October 24-26th
Day
1: Monday – drove across to Kyle of Lochalsh with great weather and launched from the back of the playing fields about 2 hrs before high water. Had planned a 4 day jaunt in a
shortish weather window to see the Crowlins and to return to Scalpay.
Flat calm as I made my way up through the skerries northwards checking out the
seals and round the headland towards Plockton. Couldn’t see much of the
actual village as the low sun was right in my eyes so didn’t hang about.
Carried on east to the site of the old marker on Ulluva; headed across from there and again round the coastline past Loch Reraig’s inlet and on to a shingle beach for camp. Nice sunset after a clear blue day.
 |
| Pepperpot marker on Ulluva |
Day
2: Tuesday. Overslept as the camp site was still in full shade then tried to dry the tent
outer (hoar frost!) so didn’t actually launch till 11:00hrs. Headed west
and then north around the headland (some other possible campsites here) and into Loch Kishorn
simply to see what was there (there is of course the old offshore construction
yard which just looks like a big coffer-dam;and I gather at the loch head
there’s “selfie-phonebox”!). Paddled west to Rubha-nah-Uamha and out to
the southern tip of the Crowlins. Weather was worsening by this stage and to
turn north into the
natural harbour (between Eilean Mor and Eilean Meadhanach) was a pleasant
change.
Popped out the north end and started down the east side of Eilean
Mor before cutting across for the beach at Uags bothy – this was a bit of a beam-on
work out so happy to land about 16:15hrs with 24 kms for the day. Had
seen 2 porpoises during the crossing but neither them nor I felt like stopping
to play.
 |
| I've even learnt what a "selfie" is. |
 |
| Sirius all tucked for the night |
Met
the current occupant of the bothy, Steve, who had separately kayaked in the day
before. Had a quick look at the other shielings on the hillside
nearby. The evening was pleasantly spent chatting with the
log fire blazing away whilst the wind howled outside.
Day
3: Wednesday - Noted the stiff wind coming across the Inner
Sound from the SW but given the shelter that the Crowlins provided then the
paddle north up the coast towards Applecross was OK for a while. Again was
fortunate to watch an otter – this one a young one trying to eat fish and call
out for its mother imbetween dives. By Ardban though it had started to
lash it down and so some shelter was sought in Poll Creadha (although I
couldn’t find my pogies as I now wanted them).
Looked
at the map and decided that it was still worth heading across
towards Scalpay which would be essentially all head-to-wind and that would make
the swell reasonable to handle. The prudent course was via the northern
tip of Eilean Beag though and then on to Longay.
Conditions were a F3 and
a significant chop but the periodic squalls coming across from the Broadford
area were definitely not helpful. They brought some sets of bigger swell with
them and a steady plodding pace seemed the best way to tackle this so the bow didn’t plough into the wave faces. Still I had plenty of
daylight hours left so across we went through the changing atmospherics, at
some points it was like being in “the eye” with brightness and warmth!
All around the distant peaks though were in a changing grey veil – I could
recognise Glamaig some of the time.
Landed
on Longay for a break about 13:30hrs and again shelter from the rain. Things
were unlikely to improve if I just sat out the day on Longay and there was a
risk it would just be the same issue but 24 hrs later. Revised my plan
so that it was one night less out in the open but would require an extra 18 kms
today to get round the bay and back in to Kyle - looked do-able in
the 4hrs remaining daylight and the seastate had moderated.
Dug
around in the rear hatch some more and came up with my pogies which was a
bonus. Set off down the west side of Longay and then across to Scalpay’s
southern coast. This end of the island is unfortunately populated
otherwise there could have been more options for camping.
Went round
Guillamon Island just because it was there and then on to check out the smart
looking property on the south side of Pabay. Water was a lot calmer by
this stage apart from the odd squall but at least it was coming over my
shoulder now. Still tricky taking photos though. Headed east and
under the Skye bridge to have a look, round and through the smaller bridge and
into the cove to complete the trip at 17:00hrs. This “shortened” day came
in at 36 kms in 7.5hrs.
Overall
a challenging trip for doing solo given the conditions and a total of 78
kms. This whole area is like one big amphitheatre with many possible
routes and surrounded by majestic hills.
--------------------0000-------------------
