No flying, but enjoyed the highland games.

Arrived on Arran the previous night, got the late boat down and managed to stay sensible and have an early night. I went along to meet Zab at the McAlpine at 11am. The Brodick Highland Games were on today, so there were loads of different pipe bands coming off the boat . One of the bands had also decided to meet at the McAlpine and warm up their bagpipes. What a racket!



Before we set off in search of wind, Zab wanted to do the tourist thing and watch the pipe bands march through Brodick to the games. Maurice and a few others decided to go and set up the rig to try out some new harnesses, so I also took the opportunity to check all the adjustments on my harness.

After we were done we headed off in search of flyable conditions. We headed over the string but it soon started to rain. It wasn't heavy but it was drizzle that wasn't moving anywhere fast. We eventually ended up in the Lagg hotel and stayed there for a couple of hours to see if it would clear up. It didn't, and so we decided to call it a day and headed back to Brodick. Of course, as soon as we got to Brodick the sun came out to tease us, but the cloud base was still very low. I went along to the highland games and drank beer for the rest of the afternoon.

Ok, this my attempt to educate the non-Scots about some of our traditional highland sports. This is called 'tossing the caber'. A caber is basically a tree trunk that the competitors have to run and throw. It must flip over 180 degrees to be valid and the competitors are judged on how far they throw it and how straight it goes.

This is the tug of war. 2 teams trying to pull the other one over the half way line.

This team were the eventual winners, from the Ormidale pub. They always win and I'm not surprised - check out the beer bellies! No they aren't wearing skirts!! - they're wearing kilts!!!

This is a fellow pilot, young Archie (on the right), being battered in the pillow fight. First person to fall off the log loses. He lost.