Day 1 in the big brothers canoe

It's all off to a great start so far! 8am on a Sunday morning, its raining and were sat in a service station just outside Gretna waiting for the AA as it seems the car disliked carrying a canoe on its roof and overheated.

9am - Just found out we've killed the water pump and the car isn't going to be going anywhere. However as we have AA relay they do have to take us to wherever we are going. So, we are about to be towed and trailered for about 200miles.

7pm - Finally arrived in Fort William after 3 different AA vans working in relay at the campsite that should have been 4 days into our trip. However, due to problems getting the AA to drive to Mallaog tonight we have decided to make this our start point.

Feel a bit bad for this slight shortening of our route - though in essence we are still on the west coast like we said we would be. Anyway, to make up for it we've had. Look at the Great Glen and decided to make a 2 day dash up the Caledonian Canal and see if we can get to Inverness and back, that way we will have crossed Scotland twice in 2 weeks.

10pm - all setup, fed and ready for first night out. The canoe is prepped for the off and I think so are we. At this point I have to say that powertraveller monkeys and gorilla are a godsend to gadget freaks like me, as without them this and my brothers blog (paddleforthepacific.blogspot.com) would never happen.

After a good chat with some good friends back home its off to bed for, hopefully, a good nights sleep. Next blog coming soon.