It was a decent morning and we had decided to go for a drive along Loch Lomond side as JIC hadn’t been there for years and Sim had never been to the ‘Bonnie, Bonnie Banks’. Unfortunately, as we got within about 
a mile of the roundabout at the south end of the loch, we hit a looooong traffic jam. The traffic heading up the lochside was at a standstill. A swift change of direction was necessary, so we
moved into the almost empty outside lane and turned right at the roundabout heading for Balloch, intending to drive to Balmaha. I always thought ‘Balmaha’ sounded really exotic, conjuring up images of swaying palm trees, but it’s really just a wee lochside village with cars parked everywhere. Anyway, before we got to the Balmaha turn off, I spotted the turning for Balloch Castle and remembered Scamp and I going there a few years ago. Drove in and got parked quite easily. Went for a walk and heard music. At first we thought it was coming from Duck Bay Marina across the loch, then realised it was coming from the lochside down below us. Scamp talked to a lady and found out it was a Dragon Boat race a
nd got direction from her, so we headed off and watched a couple of races. It was a charity event with teams in fancy dress. Managed to get a few photos of the boats. Also got some shaky shots of the two seaplanes taking off on short pleasure trips from the loch.
Scamp was feeling hungry, and once you’ve seen a couple of the races, unless you’re involved, it gets a bit boring so we went in search of food. Scamp said the best place was Lomond Shores and that is where we went along with hundreds of others. On the way, we could see that the queue was still at the roundabout, so we had made the right decision taking the diversion! Lunch was in the cafe at Jenners and was quite decent. After lunch we split up and wandered round the shops for a while then drove home after JIC found £15 just lying on the ground. Lucky boy. I thought that the queue at the roundabout would have dissipated by the time we were going home, but no, it had grown to well over 2 miles long by then. Some people were going to have a dismal Saturday afternoon.
Later in the afternoon, we drove the other two into Glasgow so they could meet up with old friends. Scamp and I walked around the Merchant City Festival in town and took in the sights and sounds for a while before returning home again.
