Wednesday was a good day, full to the brim of fun and activity and lots of stunning sights too.

It started off with a nice tasty full breakfast provided at the Dalcraig B&B in Ballachulish, filling us up for most of the morning. If you’re looking for a good place to stay in the area, I’d recommend it. Book direct with them if you can.

Then we went down the garden to see the lovely views down the sea Loch, and skimmed some stones.

Then we drove a short distance to the Glencoe Lochan Trails and were treated to absolutely stunning scenery… the pap of Glencoe and all of the other mountains and Lochan, showing off like we were in Canada or somewhere. It was absolutely stunning.

We saw lots of little frogs and a few other walkers. We walked the three trails there… the red one around the Lochan, then the yellow one, then the more steep blue one and stopped for a snack at the top at a picnic table looking down towards the Lochan.

We walked for just over 1.5 hours / about 3.5 miles and got some lovely photos, and a good wee walk.

The weather was great and the temperature maybe 15-16’C… so I figured I might as well take advantage of having my swimming stuff in the boot of my car, and get in for a swim. We went the short walk back to the car and I changed into my gear.

The water was a balmy or toasty 11-12’C. I decided I’d definitely go in in my wetsuit, but didn’t wear my boots or gloves… once I was in I sort of wished I had, but it was ok once I got going. To be honest it felt colder than 11-12’C – but that’s probably just me being used to heated swimming pools and not having been in open water since last year.

I started off getting acclimatised to the water temperature, getting water in my wetsuit and doing a bit of breakstroke, then once I was feeling up for it, I started some front crawl.

My feet and hands were really cold, but I was ok to swim front crawl for about 350m up the length of the Lochan, and stopped before the end (where we’d seen a lot of frogs!).

I got to the end and knew I felt good enough to go back. I swam some more front crawl; breathing to the right mostly to avoid the sun in my eyes on the left. I felt strong, and kept going around one of the islands.

I swam a bit out into the loch before heading back to my entry / exit point. And Fit Girl was there to help me out and look after me / get me warm. (This gave below is me standing on my cold feet… 😂) I was happy really.

I’d swum in lochs last year in about 14-16’C temps and 11 did feel a bit cold, but I probably just need to do it some more and get my body used to it. And be careful not to be in for too long.

17 minutes 20 seconds felt just the right amount, and I’d managed a brief 700m.

After the swim I got dried off and then changed into my dry robe, before then getting out of my wetsuit abs swim suit, drying properly and changing into warm clothes at the waters edge.

I managed to avoid any water shock and warmed up slowly. My feet were fine in warming up, and I went back to the b&b for a quick shower and had some food.

Later we went along to Kinlochleven for a leisurely walk, and I had some fish and chips in the Highland Getaway. Yum.

We were driving back home to the B&B and we’re treated to a lovely sunset view…. and we stopped just before the Ballachulish Bridge to watch the sun go down and take in some more stunning scenery.

It was a magic day, made even better with the stunning thethe stunning scenery and lovely weather (and the fun and caring company too).