After a wet and windy overnight camp at Fort Augustus we managed to sort ourselves fairly quickly in the morning and the guys were off and paddling by 10.00am. The canal below the Fort Augustus Locks looks like a walk in the park - with ducks and swans decorating the water.
Needless to say El was more interested in getting cygnets to feed out of her hand than sorting paddles etc but eventually she gave the camera back to me and yet again I waved them goodbye - more anxious this time than on other parts of the journey because I knew the weather was due to get worse.
Having checked out the met office forecast, James made the decision to paddle on the north side of the loch - the side of the main A82 road to Inverness. We had been hoping that the weather would be good enough for them to travel on the much quieter and prettier south side but the forecast dictated a change of plan - safety first.
A quick call back to Islay, and Beastie very kindly got in touch with the lifeboat crew at Drumnadroichit, (sorry - too late and too tired to check spelling - someone do it for me please), just to let them know that El and James were around on the loch. We had already given our itinerary to the Coastguard when we registered to use the canal. The weather can change in a flash on Loch Ness and we knew it was worth making our safety net as secure as possible!
As I watched them out of sight they began to look awful small in this huge 37km long stretch of water...
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