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:
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| A Calm Loch Lomond |
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| Preparing the Plane |
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| Boarding the Plane |
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| 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:
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| Seaplane comes past headland |
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| Travelling along the watery runway |
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| Just airborne |
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| 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.
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| Inchmurrin Island |
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| 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:
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| Our Trusty Seaplane Pilot |
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| 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.
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| Faslane on the Gare Loch |
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| Coulport on Loch Long |
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| Gairletter Point Caravan Park |
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| Loch Striven |
We also passed the inland Loch Eck, before heading to the Kyles of Bute:
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| Loch Eck |
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| 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.
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| Loch Riddon and the Kyles of Bute |
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| Colintraive Ferry to Bute |
Heading towards the Kintyre Peninsula we passed over the pretty villages of Tighnabruaich, Portavadie and Tarbert:
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| Tighnabruaich on the Kyles of Bute |
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| Portavadie at the mouth of Loch Fyne |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Jura in the clouds |
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| Islay (left) and Jura (right) |
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| 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:
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| Looking down the Kintyre Peninsula |
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| Isle of Arran off the Kintyre Peninsula |
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| 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:
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| Low Stillaig |
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| Ostel Bay |
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| 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).
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| 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:
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| Dalinlongart and the Holy Loch |
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| Holy Loch |
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| Looking South down Loch Long |
We continued East along the Firth of Clyde passing places like Rossneath, Rhu and Helensburgh:
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| Rossneath, with Gourock and Greenock on the other side of the Clyde |
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| 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:
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| Loch Lomond East Shore and the Island of Inchfad |
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| 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:
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| Seaplane touches down |
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| Heading to the pier |
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| 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:
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| Disembarking from Seaplane |
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| 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
