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Micro adventure: Hill, paddle & mountain

Written by Fiona

July 09 2020

My friend Beardy – aka Graham Kelly – knows how to make the most of the time between finishing work at 5pm and sitting back at his desk at 9am. Recently, he squeezed in more to one micro adventure than many people do in a weekend.

Logging off from work in Glasgow at 5pm, a drive of an hour took him to Balmaha in Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park for a quick up and down of Conic Hill.

As he arrived back at his campervan, a friend Ali arrived for a paddle board outing on Loch Lomond.

The aim was to paddle around the island of Inchcailloch with a visit to the auld MacGregor Grave Yard and church ruin.

Rounding the south west corner of the island, an attempt to get though a narrow ended with Beardy in the water and Ali in tears of laughter!

As Ali head home after the paddle, Beardy found himself a quiet spot for an overnight.

His aim was to get up early for a walk-run to the summit of Ben Lomond, the most southerly Munro.

He enjoyed a superb temperature inversion and amazing views over Loch Lomond.

After a run back down to the van, Beardy was back home at his desk in time to log on for his work emails at 9am.

Now that is a great use of an evening, overnight and morning.

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