SusExp 2009: Epilogue

I'm currently writing a kind of epilogue with some reflections on trip and what I've learned. Please come back at the end of the week and this will be done.

In the meantime, if you're reading about the Skye rip, I'd suggest starting from Day -1, tempting as it is to read about the last day immediately below.

Thanks for the interest!

SusExp 2009 Day 11: Staffin to Portree (29km)

I’m sitting in my flat starting the well interrupted writing of the expedition blog, starting with the last day of the trip as it’s what I remember best and hopefully it will set the standard for the rest of the writing. I want to make this a good write up, not just about the sustainable expeditions side of it, but also a more holistic perspective looking at expedition life and the dynamic of human relationships.

So, the alarm went off at 8.30am, it was a beautiful sunny morning, the best morning light yet. I unset the tent under a cloud of midges then went for a walk along the shore for one of my final roll-ups – the end of the expedition was supposed to tie in with stopping smoking – and a poo with a view. Looking across to Raasay, Rona, Applecross and Torridon, I enjoyed both! Poo is always a bit taboo, so I’ll bring it up. You could have an in depth discussion about what to do with poo and lots of organisation have their own best practice. I would/do follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code recommendations for human waste:

“If you need to urinate, do so at least 30m from open water or rivers and streams. If you need to defecate, do so as far away as possible from buildings, from open water or rivers and streams, and from any farm animals. Bury faeces in a shallow hole and replace the turf.”

So I woke Sam up from his coastal sleep in the bivvy bag at 9.15am – we were trying to be away by 11am, so it would yet again be a push to get away on time.

As usual, things didn’t happen as fast as I would have liked, but nevertheless, they happened. Sam kept the fire going through the night with some wood he’d prepared before, but it was a warm night and he said he got too warm! The fire was still going, when we started making breakfast, but it was near the end of the expedition and neither I or Sam had the patience to cook on a fire. So Sam had his uncooked porridge oats with powdered milk and water, and I had scrambled egg with salad (eggs and salad from Isle of Skye Fresh Produce Company) with Stornoway black pudding.

We got on the water at 11.45am – not too bad I guess, but it was now a race to be in time for a meeting with the West Highland Free Press for arrival photographs. The water was flat and the visibility slightly hazy which made it an atmospheric paddle.

Setting off south along the coast we paddled down the steep cliff coast with enjoying the interesting geology and the flat water.

Had lunch of the usual oatcakes with cheese, and also indulged with some popcorn that Sam had brought, plus a wee bit more Skye Fudge! Carrying on along the coast the Old Man of Storr came in and out of view with the intermittent cloud.

We could see Holm island in the distance, a nice comfort, knowing it was under 10km from there or Portree. Sam tried a bit of fishing where the fish were rising – sand eels maybe being chased by something, or breeding? – but no joy.

Onwards we paddled, excited and fuelled by the fact it was only a matter of hours now until we were finished.

We rounded the blind corner and Camas Ban came into sight (only this time there was a huge cruise ship in the bay). The ravens were characteristically soaring at the top of the ridge in a haunting way

Further round Portree harbour, the yachts, the lifeboat, the colourful houses came into view.

And a few minutes later we hand landed – we had done it!!

A quick hug and congratulations for each other then Willy Urquhart, the West Highland Free Press photographer asked us to get back in our boats and paddle in and out a few more times!! After this brief photo shoot and a quick chat, we pulled our boats up, opened a few beers from Isle of Skye Brewery, and got some fish and chips.

After emptying the boats and packing the car we set off to find a campsite up north close to White Wave Outdoor Centre to drop the boat off. We wanted some time to look at the maps and mull over what we’d just done so we popped into the quaint Flodigarry Country House Hotel just north of Staffin, a funny place with staff in kilts, playing Runrig – they served nice coffee, so it was all good! We drove on and found a place to camp at the side of the road on one of the numerous grassy patches at the side of the road. High from coffee, we chatted and laughed about for a few hours about the previous weeks happenings, then enjoyed a good night’s sleep.

Food diary:

• Breakfast: scrambled egg with Stornoway black pudding and parsley (Skye Fresh Produce Company);
• Lunch: popcorn; malt loaf; oatcakes with cheese; Skye Fudge.
• Snacks: Skye Fudge;
• Dinner: Fish and Chips plus a bottle of beer from Skye Brewery.
• Coffee in the Flodigarry Country House Hotel with funny staff all wearing kilts, pretty posh but nice coffee.

SusExp 2009 Day 10: Ard Mor to Staffin including Waternish Point and Rubha Hunish (44km)

Having gone to bed early the night before, we woke up early and alert, ready (hopefully) for what would be our longest single day paddle (if you don’t count the night paddle which went on till 2am). After a breakfast of uncooked porridge oats with water and powdered milk, we were ready to leave just before 9am as planned. I checked in to let the coastguard know our plan for the day and agreed to check in at the end of the day also.

Then our friendly landowner, Jeanette, who with her husband owns the Ard Mor peninsula and rear highland cows, came over to offer us some the her world renowned rock cakes! A very welcome gift, still warm from the oven – thanks Jeanette! We were going to ask for water anyway, so we got in our boats, paddled a few hundred metres, then got out below her house. After filling our recycled plastic bottles we were offered a cup of tea which we/I couldn’t say no to, despite our time limited day, the idea of sitting at a table with a mug, having a chat was too tempting. We sat and chatted, both probably thankful of someone else’s conversation other than our own. Jeanette's younger labrador was keen for a swim, and followed me out a bit, but gave up after 5ish meters, thought wiser, and turned around.

An hour later, we were on the water, heading north up to Waternish Point. It was a misty day at times, with the usual ‘rain or showers’ forecast from Stornoway Coastguard. We approached and rounded the point in good time, fuelled by Skye Fudge.

Found a nice toilet stop just round the point at (eroded) jetty next to the lighthouse. Learning point: having to stop on dry land to do a pee was an ongoing frustration – I’m changing my kit to either shorts and thermals or wetsuit trousers so I can pee in a bottle and mitigate the need for any landing at all.

As we set off again I caught a glimpse of something in the water a few kilometres off the coast. At first I thought it was a basking shark but it was too tall. Then I thought it was a dinghy, but it disappeared and reappeared a few minutes later. I couldn’t believe it, it must be an Orca! I shouted to Sam to let him know, a few explicit lyrics later, we headed off in the direction of the fins. I think there were two or three. Sadly no photos of this, as breaches were short and infrequent and far away. Sam was keen to chase, I was keen to get on, conscious we had a long day ahead. We paddled after them for a while, watching the fins pop up, unfortunately getting further and further away, then decided to turn around. Shortly after turning around we turned around we saw some kind of dolphin and chased that for a bit, but it and maybe a few others only surfaced occasionally then they were gone. By this time, the south going tide ever increasing, I was keen to head off on the right direction. So we set a bearing for Rubha Hunish (the mist was causing the point to disappear regularly), and went on our way.

A few hours later, which felt like a few more, we got to a group of skerries and decided to have lunch on the easiest to land – An Dudh Sgeir – a welcome break after the 15km open crossing.

After lunch we carried out, now a good step closer to our final destination. Spotted a few puffins chilling out on the water.

Coming round Rubha Hunish felt like a milestone, being the last of the four corners, the most northerly, having already covered the other most extreme points in each direction, we were now on the home straight! It felt right to have a rest. We sat for an unknown time. Listening to the wind and the waves. Taking in the view, north to Stornoway and the Shiant Isles, west to North Uist, Berneray and Harris, south to our island, and east to Torridon. For the first time, I could taste success on the tip of my tongue.

We carried on, south down the coast, Staffin Island in the distance, ever nearing.

The wind today had been perfect for our cause, west or south west 4 or 5 veering northerly 3, which after veering, took us nicely down the coast. With the wind, we again made good time and arrived with enough light to get dinner cooking on the stove and find firewood. Also checked in with the coastguard to let them know we were safe. Being the last night of camping on the expedition, we put the wind up radio on, listened to a bit of Scottish Jazz that happened to be on Radio Scotland, had a wee dance, and enjoyed a Talisker or two.

After a relaxing evening, Sam decided to sleep on the shore next to the fire, and I decided I was too tired to risk an uncomfy night, so slept in the tent.

