The far north, heading for the Orkney Islands

We are in St. Clair’s Hotel, Thurso for the night. Up here in the North-east tip of Scotland we are at 58 degrees North, sharing the latitude with Southern Norway, Alaska, Russia and the Hudson Bay. The place names are Norse and many seem to end in –ster: Scrabster, Lybster, Rumster, Occumster. It didn’t seem safe to pitch a tent. We sat in the car on Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of the British mainland (not John O’ Groats), with the sea kayaks on the roof, feeling it rock from side to side. Water sprayed up through clefts in the cliff. On this high headland the upper windows of the lighthouse can be smashed by rocks flung from the powerful tides and waves of the Pentland Firth, where Atlantic Ocean and North Sea meet. It is a daunting place. It feels like a different country to the West with vast heather moors tilting down towards the North Sea, dotted with ruined crofts from the time of the Clearances. Everything seems on a giant scale: cliffs, waves and wide, empty sandy beaches. It is also very quiet; on Bank Holiday Saturday there was hardly any traffic on the A9. Ironically there was a discussion on the radio about the population explosion in Britain as we travelled. Anyway, after four weeks completely outdoors, coming in for a night seemed very strange. It’s not always comfortable living in a small tent but you are aware of every minute change in the temperature, what the wind’s doing and the state of the tide. Sunset is at half past eight here. Sometime in September it will change from having longer days than further south to shorter. We’re sailing to Stromness in Orkney tomorrow.

STOP PRESS!!!! CHANGE OF SCHEDULE

This weekend AUG 29/30 travel across Great Glen and up to John O’Groats
Wb AUG 31 Ferry to The Orkneys- camp near Stromness
Wb SEP 7 Travel round N. Scotland to Ullapool area base camp
Wb SEP 14 Ferry to Stornaway, travel through Outer Hebrides to Barra base
Wb SEP 21 Ferry to Skye- various base camps
Wb SEP 28 Start travelling back breaking journey for paddles in Forth area/ Farnes

These changes are due to us clarifying our ideas about where we want to go; we knew they might change as time went on and they may change again. We’d be delighted to have any of you to join us: it’s great being here. Take no notice of the weather forecasts!

OUR TOP 3 MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACES SO FAR:

(It has to be said we haven’t seen anywhere unattractive since crossing the border on August 2nd)


1. Lochranza Bay on Arran with mountain backdrop
2. Camus Darach - beach near Arisaig looking out to Eigg, Rum and Skye
3. Head of Glen Nevis- spectacular waterfalls and mountains

Wild camping on Loch Shiel

Sea Kayaking: The Heaven and the Hell.

K: We left the scenic grandeur and crowds of foreigners in Glen Nevis on Monday and travelled to Glenfinnan at the head of Loch Shiel. Even if you’ve never been to these places you’re almost sure to have seen them as they’ve been used in so many films and TV advertisements including Braveheart and Harry Potter. Glenfinnan is also famous as the place where clan chiefs rallied to Bonnie Prince Charlie’s cause in 1745, with disastrous consequences for the Highlanders. Loch Shiel is surrounded by beautiful and empty mountains. Looking at it on an OS map all you can see to either side are contour lines stretching into Moidart and Ardgour. Whilst paddling, we saw just a couple of hikers, a small group of canoeists and a lorry carrying felled trees on a rough track, all at a distance. However, these glens that now appear so wild in fact supported many people a couple of centuries ago, before the Clearances.

N: Our outgoing paddle, heading southwest down the Loch was interesting with mixed conditions, sometimes the sun glasses were called for and hoods or hats at other times. The temperature was warm enough but the wind constantly played tricks with us; first coming from behind and the head on. We were paddling down the south shore and the prevailing wind was westerly with some south in it, so as the wind funnelled down the glens between the mountains it swirled erratically on our side of the Loch. Total distance to our overnight camp was 12 miles with one stop for lunch, a look at a bothy and several inspections of the many tiny Islands.

K: Our wild camp site was idyllic. A tiny pebbly beach fringed with bracken, silver birch, mossy oaks and rowan. The water almost lapping our tent front door was clear and golden in the evening sunlight.

