Finally

Concluding Nigel and Kathy’s Scottish Coast and Islands Tour (by Car, Ferries, Sea Kayaks, a Little Plane, a Minibus and Walking Boots):

K: When Will was very young, at the end of a camping trip he said: “We’re not going back to our house of bricks are we?” That’s how Nigel and I feel after spending so long in the fresh air and wild places, but our sea kayaking tour has run its natural course and it’s time to head home.

Our daily lives have been governed by weather and daylight for eight weeks now, beginning with the shipping forecast and ending at dark. Apart from two nights in hotels and three evenings out, to a ceilidh, a concert and a pub quiz, we have lived outdoors. We have endured a lot of rain (every day until near the end of August), which came relentlessly in the form of successive Atlantic depressions, then lots of high winds, including a force nine storm, in September. Our plans have regularly been curtailed or changed because of all this and few of our paddles or climbs have been done in settled conditions. Simple pleasures have meant a great deal: getting warm and dry when cold and wet, cooking when hungry and long, solid sleeps when tired. Breaking camp and moving on regularly to new places has been both stimulating and tiring.

Time has moved on a different scale from life at home. We’ve had to conserve our energy, our gear and our washing. But we’ve had the privilege of being able to live in the minute, free of goals and pressures apart from where to explore next. Every single day, every single island and every single paddle or climb is stuck in our minds in vivid colours. We’ve had a brilliant adventure in a beautiful and fascinating country. Most of all, we’ve learned just how much you don’t need to enjoy yourself!

N: Our friend Jon Van Wren asked in an e-mail “what do you think you've learnt from doing this?” Well I don’t think we know the full answer to that yet, but what I do know is that this expedition has provided a complete contrast to our usual way of life. It has given us the opportunity to fulfil our dream to travel Scotland and we have been too busy living to reflect on anything else. We look forward to thinking about what we’ve learned and what we do next when we get back.

FERRY JOURNEYS WERE:

Ardrossan – Arran

Lochranza – Kintyre

Kintyre – Gigha – Kintyre

Oban – Mull – Oban (with Chris, Sarah and Mike)

Scrabster – Stromness, Orkney – Stromness

Stromness – Hoy – Stromness

Ullapool – Stornaway, Lewis

Tarbert, Harris – Uig, Skye

Sconser – Raasay – Sconser

We have done 3,400+  land miles.

BASES AND NO. NIGHTS

:

Lochranza Campsite, Arran    10

By boathouse, Gigha                 3

Gallanach Campsite, Oban        5

Glen Nevis Campsite                 4

By Loch Shiel                            1

Gorten Sands, Arisaig                4

St. Clair’s Hotel, Thurso            1

Point of Ness Campsite, Mainland Orkney  8

Clach Toll Beach, Lochinver     4

The Ceilidh Place, Ullapool       1

Traigh Horgabost, Harris            4

Taransay Paibil                           1

Raasay Outdoor Centre               2

Linwater Site, East Calder nr Edinburgh     6

=  54  nights

BOOKS WE’VE BEEN READING

:

The Rough Guide to the Highlands and Islands

The Scottish Islands             Hamish Haswell-Smith

An Eye on the Hebrides       Mairi Hedderwick (sketches of the islands)

Scottish Sea Kayaking         Doug Cooper/ George Reid (strangely all the photos show sunny, calm conditions)

Into the Wild                        Jon Krakauer

Findings                    Kathleen Jamie (observations on Scotland’s wild places by a poet)

The Orkneyinga Saga

Kidnapped                           R.L. Stevenson (set in Oban/ Fort William area)

Blazing Paddles                   Brian Wilson (a continuous kayak journey round Scotland)

Hell and High Water, Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition.    Alastair McIntosh.

LESSONS LEARNED:

:

• How little we actually need
• Don’t underestimate Scottish weather, sea or mountains.
• Which gear stays the course (1^st prize: the tent for standing up to a storm that blew back your eyelids and flattened your nostrils)
• How to live cooking only on a  Trangia stove
• Writing a blog’s great fun and getting comments back even better. (We remember the range of unusual places we’ve sat in to write it out of the rain or to get a signal. Most unusual has to be in Mr, MacDonald’s barn at Arisaig amongst rusty farm implements, hay and a smell of sheep.) We recognise that our technological bling (laptop and GPS) may seem to contradict our first point!

