Gigha; it's always worth going.

Went to paddle around the Isle of Gigha over the weekend. The weather really didn't look good as we drove down in heavy rain. Some of the party had gone down friday night and had been held up by a road accident at the "Rest and be Thankful" pass. As we packed the rain stopped. As we paddled the 3 miles across to the island the wind dropped. We pitched our tents by the pub and had a little siesta. By three o'clock things started looking brighter. We decided to go up to the top of the island and have a look. Once at the top it was flat calm so we carried on around. We were back at the campsite by seven and a merry evening followed.

Chel so

The campsite at "The Boathouse".

Christine and Greg

Ray hard at it.

On Sunday the sun really came out we went and played around some skerries before heading home. There was another accident at the Rest and be Thankful; ha ho.

Isle of May.

As the video takes up so much space on the camera card I only took this one still. It shows the landing beach.

I took these shots with my compact camera in it's waterproof case, I used a cheep table top tripod tied to my deck elastics. I have to remember not to edge the kayak whilst filming as it tips the camera to much.

Isle of May 2.

Part 2, there were hundreds of Guillemots, Razerbills as well as Puffins. The Puffins and Turns didn't seem to be nesting yet but the Eider ducks were mostly hatched.

Isle of May 1.

Sunday was a lovely hot sunny day so 16 paddlers from Fife Sea Kayak Club made the 5 mile crossing to the Isle of May. I made this video of paddling the west coast of the island, it's to big to upload in one go so I've split it into 3 parts.

Return leg.

From Tarbert Bay to Mallaig is only ten miles but it was the hardest day of the trip. The wind was force 4 from the north west and was being funnelled down Loch Nevis. We hugged the shore and used what shelter we could but it was a slog.
Mad Tom's "Whale" boat.

A welcome break on the shore of Loch Nevis.

Looking across to Inverie, you never can see the wind.

Once out of Loch Nevis the funnelling effect stopped but the wind was now on our beam and my kayak has no skeg. It wasn't so bad in the rough bits around the small headlands but the smooth bit in between were hard work.

Tarbert Bay Bunkhouse.

We spent the night at the bunkhouse in Tarbert Bay, what a place? As you can see it's an old church complete with resident ghost. It's kept by an old climber called Frank, he kept us entertained all night with a constant string of really filthy jokes. it cost us £2 a head, half the price of the campsite. we didn't see the ghost.

Loch Nevis.

Next day we set off down the Inverie River and into Loch Nevis. The tide was against us but the wind was with us. The paddle down the Loch was nice and layed back, the sun came out and the winds were light. At Kylesknoydart we paused for a photo session before playing in the tidal narrows for a bit. Kylesknoydart.

At the head of the Loch stands Sourlies Bothy, our lunch stop. Here we met a couple of walkers, they were trying to walk from Fort William to Cape Wrath. Neither of them was in the first flush of youth and seemed to have really underestimated the route. They'd been walking for three days and had already been lost and taken a major wrong route. They were knackered and really down. Their route would have taken them into the Knoydart peninsular all really hard going. They said they were going to walk around the coast. I didn't have the heart to tell them that there wasn't a path and it would be even harder going that way. As we left, I saw them set off, the woman was walking with two poles and limping away at the back.

Sourlies Bothy.

Heading back up the Loch the wind had gotten up, it was now a steady force 4. We creeped around the southern shore all the way to Tarbert Bay.

May Day

Saturday was May Day, a group of us headed up to Mallaig. Not sure why Mallaig as it's a horrid place to put in; but that's where we started. We paddled around into the mouth of Loch Nevis, there's a nice beach by the islet of Eilean Giubhais where we had our lunch.
Eilean Giubhais.

We took a bimble around Sandaig Bay before heading into Inverie for the night.

Sandaig Bay.

Long beach campsite, Inverie.