The village of Luss on Loch Lomond was standing room only this morning – 9th June 2012 – as residents and visitors thronged the streets and the lochside for the spectacle of the Olympic Flame’s scorch through the village.

It got off the bus at the Loch Lomond Arms Hote at the head of the road to the pier. One runner took it to the pierhead, where it was transferred to another runner who ran it straight back up to the bus and away they went.

I spoke to one of the London team’s organisers on the pier.  He said they were expecting around 100 people – at which point, I burst out laughing!  Luss was mobbed. Luss was hoaching, not just spectators but also midges.

Some of the organisers of the Luss Highland Games – Saturday 7th July 2012 – see you there – have estimated the crowd in the village at 3,000. I’m not so sure it was that much. Where did they all park?

At the Games, they are allowed to open 2 massive fields and they are used as car parks. We didn’t have that today but revising my own earlier estimate of 500 on the highland games committee’s description of the crowds they saw from where they were,  I would reckon there were over a thousand people.

Not sure what was going on here, though.

Children, pets, wildlife, picnics, the cool and the hot, they were all in Luss, taking in the view, wishing they lived here, wishing their kids went to school in a place like this. Some of us are lucky.

Speaking of Luss school, I spotted a certain Councillor Dick Walsh here today. Bit late to be getting acquainted with rural communities.

The Loch Lomond seaplane buzzed the pier a few times, like a wasp in the sky,  then came in to land – another spectacle.

There were loads of boats around, all getting a really good view from the the roomiest place – out on the water.

Looking over my photographs, this one looks like a major drama – ‘standoff at the pier’ stuff. It was just an interesting image in a single moment – actually the arrival of the Torch.

More obvious now.

A formal moment for our sponsors.

The next Torchbearer was ready and waiting – so was the water, Don’t worry. It didn’t happen.

On the pierhead came the transfer of the flame from one torchbeaer to the next. A member of the organising team seems to be delegated to help hold the torches in the correct position to make sure it all works.

Triumph. But hang on a minute.

Is this a world first?

A giant ice cream cone set alight in Luss.

Thanks, cloud.

And away went the flame, like a pied piper.

The crowd were flocking behind it as it moved away, for the fun of  keeping in touch with it for as long as possible.

It was off to Tarbet (by bus), to be handed over there to the care of Myles Clark from Lochgilphead.

Myles was already in Luss and accompanied the flame on the bus to Tarbet, alongside the torchbearer he’ll hand over to down the road there. Continue reading →