Food diary:

• Breakfast: uncooked oats with water and powdered milk; cuppa tea from Jeanette on Ard Mor;
• Snacks: Skye Fudge;
• Lunch: oatcakes with cheese, butter and Barra Bramble jam;
• Dinner: Potato (Skye Food group), carrot and onion, bean and parsley stew, cheese. With stir fried beans, onion, garlic.

SusExp 2009 Day 9: Loch Pooltiel to Ard Mor including Dunvegan Head (14km)

Woke up this morning to the sound of heavy rain, making it so much harder to get out of the tent. I waited for a calm period then decided to get up, thinking the weather might have cleared. Popping my head out, I saw two clouds, one of midges, and one blanket cloud across the sky. The only thing that cleared were my hopes of the weather getting better. Ah, but the shed…I went to have a look, and the door was open! Great – a roof over our heads to cook breakfast.

Carole from Skye Fudge gave us some bacon (and eggs) so we had a nice big omelette with bacon and parsley (and some red onion Sam had bought).

The breakfast warmed us up nicely, so we got moving soon after, and managed to get on the water at 1pm. It was a wee bit misty, making it an atmospheric paddle.

We only had a short day ahead of us, so there was no huge rush, although we needed to meet the food link van in Stein at 6pm. The wind was behind us because it was being buffeted down the coast, making the first leg easy. Also, the Skye Fudge was great for a quick sugar rush to get us through low times.

We approached the headland (Dunvegan Head) and thankfully the wind was still blowing in the direction we needed. We were making pretty good time and decided to just carry on without a break. Taking a compass bearing for Ard Mor where we were planning on camping for the night, we headed for the small peninsula, which disappeared and reappeared from the behind the cloud pretty regularly. Looking back, we saw the highest point on Dunvegan Head, which we couldn't see when we left.

Compasses are great – it’d already helped us through the August weather once without getting lost and I’m sure it’d help again.

More or less with the swell, we enjoyed surfing most of the way there, and averaged a satisfying 7.5kph. We rounded the south point of Ard Mor and came into the shelter of the bay. I have to admit, we’d heard a rumour of possibly unfriendly landowners, so we were a bit anxious. However, Sam being English and me being Scottish, I was more confident that we could talk our way out of any problems. The house looked a bit deserted and we weren’t sure if anyone would be around, but then say washing blowing outside.

So we decided to land and set up camp. As we took the stuff up we saw someone walking over. I said I’d do the talking, but wasn’t sure what to expect. The woman came closer and I went over to say hello. She asked if we were planning on camping. First impressions count so I was polite and courteous: ‘yes, if that’s ok?’ ‘Yea, that’s fine’ was the reply or words to that effect – she had just come to warn us about the inquisitive cows and advised us to camp in the area enclosed by stone walls – great! Far from anything we had expected, Jeanette was a friendly lady who was very welcoming.

Time was getting on and I needed to get to Stein, so I got my walking boots on, left Sam to himself and to make dinner, and set off south along the road. Taking the opportunity to make a few calls, I spoke to a few people including family, friends, Richard who drives the Local Food Link Van, and the West Highland Free Press, who I was hopefully going to get some press coverage from. Richard told me he wouldn’t be at the Stein Inn till 7.30, so I could relax my pace and possibly even have time for a pint. As I walked a car stopped, it was Jeanette and her husband and friends on their way to see Ali Bain and Phil Cunningham in Portree, and they gave me a lift to just near the Stein Inn. Fantastic, maybe time for two pints!

So I arrived in the busy pub (where I was meeting the Local Food Link van) and ordered a coffee. In addition, Sam had given me a shopping list of butter and oats – not your average order, but the bar maid sold me some, so we could have breakfast and butter our oatcakes for the rest of the journey.

Got chatting to the people at the bar…Gordon and ‘Eilean’, or it could be Ailean. Gordon offered me a pint: ‘anyone that’s paddled that far round Skye deserves a pint’. I couldn’t agree more, but it hadn’t been too hard so far. Still, I couldn’t say no. The pub was a busy social hive and I enjoyed being surrounded by people and talking and enjoyed the conversation with Gordon and Eilean, who run the dive centre. Shortly after the second pint which Richard arrived with our food delivery…potatoes from Skye Fresh Produce Company, not as much as I was expecting, but no less than we needed to survive, so I was content. I got one last cup of coffee, and then got a lift with Richard who was heading in my direction.