N: Despite the rain we made a fire in the evening before settling down to a quiet night’s sleep. The morning came and we were initially blessed with reasonable conditions, light showers and light winds, so we packed up the wet tent and loaded our kayaks. We carried on down the Loch to a place called St Finan’s Chapel which is on a small island some 14 miles from our starting place. The chapel itself is derelict but a rusty bell still stands on a stone altar. It was at this point that the rain started to get heavier and the wind picked up considerably. We decided to paddle back on the north shore where we had the wind predominantly from behind and to our right. The rain lashed down on us for most of the journey back, and wind whipped the surface of the water into a confused frenzy. White caps on top of rolling waves surged first from behind and then side on to us, the conditions were deteriorating rapidly and each promontory that we had to paddle round presented rougher and rougher water. At one point we considered getting out and snuggling up in a survival shelter, but as we had about 7 miles to go and probably 7 miles to the nearest road (and the prospect of the worsening weather) we decided to press on. We were soaked, rain beating on the backs of our heads ran down the neck of our "dry cags” and down our backs and into our trousers, when stopped we got cold very quickly, so heads down we paddled hard for the next 5 miles, surfing and being pushed along most of the way. Typically as we got closer to our destination the conditions improved and the sun nearly came out!! A great paddle but very hard work.

K: To thank Glenfinnan House Hotel for allowing us to launch from their grounds, and to stave off hypothermia, we ate a meal there after our trip. Walking into a hall with a wide hearth full of blazing logs couldn’t have been a more welcome sight. All the food is locally produced and fresh cooked, and was absolutely delicious. Afterwards, we journeyed on to the Back of Keppoch campsite at Arisaig (Local Hero country). Here, Rum, Eigg and Skye stand on the horizon as near neighbours, the sand is white and the clear sea turquoise. Once again we found ourselves listening to the soothing sound of waves splashing down on the beach and the pebbles rattling behind them as we went to sleep. But we woke this morning to another very wet day. The hardest thing is drying out gear (camping gear, wild camping gear and kayaking gear). Putting on the previous day’s wet clothes to keep your dry set dry is maybe sensible but not at all nice and I really feel for Brian Wilson in his book “Blazing Paddles” (lent to us by Mick) when he had to do it every day for four months whilst sea kayaking right round Scotland in a wet summer. We’ve now camped for 25 days and not a single totally dry one. We can often be heard cursing, haggling with and pleading favours of the weather gods. A visit to the sauna and jacuzzi at Mallaig Swimming Pool for £1.50 has put us to rights again however.

Fort William

Thanks for all your contributions… we do appreciate and enjoy them. For the last three days we have had some company: Chris, Sarah and Sarah’s boyfriend Mike joined us in Glen Nevis. Chris drove the three of them up. Nigel created a useful meals shelter for us all with a tarp tied to two silver birches and walking poles.
Our last paddle was round the coast of Seil on Wednesday. It was like paddling through the Mists of the Dawn of Time: silent, heavy rain; eerie shapes of mountains looming through the mist and herons flapping slowly or making dreadful screechings in the trees. We set off and returned to the tiny eighteenth century Bridge Over the Atlantic.
Note to Sea Kayakers: Oban is a really good centre for this with so many islands around it. There is an excellent sea kayak store: Sea Kayak Oban.com. which runs courses too.
Our plans for the week ahead include 2 dayers: Loch Shiel from Glenfinnan and Loch Nevis from Mallaig.
Kathy

Me, Mike and Chris came up to see dad and Kath on Thursday and left on Sunday. We made really good time getting up here in Chris’s car; it only took just over eight hours to get up to Fort William from South Cave with about four or five stops along the way. Whilst driving we had some really heavy rain, and nearly had to pull over because the window wipers couldn’t move the water off the window fast enough. Thursday night and for most of Friday, it rained; basically none stop. Now though, on Saturday night I’m sat outside with dad’s tiny laptop without needing waterproofs because the weather’s that good. We went up Ben Nevis today. The weather forecast said that we would have light showers and 55mph winds, but it only rained once for less than an hour and the winds definitely weren’t as strong as 55mph. It was a really good day; first time up Ben Nevis for all of us apart from Kath. We talked to lots of people along the way, as we passed them and as they passed us. We kept bumping into some Irish people in particular who asked how Mike was doing with his asthma every time we saw them. Me and Mike were the last ones to get back to the camp site out of all of us (due to injuries and knackered-ness) but we were still within our am of doing it in 8 hours (just). Chris was first back, completing it in 6 hours; Dad and Kath were next back getting back after about 7 and a half hours. I’m getting kicked off here now. bye bye.
Sairah x