BIGGEST CHALLENGES:

N: The Witch’s Step in the Arran mountains.

K: That, and day 2 of the Loch Shiel paddle feeling hypothermic. Oh, and clapotis. I’ve survived a lot of those (one for you to mull over!)

FAVOURITE  TRIPS/ PLACES:

N: Arran, the wildness of  Clachtoll beach in the storms, wild camping.

K: Wild camp on Taransay/ Life in Orkney. It’s not like anywhere else and I loved the way the present day and distant past are on such familiar terms.

BEST ANSWER

When asked of the lad behind the bar in the hotel on Raasay “do you have a wi-fi internet connection?” Dave answered “I know how to set up an abseil, but I’ve no idea what you’ve just asked for”

WHAT WILL WE MISS?

N: Being outdoors

K:  The seal welcomes/ checkouts every time we paddle.

WORST ANNOYANCES?

N: People who camp too close. You can be in an empty field but you can be sure if anyone else comes they’ll put their tent two feet away. Thinking of putting lettering on the car: INFECTIOUS DISEASES UNIT or OFFENDERS REHABILITATION.

K: Getting your hair trapped in the tent zip.

GEAR WE DIDN’T NEED:

N and K: Sun lotion, summer clothes, anything that didn’t dry in 2 minutes. Not for one single day!

Solar shower/flower shower

RETURN TO SCOTLAND:

N and K: We’d like to head up to Shetland in midsummer when it doesn’t get dark.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FORWARD TO?

N: Being able to bake flapjack.

K: 1.A bathroom of our own. 2. Canoeing.

AND……

LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU SOON!

WE REALLY HAVE APPRECIATED YOU KEEPING IN TOUCH!

NIGEL AND KATHY

.

Paddling in the city

True to form, the weather has stayed uncooperatively windy all week making paddling the Firth of Forth as a grand finale for our Scottish tour impossible. Refusing to be defeated however, we paddled into Edinburgh City Centre on the Union canal. Splashing across an aqueduct looking down at the busy Edinburgh bypass was an unusual experience, as was eating our lunch in kayak gear at Edinburgh Quays, surrounded by office workers in black suits.

Now, Nigel has shaved his beard off signalling the end of the trip is imminent.

Chain walk at Elie

Yet another windy day (Tuesday 22nd) so we headed up to Elie where there is a “chain walk” which is part of the Fife Coastal Path Walk. When we asked a local gentleman where to find the chain walk, he told us to follow the road to the cliff edge, cross the golf course and its there, then remarked “ … and the best of luck if you're doing it in this weather …” We only did the short stretch of the walk along the cliff edge over looking the wild sea, but the chain walk was great fun. At each end of the chain section there is a notice outlining the dangers, falling rocks, being trapped by the tide and steep cliffs. It was only half way along that we realised the tide was on its way in, so we decided that the return walk would be along the cliff top. We would recommend you seek out this part of the walk if you are in the area. (actually the most dangerous bit is probably getting hit by golf balls crossing the golf course!!)

Heading for Edinburgh

Harris’s landscapes and seascapes of the soul were not going to be an easy act to follow. It was thrilling to see dolphins again as we travelled on the Calmac ferry from Tarbert to Uig, but once on Skye our spirits sank. We found ourselves in a queue of fast ferry traffic vying for pole position so stopped off at Portree which was thronged with coach parties. We made a rapid decision to head for the next ferry to the nearest island and, fortunately, didn’t have to wait long at Sconser for the little ferry to Raasay. Immediately, we stepped back into island life again: the slow pace, the peace and the friendliness.
Although we only stayed two days on Raasay because the weather worsened, we would go again. We spent our whole day there climbing to Dun Caan, at 1400 feet the island’s highest point. We would have liked to kayak around Raasay and Rona but this would be a good 3 day journey, requiring settled weather. Our campsite was in the grounds of Raasay House Adventure Centre. The house itself burnt down earlier this year and the staff were going to lose their jobs, so they came up with a plan to take over the Raasay Hotel, which was not making money, and run that with outdoor activities on offer too. They are all working so hard- out of doors all day and running the bar at night! They’re really enthusiastic and very welcoming. If you want to know more it’s: www.raasay-house.co.uk
We’re now heading into our final week, concluding our Scottish tour in the Scottish capital. We can hear distant road traffic for the first time in eight weeks and see planes heading up from Edinburgh airport.

