Gadwall, Teal, etc. and the views across the ponds were a treat in their own right:

View from Carden Hide

Grey Heron Reflection

I also made a short video clip of this Heron............. although it was pretty static most of the time............. so a still photo would have served the same purpose:

We had a bite of lunch in this hide before we decided to move on (it is 600m from the RSPB café so remember and take a flask with you!). After lunch we decided to have a trip round to the North shore of the loch in the hope that we might get better views of the Pink-footed Geese.
By this time it was getting cloudier, however the views of the loch from the North shore were just as stunning:

Whooper Swans on Loch Leven

Loch Leven Panorama

Small Island off Burleigh Sands

We parked at Burleigh Sands and had a walk round the northern end of the Loch Leven Heritage Trail (which now goes all the way round Loch Leven, so you can walk, cycle, run, hop, skip or jump without coming in contact with any cars).
Just about where the Loch Leven's Larder Farm Shop/Restaurant is situated there is a path that joins the heritage trail, and this is the ideal spot to watch Pinkies coming and going as they leave the loch to graze in nearby fields in the morning and return in the evening. We managed to spot some that were obviously spooked by something as they took off from the loch-side and circled around before heading back to the loch (meeting another flock which had just taken off from the other side of the loch). Hope that makes sense once you see the video:

As it was getting colder and darker Grant and I decided to call it a day after enjoying this spectacle and we headed home.
A couple of weeks later I returned to Burleigh Sands with my friend Jon and we also had a walk along the northern shore of Loch Leven. Our first encounter was with some Greylag Geese which were quite near the shore.

Greylag Geese on Loch Leven 

Unlike Pink-footed Geese, Greylags are not so easily spooked and were happy to tolerate our presence on the fore-shore:

In fact they were so tolerant that more of them flew in to join the party. You will also notice that they sound more like we imagine geese should sound........... with a loud 'honking' noise (as opposed to Pinkies, which I think sound like a pack of small yappy dogs).

A little further along the track we noticed some swans not far offshore; these were a mixture of Mute Swans and Whooper Swans. They are easily distinguished from each other despite being of similar size and colour: the Mute Swan is the swan we commonly see on waterways around Britain, it has an orange and black bill and as the name suggests it seldom makes a noise; the Whooper Swan is a Winter visitor from Iceland, it has a yellow and black wedge-shaped bill and as the name suggests it has a 'whooping' or 'bugling' call.
The following video serves to emphasise these differences:

The Mute Swan was displaying quite an aggressive posture, probably because it didn't appreciate these northern visitors invading its territory.
We seemed to be doing quite well on the waterfowl front, with some good views of swans and geese, we added ducks to that list when we spotted a couple of Pintail near the shore-line:

Jon and I moved further along the track and we had almost reached the spot where I had seen the Pink-footed Geese with Grant a fortnight earlier, when...........right on cue.......... a flock of Pinkies flew right over our heads:

You may have noticed that I almost fell over filming these geese (I bend over backwards to bring you these blogs you know!).
Hopefully you also heard the 'yappy dog' calls of the Pinkies I referred to earlier, much higher pitched than the Greylag calls.
Just to prove it wasn't all wildfowl we spotted on our trip to Loch Leven, I leave you with this clip of a male reed bunting:

Loch Leven at any time of year is worth a visit but October/November is a great time to go if you want to see some of the birds featured in this blog.

Take Care,

Teddyedward