Mike here and frozen. Time spent in Scotland with Nigel, Kath, Chris and Sairah, has been a really brill experience, not been camping-camping (music festival don’t count) before and I have enjoy every minute of it. On Friday went to Mull on a ferry had a pint in pub, got wet seen as it only rains in Scotland. Today (Saturday) we all went up Ben Nevis, a hard treck for me not been a out door person, but got to the top and then on the way down got several injuries nothing serious, Me and Sairah were last, completing the treck in 8 hours which was our aim (so not to bad). Finishing now still cold bye bye.
Mike

Still in Oban

Things that go bump in the night
Animals, wild and tame, don’t seem to be able to see our tent in the dark so we have been regularly woken up by deer and sheep walking past our tent with every one of their four legs tripping over all three guy lines. Inside it feels like an earthquake. The other night it was the neighbouring campers’ Alaskan something dog which looks like a husky or a wolf. We’d met it earlier and it was friendly. However, at 2.30 am our tent started shuddering alarmingly so Nigel bravely looked out. “Oh, it’s next door’s dog but its eyes are bright green and it’s coming straight for me,” he said and dived back in. Apparently, from us the dog went on to the ladies’ loos where it came face-to-face with a woman and her little dog. She ran off in terror to the warden and the husky-type dog was placed under arrest until morning.

We are being spoilt by magnificent scenery. We are not being spoilt by weather. We listen religiously to the shipping forecast at 8.10 each morning and have got used to its very specific use of language. In particular, we hear a lot of “an area of low pressure over north-west Scotland will head off towards Norway before losing its identity”. It makes you feel positively sorry for it! However, we grabbed a glorious day yesterday to paddle out from Port Appin round Shuna Island and North Lismore then back to Castle Stalker (8 miles). This is where Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Kidnapped” is set. We saw seals and a mink. Apparently you tell the difference between common and grey seals by the way common seals lie on rocks with their heads and tails in the air like bananas; grey seals have Roman noses. Mink are responsible for making water voles become almost extinct.



Nigel’s camping tips:
A good way to start the day is with a wholesome and filling breakfast: best so far is “French toast” or eggy bread and fruit. This is 2 slices of white sliced bread, buttered lightly and filled with fresh fruit; raspberries or blueberries work really well. The fruit sandwich is then compressed and soaked in egg with a little milk. The whole thing is then lightly fried on the Trangia until golden brown and then eaten with maple syrup … delicious.

Oban

The weather since last writing our blog has been atrocious. We spent our second day on Gigha tent-bound, the only camping survivors. We did venture out for an hour or two to the Gigha hotel at lunchtime. Other refugees from the weather were in there, all of us making large puddles on the floor. If you want to live on Gigha, as in many places in Scotland, you need to be able to produce a lot of children in order to keep the community alive. There are a healthy 20 children on Gigha at the moment but no babies. The lady in the gift shop reckoned it was time for another drunken ceilidh.

Hats off to CalMac ferries who seem to manage to reach Scottish islands on time however wild the weather. Apparently the thing that stops the Gigha ferry isn’t storms or fog but a build-up of seaweed at Tayinloan.

For thirty hours our tent received a lashing of non-stop heavy rain without letting a drop in. It’s a Vango Equinox and we’re really pleased with it. However, everything starts to feel damp after a while so we were relieved to escape on the early ferry yesterday morning naively hoping for better weather in Oban. When we got here and found the weather just as bad, even Nigel- who rarely moans- expressed some mild grumblings. Oh, he’s got a cold too and now the car won’t start because it needs a new battery! (the duff alternator has wrecked the battery).

Anyway, we’re trying to sell the benefits of wet days in small tents to ourselves: no midges; no sunburn; you get lots of reading done; you get to lie down a lot…….do I sound convincing?? Kathy.

We are building up a picture of what gear is working well for us and what doesn’t.

Best buys:-
Drylite towels from Winfields – much better than traditional towels that never dry out.
Vango Equinox tent – excellent layout, very dry and warm – only issue so far is the zips tend to snag if not careful.
Holeysole shoes (cheap version of Crocks) from Millets – excellent for campsite use, very comfortable and light – great colours.
Vango double thermorest and Outwell double sleeping bag – good combination giving a very warm and comfortable nights sleep.
Trangia, Kathy’s 33 year old Trangia and my small version – we are eating very well cooking all our own meals.

What we got wrong:-
Too many clothes over ¾ have not been touched and are just taking up space.
Chris Brasher walking socks – comfortable but take forever to dry out.

Stuff we could do with:-
Small chairs with backs – like the Vango thermorest chair – for inside the tent.
An oven for baking!!! – Not had the weather yet to try building a stone oven on the beach.

Nigel

Gigha Thursday.

On the journey from Arran to Gigha we crossed Kintyre. At first it seemed as if there wasn’t anyone actually in Kintyre, but then we called in at Carradale Caravan Site and found there were people there enjoying the well-kept secret of a large, pretty and peaceful site right next to a long, sandy, sheltered beach. The site was owned until recently by ex-HDCC members Ruth and Tom Watson. On the other side of Kintyre, there is another well-kept secret. Again, this is a long, sandy beach (Westport beach) onto which Atlantic breakers roll which have made it through the gap between Ireland and Islay all the way across from America. There were plenty of surfers waiting for the right wave.

Gigha is owned by the islanders. They’re very proud of it and the way they’re making island life work in the 21st century (with wind turbines for example). We’re camping close to the Boathouse Café, not far from the CalMac jetty. We get woken by the first ferry of the day talking: “Will passengers please…..” and the island seems to empty when the last ferry leaves at half past six in the evening, especially so tonight as there are gales forecast.

Today has been one of those beautiful Scottish grey days: silver grey sky and sea; dark grey islands. The sea has been calm and the air mild. We paddled round the island (15 miles) and were lucky enough to have a sea otter swim close to us. We could see the coast of Northern Ireland not looking far away at all.
Kathy,

Last night we planned our circumnavigation of Gigha to make the most of the tidal streams, although they are not really significant it is best to go with the flow rather than against it, so I armed myself with tidal stream atlas and Dover tide tables, pen and paper and spent an hour or so working out which way round the Island to paddle. Anti-clockwise would give us the best advantage, so this morning – just to be sure – I asked a local which way the tide would be going as it ebbed (high tide 07:28) and was reassured as the sailor looking type agreed with his conclusion of north to start with. Although the flow was generally north to start with it soon switched to southerly, which was against us until the northern end, then it helped us down the western side of the Island. As we rounded the southern tip of the Island the tidal stream was approaching slack so the last leg back to Ardminish Bay was easy. 15 miles in 4 hours 40 min moving time with an hour stopped on two lovely beaches. A good days paddling.
Nigel

Moving on

Some info:

Scotland has 790 islands (130 inhabited).
It has 7000 miles of coastline.
In the 11th century the Scottish king, Malcolm Canmore, agreed that the King of Norway, Magnus Barefoot, could keep any island he circumnavigated

We leave Arran tomorrow morning (Wed) with just one circumnavigated: Holy Island (but that belongs to Tibetan Buddhists). It’s been great- on the water and on the hills. It’s a beautiful island, and with red deer regularly passing the tent and eagles soaring overhead, Lochranza makes wildlife-watching easy. We’ll be back!!!

We’re heading out to Gigha: ferry to Claonaig, drive over Kintyre then ferry from Tayinloan to Gigha, six miles long and one across.

By Nigel and Kathryn Trenchfoot (it’s raining buckets today).

A week into our adventure

We have now been on Arran for just over a week and are having a wonderful time. The speed limit on the island is 30 mph but you struggle to achieve it on the rough roads making the 14 miles to Brodick a long drive. Bus drivers meeting from opposite directions stop to chat. It all makes the pace of life delightfully slow.

On Saturday morning I played at being a fireman!!! A gas stove caught fire in a neighbouring tent and a lady’s attempt to put it out by throwing a towel over it didn’t work. The gas bottle hadn’t been connected properly and the escaping gas had caught fire, a quick smother of the flames and turning the gas off did the trick. The husband was very grateful and was able to repay me ……. See car problems later!!!