Yesterday having had a cold night we woke up to a ground frost, however the sun soon came through and warmed us up. We spent most of the day at Falkirk, this is where the Grand Union canal joins with the Forth and Clyde canal, and instead off the usual lock arrangement to accommodate the differing water levels a large rotating boat lift is used. The Falkirk Wheel is an elegant piece of modern engineering that very efficiently raises and lowers boats (and short sections of canal) from one level to another; it uses only the same power as 8 electric kettles to turn the wheel as it is perfectly balanced. The locking mechanism and hydraulically actuator powered gates at either end are cleverly devised to give a very clean and aesthetic, yet efficient closure to the ends of the canal sections. See www.thefalkirkwheel.co.uk for more info. Whilst there we paddled part of the Forth and Clyde canal, and hope to paddle part of the Union canal in to Edinburgh later this week.

We’ll write our final blog at the end of the week.

ISLE OF HARRIS

Many thanks once again to everyone who is reading this. It really gives us a lot of pleasure when we get your comments.

Our Harris pphotos start at number 46.

K and N: From Clach Toll we headed south to Ullapool. After the storm, the sea was taking a long time to settle. The heather was fading and the temperatures autumnal. You realise how short the summer is so far North. Bill always says how he likes to follow the spring up through France and England and I thought we should be following what’s left of summer down. And I’m missing trees. Hearing how dry East Anglia’s been this summer, we were mulling over the Norfolk Broads for our next expedition! We stayed overnight in the comfort of The Ceilidh Place, then caught the morning ferry to Stornaway on the Isle of Lewis. In mid-Minch a dolphin leapt up behind the boat then it and several others went arcing away across the water. Fifty miles west and we had arrived. We drove down through the fog and peaty moorlands of Lewis to our latest base: Traigh Horgabost. Harris, like much of the North-West Scotland, is famous for its sandy beaches sprinkled with fragments of shells but on Harris they’re truly breathtakingly vast with a backdrop of sweeping dunes and rocky mountains.
Whilst here, we have seen wonderful Hebridean sunsets. We haven’t been wet for 11 days now and the shipping forecast talks of wind speeds of 3 and 4 not 6 and 7. Even more marvellous than the sunsets is the night sky when it’s clear: the stars are huge and dazzling illuminating the mist draped round the mountains.

We have met many warm and welcoming local people whilst we’ve been here but as is apparent on Orkney, Scottish people are very interested in their roots, and newspapers reflect this. Another expert on DNA speaking here last week apparently had the unenviable task of telling a Scottish audience that we English are as Celtic as they are! We both have 80% Celtic DNA! Just think- Elloughton Newsagents could be stocking Celtic Harp Melodies and tartan souvenirs! We especially enjoyed meeting the Visser family from Rotterdam who fell in love with Harris’s unique character ten years ago and have recently settled here. They were kind enough to invite us to their home at Northton for tea and chocolate and to share their enthusiasm for island life. They have three holiday cottages to let, which Jan and son Bart have done up beautifully, and can be contacted at beachviewcottages@hotmail.com. Suzan is a portrait artist.