We said our goodbyes, and also Richard informed me he had hens and would be happy to put some eggs on the van on Friday. So I made my way back along to the tent, looking forward to whatever dinner Sam had cooked up. One potatoey, carroty, oniony soup later, I was full and satisfied and keen for bed. Not being a long day, we looked at maps and chatted for a few hours. I hadn’t really checked the distance of the trip I had planned for the next day, but I wanted to get to Staffin – after checking maps we found it would be 44km if our supporting water wasn’t moving (but we would be against the tide at times, so who knows how far we would actually paddle).

I passed out, nervous about the scale of the open crossing we had planned for tomorrow. Although we weren’t too far off the coast, there’s something comforting about going close to the coast, like a handrail. I was sure it would be fine, but was just keen to get the next leg underway.

Food diary:

• Breakfast: onion and bacon omelette (Skye Fresh Produce Company eggs);
• Snacks: Skye Fudge Tablet (including Talisker flavour)
• Dinner: Sam’s potato (Skye Fresh Produce Company) and Barra carrot stew, with onion;
• Pudding: malt loaf with butter.

SusExp 2009 Day 8: Loch Bracadale to Loch Pooltiel including Neist Point (33km)

This morning was going to be the usual race to get things done as quickly as possible so that we got on the water soon. I woke up around 7ish and started on the list of things to do, the main one being picking up some food from Roger and Fiona Whiddon, who own and help to run the Skye Fresh Produce Company, along with a number of others. After breakfast, typing up some of the blog on Jim and Carole’s computer, and a few wee chats here and there, Jim kindly gave me a lift to see Roger Whiddon while he was on his way to do some work. He wasn’t around to start with (I was 2 day early after all, so wasn’t expecting him to be expecting me), so I took a wee wonder around his poly-tunnels.

Wow, they were huge. I hadn’t expected anything on this scale, but there were four (I think) massive poly-tunnels. I wondered around then went up to the house to look for him. Before I could get up his drive, he arrived in the car, we said our hellos (I think he was slightly shocked to see me), he dealt with a few things that needed done, and showed me round.

I also met Fiona, who went looking for some eggs from their eggs. There weren’t many because they tend to lay in the afternoon, but we managed to get four, which I was very grateful off.

The professionalism of their operation was quite impressive, and I was glad to have seen it. Jim Inglis arrived to give me a lift back, returning from finishing his work (something to do with training for the construction industry). I left with eggs, parsley and a nice salad for the day, and Roger agreed to put some more stuff on the Local Food Link Van which we would get a drop off from the next day.

So arriving back at Carole and Jim’s I found Sam had cleaned the kitchen and dishes, which was grand. After the usual arrangement of trying to sort ourselves out, we were ready to leave by lunch time, oh apart from one last thing that we couldn’t forget – Skye Fudge!! The moment I’d been looking forward too. Following a quick chat with Carole, we were six packets of Skye Fudge up – great. I was sure that these packets of tasty sugar would get us through the hardest of times. A quick photo shoot (Carole’s got better photos which hopefully I’ll upload soon).

And so we set off on the next leg.

This was another milestone – the most westerly point on Skye, Neist Point, also infamous for rough water when the tide’s running past against the prevailing wind and swell.

We rounded the Idrigil Point some pretty cool sea stacks, which I would later find out were called McLeod’s Maidens. As we continued I saw a boat with a couple of guys fishing, pulling fish out left, right and centre. I went over to have a wee chat and told them about what we were doing. They offered us some fish, which I was delighted. In all honesty, I didn’t feel we had time to sit and fish as I’d rather have been paddling and getting distance behind us to help the circum navigation, so I was happier to accept gifts of fish than to actually catch them ourselves – that’s on this trip, maybe it’ll be different another time.

Five mackerel and one sathe (Pollock) later…we thanked the guys, Neil and his pal (sorry, can’t remember your/his name – if you get in touch, I’ll change this bit). I knocked them out on my cockpit rim and put them between my legs, no time or room to sort them just now. So we paddled on… A pee spot was on the cards, so we found a sheltered set of skerries and made it a lunch spot too.

Neist Point was in our sights now, we could just see the lighthouse in the distance, ever nearing. Continuing up the coast was great paddling, the sun was shining and we were feeling well rested and fit, though not made easy as we were paddling into a force 3 or 4 headwind.

After another pee stop at the last bay before Neist Point, we felt closer to our goal. The tide was running south, against us, but thankfully ever decreasing with every stroke. We caught an eddy in Moonen bay just south of Neist Point, which took us north. Sam was tiring and so we had a short rest at the jetty for food and water. I was slightly nervous as the south-going tide was going to be running against the wind and swell, so I wasn’t sure exactly what this would be like, and I probably built it up quite a lot, so understandably, he may have been a little nervous too.

To my surprise, we left the jetty, went west with the eddy (which was no small amount of water flowing!) and rounded the point, but there was no raging tidal race! I was slightly disappointed as I’d kind of hoped for a bit of tidal race paddling with some white water. So we paddled round enjoying the relatively calm water and continued up the coast.

The sun now lowering, the coast became a yellow-orange, making the rocks and coast seem more impressive than before.

This was my favourite bit of coast so far, I think maybe because it was the furthest west we’d been and it felt closest to home and the sea I had grown up with, i.e. bigger swell than anything we’d seen so far.

Continuing up the coast the rounding the point, we came into Loch Pooltiel after another interesting bit of geology: the columnar basalt right to the sea in a horizontal structured, with amazingly clear structured crystallisation

Dodging the people casting fishing rods, we found a slip way and set up camp. I think Sam was keen for bed, however, after getting some dinner on, the thought of hot food made him hold back from heading off to the land of nod for a few hours. Sam took care of dinner while I went to find heather for Kelly – after searching the whole hill and almost giving up, on the walk back I found some at the side of the road which would be enough to boil some water for tea.

We used most of the fish for stew, but I filleted some for barbecuing on Kelly. This cooking kit that they sell is a new thing, and I have to admit, is a bit of a black art, but after a bit of trial and error, I started to get the hang of it. A few minutes later we had some cooked and well smoked mackerel which were lovely! Also tried Sam’s method of cooking on wood, which seem to work ok, but maybe could do with some fine tuning – I think the principle came from cooking on hot rocks that have been heated by fire.

After some stew we were both ready for our beds and after realising it was midnight, we made our way to the tents for some rest, satisfied with the days paddling and activities.

Food diary:

• Breakfast: uncooked oats with water; rhubarb and bell heather honey soup;
• Lunch: oatcakes (from Vanilla Skye); Cabroc (Scottish goat’s) cheese; salad (Isle of Skye Fresh Produce Company);
• Dinner: mackerel stew (fish from the Neil and his pal in the boat, potatoes from the market stall); grilled mackerel (flame grilled on the Kelly Kettle cooking set).
• Snacks: Skye Fudge.

SusExp 2009 Day 7: Loch Brittle to Loch Bracadale (31km)

Waking up well rested, I found Sam already up and about. He managed to get most of his clothes dry the night before, but still needed to get more done, so after a breakfast of the usual tasty uncooked oats, he headed up to the hostel, and I took the opportunity to fix a few things on my boat and contact local suppliers.

Loch Brittle was a busy campsite – I guess it was peak season. A great location for hikers bagging their Munros on the west side of the Cuillin, I noticed countless groups heading off up into the mist covered summits. After going to the shop to buy cord, fixing my boat, making a kit to slide the boat down the shore with one person, using plastic bottles from the recycling bin, and breaking it, then using full water bottles as rollers (patent pending) it was lunchtime before I knew it!

We had some bread with tasty bramble jam (given to use from Vanilla Skye, produce in Staffin) and/or cheese, then got on our way in the early afternoon.

One source of comfort for me was being on the water paddling in the right direction. Another source of comfort was the simplicity of life, something I love about sea kayaking. Everything else is just external to the true joy of sea kayaking. When I’m on the water with just my paddle to get me through situations, my mind is free to wonder through any thoughts it wants, and my senses are free to focus on the surrounding natural world and become focussed on the here and now – it’s can be pure bliss and I often have my most inspired thoughts while paddling.