Saturday 8th we paddled from a place called Sannox to Lochranza bay, about 9 miles in good sea conditions with intermittent rain and a following wind. The trip was made easier by a kind offer from a couple from Edinburgh (David and Lin) who, after dropping the boats and Kathy off at Sannox and bringing the car back to Lochranza), ran me back to Sannox, cutting out a delay and a bus journey, thanks David and Lin.

Saturday evening the car failed to start … flat battery … various warning lights had been coming on so not entirely unexpected, so battery on charge over night. Sunday car started once .. then had to be jumped by our friend with the fire damaged stove, debt repaid in full.

Sunday was a mountain day, Kathy planned a ridge mountain route up Glen Sannox, climbing to The Saddle then taking in Cir Mhor 799m – a steep sharp summit; Caisteal Abhail 834m scattered with granite tors; Ceum na Caillich (the Witch’s Step) and Suidhe Fheargas 634m. As the car wasn’t starting without assistance from being jumped by another car we knew we had to be down by 7.30pm to make the last bus or flag a motorist to stop. Because the ridge is very scrambly indeed (overall grade 2) and the descent steep and rough, the day turned into quite an epic and we missed the bus- but luckily found a motorist. As we reached the Witch’s Step mist and rain swirled malevolently in and out of the deep notch. At both sides there is a rock spire- one a grade 3 scramble, the other a technical rock climb. We negotiated the first using a rope but as a man we’d passed earlier had said the second involved leaping for the top block we edged round the side instead. The adrenaline was certainly flowing most of the day.

We expect to be in Oban for the week from 16th to 23rd August, and Chris and Sarah are coming to join us. If anyone would like to come up for a couple of days they could share the driving and reduce petrol costs, contact us or Chris for arrangements nearer the time.

Thanks to all who have been contacting us by e-mail, texts and the Blog, it is really nice to hear from you all. The internet connection via my mobile dongle is proving variable, as expected. Uploading text is not too problematic but putting pictures on the blog is not working very well at all, maybe when we get a really strong signal, and have time to play I will sort the pictures out, but until then I’m afraid it’s text only.

Hope you are having as much fun as we are, Nigel and Kathy.

Thursday

Thursday 6th August
Today managed our first reasonable paddle, still a stiff breeze but a good sea state. We paddled round Holy Island from Lamlash bay, about 7 ½ miles. Initially we paddled into a stiff breeze, up the West side of the Island which is very rugged with steep cliffs to the sea. Rounding the North end was interesting with the wind side on which put Kathy a little out of her comfort zone. The downwind leg on the east of the Island was very quick with the wind and waves constantly pushing from behind. We stopped on a pebble beach for a snack, followed by a visit to the little café run by Buddhist Monks for tea/coffee. The leg back to the car was a sort of down wind ferry glide to compensate for the wind and tide, taking a couple of corrections to land back where we had set off from.

Wildlife at Lochranza:
At low tide the bay around the castle empties of sea water and fills with creatures feeding: red deer, sheep, herons, curlews, gulls and oyster-catchers. We’ve also seen golden eagles, red squirrels and seals here.
Apparently the Queen spent the first night of her honeymoon on the royal yacht in Lochranza Bay.
The raised beaches around the coast are colourful with wildflowers. We need Kath’s Mum or Ron P to identify them all but they include meadowsweet, rosebay willow herb, loosestrife, thrift, hawkweed, sea lavender and ragwort.

Tuesday

We’ve cast away the chains of home and work now and are adjusting to a completely out-of-doors lifestyle……for two or three months anyway. We’re living in a two-person tent with all our belongings in the car. Nigel somehow packed what looked like a houseful of stuff into the car quite neatly. It will have to be done over and over again.
We’re based at the Lochranza campsite this week, at the northern tip of Arran. In case you are wondering about the midges, they were a bit troublesome on the first night but it’s been far too wet, wild and windy since then to experience any. It certainly has been too wild for sea kayaking, although we seized a couple of hours of sunshine to practise in the bay near the castle yesterday. There are lots of seals and lots of red deer around and they don’t seem to be remotely perturbed by human presence. In fact, one red deer stared straight in through the clear plastic panel of our tent before giving our guy line a sharp tweak.
Today we climbed Goat Fell (2,866’) and North Goat Fell in thick, wet mist with water pouring down the hillsides around us. The tops of the Arran hills are exposed and narrow. The best bit for us was scrambling between the black Jenga-like blocks from one summit to the other. We saw absolutely no-one else on either peak.
We’re priding ourselves on being inventive with one-pot meals in a Trangia. Today it was porridge and Scottish raspberries for breakfast and egg scrambled with mushrooms, taties, broccoli and cheese for tea. We have slept like logs.
It’s really good to have the luxury of time. In one or two week holidays it has always felt important to fill each minute but here it feels like we can really please ourselves in what we do or don’t do.

