66 days to go

The Queens Baton Relay has been in my constituency of Argyll & Bute today and there was a huge choice of places to go and see it, as is always the case with a constituency as big as this one.

I spent the afternoon in Strachur where the community had laid on a "Baton Fun Day" which started several hours before the baton was brought by Police Launch across Loch Fyne from Inveraray. The accompanying team came in Murdo MacLeod's fast rib, on which Cathleen and I went to Arran two years ago.

This is the moment when the torch came ashore, under an arch of oars held by members of the Strachur Boat Club whose initiative lead to the pontoon being established last year, when I first blipped it.

The baton then passed under an arch of camans, or shinty sticks held by members of the highly successful Strachur Shinty Club , and after lots of photographs with lots of people went on to the Community Hall where there was singing , country dancing and even a flashmob !

All in all a fun afternoon which attracted lots of people - numbers apparently duplicated throughout the constituency. Indeed the baton was running more than half an hour late when it got to Strachur because of the pressure of crowds in Oban and Lochgilphead.

(I remembered later that I had also blipped the Olympic Torch Relay from my Edinburgh flat - you can see that very different image here )