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Things have gone quiet here on the boat as we travel the length of the Loch from Inverness to Fort Augustus, contemplating an idea that began in the cosy warmth of a pub and realised here on the foaming waters of Britain largest lake.

Cold

Ninety minutes at full speed has brought us only half way and visibility is only a hundred yards.  It’s cold.  There is an air of apprehension about the coming days, during which the six Angels, will attempt to make the twenty-eight mile return journey from Fort Augustus to Inverness, on a nothing more than a pedalo.

This slice of English eccentricity was the brainchild of Jim Hardie, landlord of York pub, The Blue Bell, which has twice been awarded National Fund Raising Pub of the Year.

Chris Brooke filming Graham Hughes

Pedalo

Over the last six years Jim, along with fellow fundraisers Graham Chaddock, Steve Morrison, Syd Scott, David Foster and Neil Watson, have raised over £50,000 for good causes through their annual cycle rides which have seen them travel across England, Scotland and Ireland. 

 But this year they wanted to do something a little different and in keeping with the theme of pedalling, the pedalo idea was born.

It was early 2006 when Jim approached me about making a film of the expedition.  I saw it as a project essentially about a group of ordinary blokes setting themselves a challenge and seeing if they could rise to it.  They are a very lively bunch and make for entertaining watching.

Sell-out

Nearly eleven months on from that first trip down the loch and I’m at the ticket counter in York’s City Screen Cinema, dumbfounded that I can’t buy a ticket for my own film because they sold out within two hours of going on sale (I later discover that we have set a box office record for fastest sell-out ever at the cinema).

Chris Brooke