12 days to go – bicycle recce of lowland canals

Finding campsites when paddling around the Scottish coast is generally not a big problem. Canals through heavily populated central Scotland could be a different matter.

I’ve also never paddled (or even visited) the Forth and Clyde canal. There are 40 locks on it! I need to get some idea of what challenges they’re going to present.

I spent some time last night looking at maps and Google satellite images of areas of interest, so today, I had a clear plan on the bits I wanted to look at. After 40kms of cycling and photo taking, I have a pretty good idea of where I’m going to camp. How to get round the locks at Maryhill are a different matter. They definitely aren’t kayak friendly and will require a bit more thought.