This is Iain Macdougall. By coincidence, he's also paddling the Canoe Boys route this summer. Well, something close to it.Iain and his friend Chris Bell plan to paddle from the Erskine Bridge (over the Clyde) to the Skye Bridge in July and raise money for the British Lung Foundation. You can sponsor them here.
The original Canoe Boys of 1934 chose an "inside route" up Seil Sound, and this is the one I'll follow with Cailean Macleod as we make three documentaries for Radio Scotland. This is our rather basic website.
Chris and Iain are taking a more sporting line! "Our intended route will takes us through and past the Isle of Bute, Sound of Jura, Mull and the Sound of Sleat before crossing the finishing line at the Skye Bridge", says Iain. And he might not stop there, telling me "all being well I am thinking about paddling over to Loch Maddy to visit my gran."
Iain hadn't heard of the original Canoe Boys until he listened to the Podcast I recorded with Duncan Winning. After a year planning the trip it must have come as a shock to discover two other lads did it seventy three years earlier.
I'll be shouting about the transmission dates of our radio programmes nearer the time, so even if you can't do the trip yourself, you'll be able to hear what it's like.