Day one

We are here! Got to Ardrossan early so just caught the 13:15 ferry to Brodick. Drove to Lochranza and have set up the tent. Internet conection works ... but slow. I will try loading some pictures later.

The night before we go

Nigel began counting down to 2nd August 2009 about 311 days ago….. and now it’s here! We set out on a sea of good wishes. Our much-appreciated and useful leaving gifts from work (a camera and a beautiful Liberty’s journal from Kath’s South Hunsley colleagues and an expedition watch from BAE Systems workmates to Nigel) are going to be busy. We look forward to having time to explore the character of some of Scotland’s many islands; to learning more about weather, tides and wildlife, and to challenging ourselves in various ways. How easy will it be, for example, to spend maybe ten weeks in a small tent on basic campsites this wet summer? (Kath: I will miss hot baths. Nigel: I will miss our over heated house !) Our short Scottish trip last year taught us lots of useful lessons: never underestimating the changeability of the winds round North-West Scotland; always carrying more than enough food in the kayaks in case of getting stranded on an island for a while, and avoiding Great Skuas at all costs are just some of them. So here we are, all packed and raring to go before the evenings get darker any earlier. We hope that if it’s as wet in Scotland as it has been here today that it will also be as windless for some break-me-in- again-gently sea kayaking. Many of you are also doing exciting things in the next few weeks and we’ll really look forward to exchanging stories later in the year but please give us some sneak previews on here for now! Take care! Have fun!

Only 5 days to go

Plans are now being finalised, packing up is under way and good-byes being said

Our agenda

This site is still under construction

Nigel and Kathy’s plans for 10 week tour of Scottish Islands and Highlands

Please be aware that these are rough outline plans and may change due to weather or ferry sailings. After August, timings may well be different.

We aim to use the car only to move ourselves from base to base. Once at a base we will kayak and walk. We want to complete some challenging routes on the mountains and sea.

We will use Cal-Mac ferries to link the islands.

We will live simply using basic campsites or wild camping as much as possible, with occasional “pit-stops” to stock up and get clean.

Sunday August 2^nd

Arran

Ferry from Ardrossan at 3.15 pm. 6 hour journey to ferry. Lochranza campsite base 01770 830273

Walking/ scrambling and kayaking

Sunday August 9^th

Gigha Islay Colonsay

Ferry from Lochranza to Claonaig. Drive to Tayinloan on Kintyre. Paddle round Gigha (there is a ferry). Continue to Oban.

Sunday August !6^th

Oban area PIT STOP MAINLAND

Paddles to Lismore, Seil. Easdale, Luing, etc + inland lochs

Sunday August 23^rd

Barra in the Outer Hebrides

Ferry from Oban. Kayaking. Return Lochmaddy/ North Uist to Skye.

Sunday August 31^st

Skye

Walking/ scrambling. Paddles- Loch Coruisk/ Raasay/ Isleornsay

Sunday September 6^th

Mallaig area PIT STOP MAINLAND

Knoydart/ inland lochs: Morar, Shiel, Mullardoch/ Rhum/ Arisaig

Sunday September 13^th

Torridon/ Ullapool area

Kayaking/ walking: Suilven, Stac Pollaidh

Driving North to Thurso.

Sunday September 13^th

Orkneys

Sunday September 26^th

Shetlands- finishing at Northern tip Muckle Flugga

October 4^th

Aviemore/ Loch Ericht/ Fife/ Edinburgh/ Farne islands

Return: mid-Oct

This site will keep you informed about our progress as we tour round Scotland, we hope to be able to add news and pictures of our journey.