We continued up the coast, enjoying the following wind. We could see the Loch Bracadale in the distance, and Idrigil point to the west, leading up to Neist Point (tomorrow’s challenge). As we paddled, I caught site of a massive too bird…wasn’t sure at first, but realised, it was definitely too big for a Golden Eagle, ‘must be a sea eagle’ I thought to myself – what a beautiful bird, soaring and gliding, dominant along the coastline, until the black back gulls start to pester it. I’m sure the eagle would win in a fight, but just didn’t have to patience to deal with the gulls.

We paddled and watched it for a while, it flew on, we followed, then it turned in the other direction. We carried on, shortly after, we spotted another, not so big this time. Same again, it flew away, we followed, then it turned. As if that wasn’t enough, we then saw a third sea eagle! This was surely a once in a lifetime experience (for me at least)…I’ve never seen more than one sea eagle at the same time, so for me, it felt very special. We paddled on.

Rounding the last headland before Loch Bracadale, I heard the modern beeping that meant I had a phone signal and got a text. ‘Can you phone!! Thought you weren’t arriving till Tuesday!’ I didn’t know the number, but I hoped it was Carole Inglis, who owns and manages Skye Fudge and had also very kindly offered us a bed in her house for the night. I tried phoning, and got through. I tried to be an assuming and told her our plan and that we would be happy to camp on the shore (she’d just come back from holiday), thank thankfully, she said we could stay – fantastic. A nice thought that we’d be able to sleep in a warm comfy bed tonight, we’d be able to sit on soft seat, we’d have a roof over our head that we could stand up under – although we hadn’t been away from civilisation for too long, it’s amazing how much you miss it (especially if you’re sea kayak camping).

We carried on happy in the knowledge of the above and arrived at Harlosh slipway around 9.30pm, Carole arrived to pick us up, and we went to her house and met her husband Jim. Carole showed us where we could sleep, and we even had our own living room and kitchen in what used to be a self-catering B&B. It must so much more than we had expected and/or would have been happy with – personally I would have been happy with some floor space in the living room. We got some stuff sorted, cooked our dinner on the electric cooker (electricity coming from the nearby Edinbane wind farm), and talked into the night about the following day’s plan – to get round Neist point if possible. I looked at the yachtsman’s pilot for the area and checked out tide times, so we knew when the south- and north-going streams would begin.

The dinner was a story in itself, but to be short, we had mouldy lorn sausage (not too mouldy), with potatoes and Stornoway black pudding. I also still had some rhubarb from the garden in Barra which I felt we had to eat now, so I boiled it with some water, sugar and honey. It was sickly sweet, so I left it to the morning.

Food diary:

• Breakfast: uncooked oats with water;
• Lunch: bread; oatcakes; cheese; butter; jam;
• Dinner: lorn sausage; boiled potatoes; any other fresh veg we still had.

SusExp 2009 Day 6: Sleat Point to Loch Brittle (33km)

Waking up this morning, emerging from our bivvy bags, we were confronted with a grey wet day. The sleeping bag I had was only a very light summer one and I woke up shivering – thankfully this soon stopped once I got moving around. The wind was blowing as the forecast, south or south-easterly 4 or 5, which was good for us. After three hours sleep at the most we weren’t feeling on top of the world, and I wasn’t sure how this would affect us today. There was a wee bit of surf crashing on the beach, but only a wee bit, nothing worth worrying about…or so we thought.

We had our usual look at the map to discuss ‘escape routes’ where we could go to abort the journey at any point if anything started to go or went wrong. After having a quick bit of breakfast – Sam had oats with banana and I just had a few bananas (yes, I gave in, I was too tempted by the sweet energy and ease of consumption) – we got on the water.

A quick push through the small waves and we were off on the next leg of the journey. Shortly after getting away from the beach, I heard ‘oh no!’ Sam noticed his hatch cover was open. To this day, we’re not sure how it came to be open, maybe it wasn’t closed to start with, maybe it was something like a bit of string jammed between the hatch cover and the boat. Whatever the reason, we promptly closed it and continued our journey. I was keen to just get more distance under my belt, I had a constant anxiousness in the back of my mind that the harder we pushed, the more chance there was of us completing the circumnavigation successfully.

