Trip Reports and Blog
2 Star Assessment
Saturday saw a 2 Star assessment with 4 people from the Inverness. We first covered all aspects of open canoeing and to finish it all off we did rescues. All the skills were there apart from some of those cross bow strokes which are, I have to admit, very difficult and take a lot of body rotation and coordination.
After a quick break and a change over we popped into kayaks. There was one in a river kayak and 3 in sea kayaks. Everyone was certainly within th 2 star level and did really well. Only the rescues needed some improvement and it was pretty difficult for a river kayak to rescue a sea kayak. After all it was all successful and I was more than happy to pass all 4 on their 2 star.
Mud? What Mud?
After consulting the weather forecast it seemed to be driest over in the northwest. So Isi and I went over to Torridon to do some mountain biking and the Torridon Loop seemed as good as anything. Arriving at the Beinn Eigh car park masses of midges persuaded us to skip any faffing and hop on the bikes as soon as we could.
The rain started as soon as we turned off the main road and onto the fireroad. For the first half the waterproofs came on and off on a regular basis. After a good ride on single-track and a bit of uphill we blasted down the hill to Achnashellach. A few quick stops showed us just how beautiful this part of the Highlands really is.
Across the rail tracks and through Achnashellach we got to some more single-track and the start of heavier rain and pushing the pushbikes. We had a wee break and at the bothy after 2 km. The shelter was a welcome place to get away from the rain and midges and since I had some problems with the rear derailleur it was also a good place to fix that too.
After the break we headed off up the trails again. It started to get rougher and more pushing was required till we got up to a pass at 420m height. Now came the payoff. Blasting down the hill on some of the best single-track I have seen so far in Scotland. We started to get a bit tired but it was fun nonetheless. At one point I managed to do a face plant in a big mud hole. At least it was soft a landing. Somewhere half way down my rear brakes gave up and it started getting faster for me. No stopping there. It was however a relieve to get to the road and back to the car.
3 Star Assessment
Last week we ran a 3 Star assessment in the Fort William area. Since we need a force 3 or thereabouts I decided to go over to Glenuig as it was exposed enough.
Over there we popped out around the little island and to the small cliffs for rockhopping. Ali got stuck on a slab at one point and had to get out and launch again. After that we did some turning exercises in the bay and back across the waves as the weather started kicking up a bit more. They all looked very comfortable in the kayaks at those conditions.
After a short lunch break and some theory we headed out again and went through some more strokes, then towing (long and contact) and then getting on to getting wet. Eskimo rescue, rolling and deep water went without a hitch and we even got a little into self-rescue. Which isn't in the sylabus but still good to know and we had the time anyway. Everyone on the assessment passed.
Sea kayaking in Skye
In recent weeks it has been pretty dry and cold due to arctic wind which you sometimes get up here, this time of the year. However, Tuesday started to warm up again. That day I took Elise and Nuno from Switzerland out for a sea kayaking trip in Skye at Loch Scavaig. After prepping and a little coaching we headed for a gentle paddle up the coast to Camasunary. There we had a wee lunch break.
After that we headed over to the infamous bad step to have a wee nosy, if someone is going to walk it. Strangely enough it was pretty quiet. Just next to it is a beach where we landed again to have a walk up to Loch Coruisk.
We spotted that we are not the only sea kayakers in the area when we paddled over to the seal colony. Those creatures were just as curious as us and popped their heads out just a few metres from our kayaks. Elise and Nuno were well impressed how close they get.
We then headed straight back to Elgol where we started as the weather started to turn a bit with a northerly wind. We all made it back fine and started packing our gear as all the tourist boat trips returned too.
Gruinard and Stoer Point
The weather has been great since Friday. No cloud in the sky and up to 28°C, plus no wind since Sunday. That is always a good mix when going out sea kayaking.
Sunday I took Helen out around Guinard Island. The Island was used as a biological warfare test site during World War 2 and is therefore also known as anthrax island. The island has been declared safe in 1990.
We put in at a sandy beach near Little Gruinard and started paddling around the west side of Gruinard Island. This is some of the most astonishing rocky coastline I have seen in the Scottish Highlands. There are many places to do rockhopping and caves to pop your nose into. There are even some narrow channels behind rocks where you can just about fit a sea kayak through but would be able to paddle only on one side. After a short lunch break on the island we headed back along the coast to Little Gruinard.
On Monday we went to do Point of Stoer. The weather conditions looked really favourable for doing headlands and the Stoer is a classic. To start the sea looked nice and gentle with just some small swells. This would change the closer Helen and I got to the Point of Stoer. The swells started to go up to about 1.5 metres and a north-easterly force 3 kicked up some waves. To make it just a little more interesting some sea har moved in just when we started paddling around the point. The visibility was between 50 and 100 metres at that point, which gave the paddle another interesting twist. I didn't want to get too far away from the cliffs to lose sight of them but I most certainly didn't want to get too close either. Anyway, all was fine once around the point and passed the Old Man of Stoer which was shrouded in fog. The further we got away from the old man the easier the paddle became and just passed Cluas Deas Lighthouse was a lovely wee beach to stretch legs and have a barbeque. After that paddle a sunbath and some burgers just hit the spot. The rest of the paddle was pretty eventless apart from that otter that jumped into the water next to Helen's kayak and again popped out his head right in front of my kayak.