N: Sunday evening and Monday morning’s coastguard weather forecast were favourable for a two day paddle with a night on The Isle of Taransay. You may recall Taransay was featured on TV in 2000 with a program called Castaway, where a diverse group of people were put on the deserted island for a year to see how they would survive. Apparently the cast stayed many nights in the Harris Hotel in Tarbert! The remnants of the buildings and infra-structure are still in evidence, along with a discarded tractor on the beach and a broken down quad bike. There is also much evidence of the thriving community that was once there up to the last remaining family that left 20 years ago. The island is 1.6 miles across the Sound of Taransay from our beach side site to the closest point, but is exposed enough for us to need a good weather window. We crossed the water Monday afternoon setting off at about low tide, 3:45 pm, and as usual were met by the official welcome party of seals- or are they customs officers? We explored one of the back to back beaches at Uidh that nearly divide the island into two. There is a rather rundown bothy that offers some shelter and contains fuel, food that may have been there for years and some flares that are at least 20 years out of date! We then headed off to Paibeil for our night camp and found a beautiful spot on the edge of a sand dune over looking the bay late afternoon. The Deer on the hill watching our every move. Anyone who has sea paddled will know that with all your camping gear, food, water, sleeping bags and clothes stashed away in your boat they are very heavy so it was a struggle for the two of us to carry the boats up the beach, past the high tide line. We tied them to the abandoned tractor (just to be sure), then set up the tent, cooked and enjoyed tea of corned beef hash and then went for a walk and finally settled down for the night. When camping after a sea paddle though everything feels sticky and damp, the salt in the water is hydroscopic and absorbs water from the atmosphere so in the damp air never dries out.
High tide would be about 4:35 am!!
The night was very dark and quiet, the only sound being the distant wash of the wave on the beach, but when you stir at 1:30 in the morning the waves sound gigantic, and close, so we both got out and shone our head torches towards the sea to make sure the boats were ok, not being able to see anything we went back to bed. 4:00am, I just had to get up, the waves sounded like they were on the doorstep, shorts, boots and a tee shirt on I headed off to the boats with my head torch, sure enough the boats were safe, but you just have to make sure!
Tuesday came, a bit misty but pleasant so we walked across the island passing many lazy-beds to Loch an Duin, the largest loch on the island where there is a prehistoric dun or fort on an island which is approachable only by a stone causeway with a rattling stone to give warning of an intruder. On the way back we met a trapper who had been dropped on the island with his colleagues to catch wild Mink, they use traps in the streams, and are part of a programme to eradicate the Mink that are an unnatural pest. With a forecast of a stiffening breeze in the afternoon we set off back, but still got caught by an increasing tail wind, once again we surged and surf paddle home.
Hot showers, warm clothes and a good drying wind for our freshly rinsed off gear made a very pleasant end to the journey, we sat and read and over looked the sea into the evening.

YET MORE ON THE WEATHER:

Yesterday (Tuesday) the North-West was hit by the first autumnal gales of the year. All day we were pounded by a force nine gale gusting force ten. (Wasn’t England basking in hot sunshine?) By early afternoon, we’re proud to report, our tent was the only one still standing. Well done Vango Equinox! We’re posting footage of the wild waves on Clachtoll Beach.


We took refuge in the evening in Lochinver Village Hall where a Canadian folk group called tread gave a very lively performance with harp, fiddle, guitar and step dancing.

Out of 38 days on the trip so far, 10 have been heavy rain and high winds all day. There have been no sunny, warm, calm days. Guess that’s probably normal for Scotland in August, though we did hear it was the wettest on record in South-West Scotland. But the changing scenery goes on being full of delights: round here it’s a beautiful mix of rock, lochans, woodland and sea.



Climbed Stac Pollaidh today almost to its western summit, but a crag just before it, which is a Grade 3 scramble and which has to be reversed, marked our summit.

