The Four Omegos

The mother duck.

Today was my first day of offsite sessions with the kids up at Loch Tay. This is a pretty sweet day because most of it is spent not in contact with the children. Alot of their session is taken up with travelling to and from the loch so we actually only really have them for two hours at best. This does mean that we have a rather long dinner break and today, like most days at the loch I'm told, there were four ducklings - The Four Omegos - and their mother swimming around the watersports base.

We fed them some of our lunch and I snapped some pictures. There are some pictures taken underwater of the ducklings diving down to the bottom of the loch, but due to the internet connection I'm using I can't really post them up on the web at the moment. Anyway it was a good day. I had some fun on the water whilst supervising kids, which hasn't really been the case really and I got to use my new AT's, which also hasn't been that common.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain

Roger the Rocker II

Yesterday I came off morning sessions to be told that "Santa had arrived." I knew exactly what they meant by this as the night before I had, had an email from the guys at Squarerock saying my Rocker had been dispatched that day up to Dalguise. So straight after dinner it was down to the office where the boat was under lock and key to rip it out of it's bubble wrap and cloth sock and admire the plastic beauty. All was good again. I had my boat back in Scotland for a summer of dam release paddling on the likes of the Tummel, Morriston and Garry.


Once I had finished work for the day I got the delightful job of outfitting the Rocker to fit me just perfectly. This must have been the first time ever in my kayaking life where I had been able to outfit a boat and then float test it straight away. In fact I outfitted the boat sat besides the centre's raft build pond making small adjustments and then testing it on the water until I was left with what I wanted.


I've been back up in Scotland for little more than a week now and everything is a lot better than it was out in France. Work is pretty much the same, as is the social life, but I am independent again as my van is back in action. There's something about Scotland, I don't know what it is, but there's just something. Somethings special about this place. Something France did not have and no other place has either.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain

A Post for Once

Looking to the River Tay from Dunkeld Cathedral's gardens.

Well I've been neglecting these pages for the last couple of weeks - looking back the last time I posted was the 20th May when I returned from France. What's the main reason for this? I've not done anything that I felt warranted a post. I've been working in a local corner shop and been doing nothing else. I haven't been paddling; mainly because the dry suit was in the repair shop and my boat is making its way over the Atlantic to meet back up with me in Scotland. That brings me onto the reason for this post. Tomorrow I'm back off up to Scotland to work over the summer period back at what seems to have become my second home of late, PGL Dalguise. Hopefully it'll work out better than the last PGL contract I held. To be honest I know it'll work out and I'll have a top notch summer in the Tay Valley. Paddling wise I'm going to be limited as there is a lack of water in Scotland as there's no precipitation. I suppose I'm left with jaunts on the mighty Tay and, when releasing, the Tummel. Climbing will have to be my principle activity up there I suppose. What a hard life!!!

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain