Arran 2018 - Day one

September, 2018 was the 9th year of our walking holidays. 13 participants to date, 11 of whom were on this trip (Nigel and Jack the others). Our leader, Ken, has been on all of them of course (albeit missing a couple of days of the WHW in 2010) and Ian Sh has been on 8 of them, with John McW and myself (Ian St) on 7.

Ken reports on the first day:

"Thursday

Transporting 12 people to Arran ought not to be too much of a challenge but the team made great efforts to generate complexity and confusion. Ian St was first up with a double-booking of holidays for the Thursday (not many people have so many holidays that they are in danger of overlapping).  Nigel was next up with inflamed achilles and a full cancellation on the evening before departure, necessitating the late stand-in as driver by Ken.  And finally Jeb completed his final working day before the trip at 1am in the morning only to discover he had a flat tyre which resulted in Colin making a late stand-in as driver (he realised he was driving at approximately the same time as he was due to be picked up).  So, most of us eventually set off towards Arran via the scheduled stop at Crinan for lunch and a short walk.  Unfortunately, Dave, navigating Ken’s car, had not computed the information about a Crinan stopover and directed us carefully (and accurately) to Claonaig where the ferry leaves for Lochranza.  His fellow passengers finally realised we were 40 minutes past the Crinan turn-off as Arran loomed into our view (that can’t be right, Crinan faces west).  Hey ho, 40 minutes back up the road and a late (but rather good lunch) at the Crinan hotel seafood bar.  Just time for a short walk along the canal – very pretty – to admire the engineering and sea views in the drizzle. We made the 16.20 ferry and after an uneventful crossing we pitched up at our hotels in Blackwaterfoot.  Dinner was at the recently refurbished Kinloch and was very well-received by all.  Plan for the next day…. a walk round the cock of Arran."

There are literally hundreds of photos of the weekend, so I've had to be selective about which ones appear in the blog - with apologies to all if yours don't feature as much as some others. Here's a few from Thursday: