The BIG WEEKEND finally arrived. May Bank Holiday... guaranteed traffic jams and rain. We weren't disappointed. The preparations went well. The car was stowed with tent, sleeping bags, blow-up mattress (well, I do have a bad back and sciatica!), disposable barbecues and enough food and changes of clothes to last a fortnight (if there is one thing that you can guarantee when camping in the west coast of Scotland, then it is that you will get wet... and bitten by midges. Okay, that's two things - but you can bet your mortgage on them). So, to cut a long story short, we headed off in the general direction of the big dark clouds. We took the long way round in a(n ultimately) successful attempt to miss the worst of the holiday exodus. Our final destination was the Isle of Bute, but we wanted to take a detour and take in Kerry of Kilfinnan (which is that part of Cowal that is home to Kilfinnan [funnily enough], Kames, Millhouse and Tighnabruaich [pronounced Ta-eey-na-broo-uch]). There were two reasons for this: (1) it's a beautiful part of this beautiful country; (2) it's en route; and (3) I wrote my dissertation on the 19th century development of the area and I hadn't been there since I finished it all those years ago. Okay, so that's three reasons, but you get my drift. So, we headed up past Loch Earn and on towards Crianlarich before turning south down the side of Loch Lomond (which is where this image was captured). The dull, gray, raininess of the day was unrelenting - but the saving grace was the breeze (did I say breeze? I meant howling wind - well, it is May, isn't it!) that would keep the midges at bay. We reached Kilfinnan and then started looking for somewhere to pitch the tent. Just as we began to put the tent up, the rain stopped, the wind died down, the sun came out and the midges had a feast. Poor Liam... he's an east coast softie who's not used to midges. They seemed to delight in his Angus flesh! More later.