Day 2 – Wheel and Locks

• Falkirk to Kirkintilloch
• 29 kms

As soon as the sun went down yesterday evening, the temperature plummeted. It was a cold night in the tent, and there was even frost on the kayak when I awoke. Today, the sun was out again, and it started to warm up quite quickly over breakfast. I was on my way at 7.30.

… and then I was on to a new canal – The Forth & Clyde Canal.

This canal runs between the Forth and Clyde rivers. It has a total of 40 locks numbered from 1 at the Forth end. The first 20 go up, there’s a long flat section, and then 20 more take you down. The Union Canal (which I’ve been on up till now) joins the Forth & Clyde Canal (via the Falkirk Wheel) between locks 16 and 17. That means I only have to get past four locks before I’m on the flat bit.

The route between Edinburgh and Glasgow is all part of a recognised canoe/kayak trail and a certain amount of effort has been made to make the portages easier. The main one being the provision of low-level pontoons, from which it is easier to extract yourself out of your kayak and then pull the kayak out of the water. The edges of these pontoons are even covered with a thick nylon strip that allows a kayak to slide smoothly between water and pontoon (though you do need to check for raised screws first – I’ve seen several).

Getting the boat from pontoon to canal path appears to have been less well thought out:

In this case, I had to put the boat back in the water and pull it straight out in line with the ramp – unfortunately, this is now the higher pontoon with no nylon strips and a mooring cleat in the way.

When the locks were less than half a kilometre apart, it proved easier just to continue the portage rather than paddle between them.

After lock 20 it was plain sailing (well, paddling) through some lovely countryside.

Paddling was over for the day in Kirkintilloch at 2pm. Time for a shower and a civilised night in a hotel with Wendy.

Only 20 locks to look forward to tomorrow…