LAST DAY IN ORKNEY

When we sailed here I was a little surprised that a report on the artificial insemination of sheep was showing on the Hamnavoe’s plasma TV screen. It had a respectable number of viewers. But last night found us at a lecture on the DNA of North Ronaldsay sheep in Kirkwall’s Kirk Hall. Earlier in the day we had sat in a packed-out primary school hall at Finstown, listening to a lecture on Doggerland (where the North Sea is now) by archaeologist Caroline Wickham-Jones. In fact it’s all part of Orkney’s International Science Festival; another aspect of this unique place. We’ve been away a long time now and I worry about being seen at indoor events; when you’re camping you can always be recognised by the brown patches on your knees where you have got in and out of the tent. But Orcadians understand the effects of weather on daily life very well and no-one seemed to care. Archaeology shows how a tsunami once overwhelmed the islands. And because of a giant storm an inland loch became seawater. The Doggerland talk told about the world of archaeology under the North Sea which, in these times of rising sea levels, it’s urgent we in Britain do something about before it’s lost. The North Sea is a young sea (only a few thousand years old) and countries like the Netherlands and Denmark have excavated dwellings and boats at their side. We learned how the people who raised the standing stones probably shared our stress, watching sea levels rise dramatically in their lifetime. Were the stone circles and their human sacrifices an attempt to buy time with the gods? The DNA talk was equally fascinating. The North Ronaldsay sheep is a pure, ancient breed that lives off seaweed on the island’s rocky shores. Through tracing its origins, the origins of its owners, the Orkney people, can be assumed. These therefore lie in Russia. We had an Orkney High Tea in the community centre (not unlike Sunday tea in Yorkshire with mountains of home baking which it would be very impolite not to eat). Then Nigel and I returned to our tent and our hunter-gatherer lifestyle- no fixed abode and foragings from the local Co-op.
As I write this we are now camped on the machair at Clachtoll Beach campsite above Lochinver: severe gales imminent!

Sunday 6th Sept

On Friday we decided to treat ourselves to a sight-seeing flight to some of the smaller Islands of Orkney. Many years ago I built a flying scale model of a Britten Norman Islander (7 feet wingspan), and the Island air service uses an Islander G_BLDV, so it was especially interesting to fly in this type of aircraft.The flight from Kirkwall to Stronsay and Sanday and then back to Kirkwall took less than an hour to complete, including 3 take-offs and landings and a short stop for passenger changes. The plane carries only 8 passengers and two crew, so no in-flight entertainment! just wonderful views of the 70 islands


We flew at about 150 mph, and at an altitude of about 650 feet. Landings on the islands were made on very short runways, each with a single hut that housed the fire vehicle. Directly behind the pilot we were well placed to see all the instruments and controls, and each of us had an engine a few feet away. The service operates the shortest scheduled flight in the world from Westray to Papa Westray which is about two minutes. According to the pilot his average flight is about 7 minutes!! The fatigue spectrum would be dominated by take-offs, landings and taxiing. The pilot also said that the limiting factor for bad weather is the wind gusts on the ground slamming the rudder over.


Tomorrow we are catching the ferry and leaving the Orkneys, heading south west to Lochinver. We have had a great week here, it is a lovely place with a fascinating history, offering loads to do and see.

Thursday update

SO WHAT HAVE BEEN THE BEST AND WORST THINGS?

BEST
Kath: Scotland, camping, being outdoors all day, seeing lots of wildlife.
Nigel: Discovering how little you actually need, being part of the weather, freedom, new places.

WORST
Kath: Rough water paddling (I have been VERY scared). Wet days when you get back soaked to the skin and you only have a little damp, cold tent to go to.
Nigel: Clutter in the car. We’ve brought three times too much stuff.

NIGEL’S TRANGIA RECIPES:

TUNA BURGERS

Mix mashed potato or Smash with butter, a crumbled bread bun, 1 egg and a tin if tuna. Pat into chunky discs with floured hands. Shallow fry a few minutes each side till crispy. Serve with veg.

ANOTHER PADDLE?

Two fine days in a row? We couldn’t believe it, so went paddling round The Churchill Barriers. These are four causeways which link islands at the Eastern end of Scapa Flow, built mainly by Italian POWs in World War Two as anti-submarine barriers. In front of them are the blockships which were deliberately sunk as an added barrier. There’s one or two pics of them in photos.

THE NEXT BIT IS FOR ROCK-CLIMBERS…..
:
We went to Hoy and looked across at all 137m of the Old Man with jelly knees. We met three men who were going to do it. You have to abseil down high cliffs to get started, it’s generally about 5A and takes 6-7 hours. We’ve posted its photo to tempt you.

SCARY PHENOMENON!

