Clear seas full of sprats, off Ardlamont Point

The Cowal peninsula has some really great bays. This is Kilbride Bay, which was very atmospheric with the mist lying low over the hills and forests.

Off Rhuba na Peileig the sea was boiling with large shoals of sprats.

 Just round the point, we came across this lovely...

...beach of cobbles.

 It was now time for our first luncheon.

We sat on these wonderful whorled rocks. I found a very nice

Life and death on the Clyde.

From the former Yarrow's shipyard at Scotstoun we paddled to Renfrew on the south bank. This is one of the oldest ferry points on the Clyde. Higher up the river we had already encountered the old chain driven "Renfrew", which served the route as a vehicle ferry from  1952 until 1984. Vehicle traffic had steadily fallen since the construction of the Clyde tunnel upstream in 1963/64 and the Erskine

Ice cold in Dunure

After leaving the Heads of Ayr, the coastline swings round to the SW and we caught our first glimpse of Ailsa Craig.

We then came to Dunure, our second castle of the day, which like the first, was perched right on the edge of a cliff.

We landed within the little harbour below the castle.

In the summer it is full of recreational boats but these two swans had it pretty much to themselves. The

A feast on Gigha.

Once we had got our tents up it was time to start unloading the boats for our evening meal. We had chicken tikka bhuna, parathas, two mackerel and some beef burgers to prepare.The evening ferry to Port Ellen was the MV Isle of Arran. I did think of the fish and chips or chicken curry that Phil and I enjoyed on our last trip to Islay as she steamed past Gigha. On that occasion I had pointed out