Paddling the Roof of Scotland

July 27th - 30th 2017

A long planned event for NESKy took place over this last long weekend:-  the paddle across “the Roof of Scotland”.  Part of a bigger series to circumnavigate the top half of Scotland by kayak/bike/foot in memory of Adrian Shaw.  Just to make sure this had a wacky touch we were bequeathed an old fisherman’s creel buoy that we were to carry/lug/tow around with us!

Thursday evening saw us gather at the campsite in Tongue along with the midges.  The bunkhouse here is well equipped and although we were camping we could have use of the facilities – an excellent kitchen and lounge included. Friday morning and we were starting as a group of 8 sea kayaks at Balnakeil beach just west of Durness up in the top left hand corner of the UK map (just on the edge of the Cape Wrath MoD firing range).  Weather and sea conditions were favourable, and we would get some tidal assistance each morning going west-to-east.  “Adrian’s buoy” was loaded on deck  and off we launched (the buoy is about 40 cms diameter, bright pink, and probably weighs 4 kgs – quite something to have stuck on top of your boat!).

Day 1 was 32 kms around Faraid Head, out to the north side of Hoan island and then across/around Whiten Head.  The highlight was probably seeing lots of puffins (is that a flock?) flying round us.  In we went to Portvasgo but the landing site didn’t look good so we did another few kms and surfed into the beach at Talmine.  A pretty raw evening after hours of shuttling cars around; but we were safe (!?) in a marshy beachside paddock that cost £2 for use of the loo block – only Brian seemed to get a hot shower though.  The paddling was very satisfying and on-plan with great natural features to check out.

Day 2 was an earlier start to try and keep the tidal assistance in our favour for an hour longer, we went out from Talmine through the Rabbit Islands (and its natural arch) and across to the south sides of Eilean nan Ron, then through the inner passage at Coomb Island and onto the sands in Farr bay for lunch.  The weather was holding bright so a few tourists watched us bemusedly.   Onwards and through the rougher stuff off Farr Point, then made a beeline straight to intercept Kirtomy Point and then again to Ardmore point – very much the direct approach).  The lighthouse at Strathy was next as it could be seen for miles and progress towards it was a visual thing.  We were wanting to have a wee play in the tidal race that builds here with a big eddy on the down-tide side but as we rounded to the east round the cliffs the mighty tide race at Strathy Point was nowhere to be seen.  An anti-climax.  Just 50 minutes or so from there to the beach at Stathy to make a 35 km day.  Surfed in the last bit and camp was in the sand dunes; some wind & rain but not enough to keep el-midge at bay.

As the tide was quite a way out, Day 3 started with “lining” the loaded sea kayaks down the creek to get to salt water and out through small waves.  The morning was a bit of a inshore cruise with lots of agricultural land now visible (as opposed to hill/bog country of the west).  Lunch was a sunny affair as we met up with the other group from NESKy in the picturesque Sandside Harbour. 

 In the afternoon the groups separated again and it was past the decommissioned Dounreay golf ball and on to some really very interesting rocks/cliffs with many fault lines and failures zones in them.   The final 7 or 8 kms was through windy/choppy/turbulent conditions as we needed to round headlands at Brims Ness and Spear Head to get into Scrabster / Thurso bay.  There was a visual illusion at one point where being surrounded by very uniform downward sloping fault lines on 300ft cliffs, you actually start to think that the fault lines must be horizontal so the sea is sloping downward (at about 20 degrees!)   The trip was completed with a head down thrash straight into the freshening wind (F4) across the bay and into the slipway at Thurso river. Turned out to be another 35 kms for the day, and 103 kms total for the trip.

Many thanks to those friends who donated to the cancer charities we are supporting this season.

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Walking about the Western Isles

July 2nd - 12th 2017

Took the van over to Harris & Lewis to re-do some lovely clifftop walks.  Even got up the highest hill they have "an Clisham" but it was touch and go with the clouds as to whether there would be a view.

The western isles just have the most amazing sands to stroll across at low tide as well.  Spotted 2 pairs of Golden Eagles and also a Sea Eagle plus lots of little brown jobs that I can't name.  And aquatically, we saw a dozen dolphins chasing fish and further out some Minke wales.  Missed having my sea boat though!

If you get across to Uig then there's also the malt whisky distillery at Red River with its interesting young spirit - you need try it.

Back on the bike

June 12th 2017

Back home so time to get some fresh air & exercise. A quick 28 km blast round the Fungle gully section (sweet single track) and across to Baudy Meg.  Isn't Deeside just a great place to be in the outdoors. Magical.  We even have whisky coloured rivers.

Splashing about in Austria to avoid election-itis

June 1st - 11th


Following on from time in Italy, I took a couple of days driving back round the Italian Lakes and over the Passo dello Stelvio.  The scenery was stunning but the roads are not great (certainly at the Lakes there’s just too many other cars in the way!).  It got so late and I was going round hairpin after hairpin above Bormio that I simply pulled over in a layby at about 2300m ASL and got some kip.  

The following morning, I was off down the other side through Santa Maria and on to the Austrian village of Prutz for breakfast.

I knew this area reasonably well so cruised around Landeck, Otz, and Haiming looking for other paddling buddies.  The river levels were all high and it wasn’t really a time to do things solo.  The Otz itself was really full and flowing fast, it was the usual slate grey colour of Austrian flood water - a little disappointing as I am always keen to do the Otz for old time's sake (I first paddled here around 1980).

I based myself at the campsite on the riverbank opposite Prutz, so the Inn flowed past my tent all night with a fair noise.  Luckily 3 Brit paddlers also turned up and we did the introductions (in the Austrian rain).  Great to have Cam, Suzy and Klim as minders on the river.

Wandering about Prutz, I even found a distillery (but it wasn't a single malt !)

Tosens-Prutz is a reasonable section of the Inn to start with, so that was the first 9 kms of grade 4 to do (Sunday 4^th June by this stage).  Monday saw us get up to St Anton em Arlberg to do the grade 3+ Rosanna, and then get stuck in to one of the best rivers in the region, “the Sanna”.  We had been informed of the recent re-engineering of the Sanna below Pians so were circumspect and looked at a few things on the shuttle.  As it turned out there were some features that were washed out by the high water levels and it became a great blast down a large roller-coaster.  Grade 4+ I guess with exploding haystack waves, some holes and some wicked eddyline curlers from the new groins.   We repeated the Sanna run a couple of days later and it was a little lower volume – the lines were a little easier to see and the fun vs fright factor was more positively balanced.  I don’t recall having such fun on the Sanna in all my previous trips to Austria.  However the levels did restrict my ability to take photos on the way down!

Thunderstorms became a feature of each late afternoon so the Inn river level was certainly staying up.  The Otz wasn’t going to play ball so we set off on the Landeck Gorge section of the Inn from that little stoneworks at Nesselgarten.  The get-on here is basically jumping into a river doing 20mph I guess, no timid starts this time.  The run is pretty straight forward although very fast, very bouncy, and did cause us to eyeball one short section before just blowing straight through.  By the time we floated under the glass-sided tourist bridge in Landeck town we were all grinning from ear-to-ear.

And that was the paddling done….  I went photo-hunting the following morning back at the confluence of the Rosanna /Trisanna and then simply pointed the car north and uphill over the Fernpass. 

The drive back had better weather on the autobahn so good time was made to Belgium for the night, to Oxenholme Station Inn for a pint, and to sunny Royal Deeside once more.

All-in-all;  paddled in 4 countries, 9 different rivers, and 20 river sections.

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