Last night we went up to the stone circles of the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness at sunset. There were quite a few people there with cameras taking pictures of the alignment of the stones with the rising moon. We then witnessed a weird phenomenon: the alignment of sea kayaks on a car roof with the moon. You too can see this event posted in photos.

The Orkneys

The Orkneys seem much more Scandinavian than Scottish. Apparently Orcadians spoke Norn, a Scandinavian language, not Gaelic, until three centuries ago and now speak English with an accent that Nigel thinks sounds like Welsh. A local lady told us that they were as Scottish as they felt like being; they are Scottish when the national football team is winning for example. The climate is mild (they rarely have frosts, the same lady told us, and feel ill when temperatures are higher than seventy) and the land is fertile for farming.
We sailed to Stromness in Mainland Orkney on the MV Hamnavoe- an hour-and-a-half journey that takes you close to the sea stack, and star of television climbs, the Old Man of Hoy. Stromness is a picturesque town of stone-paved streets and grey houses with thick walls, sometimes built so close together and with gable ends to the street that you would think inhabitants could join hands from their windows. We are camped on the Point of Ness, just outside the town, where boats pass our tent on their way into the harbour. The Mainland curves round the relatively sheltered waters of Scapa Flow where the German fleet was scuttled in 1919 and where the warships of the Royal Navy were anchored in the first half of the twentieth century. Now it is oil tankers that lie along the horizon, on their way to the Flotta refinery.
History is visible everywhere on the island. Children here must grow up with cairns and stone circles as their adventure playgrounds. Headlines on Radio Orkney announce another new find from the Neolithic. Yesterday we visited Skara Brae, a 5000 year old Neolithic village, older than Stonehenge or the Pyramids. Here you can see how, judging from their homes and possessions, 5000 years ago people were pretty much like us. You can see their beds and their dressers, their dice and their bracelets. At twilight, we went to Maes Howe, a prehistoric chambered cairn. At the winter solstice the pink rays of the setting sun beam onto the orange sandstone of the back chamber. This event is now shown annually on webcam- and Nigel and I will be watching this December! 4000 years after it was built, a party of Vikings sheltered from a snowstorm inside the cairn and graffitied the walls with their runes. You can almost hear them speaking in their graffiti: “Thor and I bedded Helga” and “I am carving this high up” are amongst their legacy.
We are fascinated by the Orkneys and expect to be here a while.

Scapa Flow paddle.

The forecast yesterday for today’s weather promised to be better than it has been for a while and, for the first time this trip, sunshine woke us early enough to listen to the shipping forecast broadcast by the Shetland coastguard at 07:10. with a view to a sea paddle. “Wind 3-4 occasionally 5 later, sea state slight to moderate occasionally rough”. This is for the 12 miles inshore around Orkney. We have found that in the shelter of the land the conditions are usually better than broadcast so we decided to drive to Houton Head and paddle to Scapa Bay, some 10 miles to the east. The wind was from the south, so on shore, but no shelter, but as we unloaded the boats and made ready to launch the sea looked calm enough and there are several bays along the route which could potentially be used as get-outs. We launched just before 10:00 am and had a pleasant paddle to Swanbister bay where we stopped for a drink and a bite to eat. On the way we saw many seals, they were inquisitive and playful whilst keeping a safe distance from us. It was around about here that the wind and the sea started to pick up a bit, so we launched once more and headed off round the next peninsula (appropriately named “The Lash”!) this is where the sea got interesting!! We decided to pull into the next bay, Waulkmill bay, which offered a get out with a road nearby. Given hindsight maybe we should have ended the journey there. However we decided to press on round the next headland which marked the start of the final stretch to Scapa Bay, but offered no further realistic get-outs, the cliffs being high and sheer. This final part of the paddle was very challenging, the seas were building moderate to rough and the following/side wind was 4-5. each promontory that we had to round seemed to throw up bigger wave sets than the last, making the final 4 miles quite tense. It was a relief to finally see the beach at the distant end of Scapa bay – 1 mile away, this last mile taking for ever to complete. Finally at about half past one we surfed onto the beach, I (Nigel) jumped out of my kayak declaring “we’re alive”!!! this was a paddle we will remember but not one I would rush to do again.