The Canoe BoysEx-footballer Michael Stewart joins kayaker Brian Wilson in this Adventure Show special to recreate one of the great pioneering journeys of Scottish canoeing.
It's been more than 80 years since friends Alastair Dunnett and Seumas Adam set off from Glasgow in 1934 to paddle round the west coast from Crinan to Skye. With little experience on the sea, many thought they'd never navigate Scotland's most notoriously difficult waters in their primitive Lochaber canoes, but the friends proved everyone wrong.
Both fledgling journalists at the time - Dunnett later went on to edit the Daily Record and the Scotsman - the lads funded their trip by writing about their adventures. Their exploits captivated the nation's imagination and they became known simply as The Canoe Boys.
Fast forward eight decades and ex-Hearts and Hibs midfielder Michael, an inexperienced paddler, takes on the exact same challenge with the help of expert kayaker Brian.
Their boats come courtesy of apprentices at the Scottish Boat Building School, based at the Maritime Museum in Irvine. They spent months making replica Lochaber canoes just like the ones used by Dunnett and Adam but, being a far cry from today's hi-tech boats, they bring their own problems in particularly treacherous stretches.
It's a steep learning curve for Sportscene pundit Michael who hasn't been in a canoe since he was a boy. As his strength and endurance is tested to the limit, frustrations rise to the surface - and there's the small matter of seasickness to overcome too. 'Once I was a professional footballer with a bit of a short fuse,' he says. 'Now I'm a novice paddler and I'm still not always in control.'
With stunning scenery and poignant recollections from the original trip, there's input from Dunnett's son Ninian and Adam's daughter Ailish, both immensely proud of their fathers' achievements.
Programme makers also meet Duncan McGilp, now 90, who recalls standing on the quayside at Tobermory as an eight-year-old boy to welcome the original Canoe Boys to Mull.