We rounded Sleat Point and as the mist raised and lowered, I checked the compass and set a heading for NW, which would take us straight past Loch Coruisk and Soay and on our way to Loch Bracadale, the goal for the day.

The seconds, and minutes, and hours passed. We were tired, but the sea wasn’t exactly flat and demanded our attention to both stay upright and on the right course.

Surrounded by mist, I turned the GPS on to find out our location. Stornoway Coastguard, after transmitting the weather forecast, requested all vessels receiving the signal report their position. I tried to do this on VHF but didn’t receive a response so didn’t try to call them more than once in case they thought we were in trouble if some broken up message came through – think the mist was limiting the range of the handheld VHF.

So we continued on our NW course, probably half way between Rhum and Skye – I was keen to stay slightly west as the wind was due to veer round to the west and so this would mean we wouldn’t be as side-on to the wind as we would have been, hence not so wobbly. We decided it was time for a stop, we needed some lunch and we were both almost falling asleep while paddling, so a rest was probably a good idea. We came into Loch Brittle and found a bay that, although rocky, was sheltered enough from the swell to be able to land. Then we realised the consequence of the open hatch cover – all Sam’s clothes and sleeping bag were soaked!

We’d have to go in and get them dry, it wouldn’t be fair or safe to carry on, so after some lunch, we paddled into Loch Brittle, and found a nice spot to land (up the river slightly).

Hoping for a night in Glen Brittle hostel, I walked up to see if they had any beds, unfortunately not, but it was no problem. It was still early in the day and we would now have some time to recover from lack of sleep, and Sam would have time to go to the hostel to get at least some of his stuff dry.

After spending the rest of the day recovering, we made tasty dinner of potato and sausage stew with some carrots too, and we also got a dressing of midges in stew too – maybe 500 each, personally I think it added a nice texture to the stew, like the crisp bit on top of Crème Brulee. After dinner I enjoyed the time to relax with a dram on the shore – thanks Talisker!

Despite meaning to be in bed early, I only managed to in my cosy sleeping bag around 9pm. I was so glad to put my head down on my pillow of kayaking gear and rest. I rested well that night, hopeful that we would be well rested and could get away early and cover some good distance tomorrow, at least to Loch Bracadale.

Food diary

• Breakfast: a few bananas (I gave into temptation of sweet energy);
• Lunch: Highland Oatcakes; cheese; bread (Isle of Skye Baking Company);
• Dinner: sausage (Portree Butchers) and potato (Skye local produce sale – Portree) stew.
• Snacks: Skye Fudge.

SusExp 2009 Day 5: Pabbay to Armadale (43km) then night paddle to Sleat Point (12km)

I woke up this morning keen to write a bit more of the expedition blog as I desperately wanted to write it on the way so that I could record more detail. Getting up at 7am, I wrote for 1 hour and managed to get 2 days briefly written up. This was a another frustration for the trip – because things weren’t happening as fast as they could have been, I was getting time in the evenings to write up the days events and feelings. The net result is that I’m sitting in my bed here in Stirling writing this in hindsight, which admittedly is not too straining on the memory, but is also not going to provide as much detail as I would have liked. Nevertheless, I think this is going surprisingly well on the memory front, considering I have a memory like a goldfish at times, so I’ll carry on…

We started getting ready at 8am and managed to get on the water at 10.30am, 1.5 hours later than I wanted it to take. To save fuel we didn’t cook anything, and had the staple uncooked breakfast of oats with water and blueberries from Skye Berries – this dish was really growing on me, the uncooked oats were kind of refreshing because of the cold water. Getting on the water late, I was anxious to make up our time as I’d planned the tides to go through both constrictions at their full rate (in the direction we wanted to go) at spring tides. We would hopefully still get through with the tide in the right direction but it wouldn’t help us as much.

So we set off…a nice following wind took as towards the Skye bridge. A comforting sight as it felt like a milestone, though it seemed to take forever to arrive. I checked in with the coastguard to let them know our plans for the day, and agreed to tell them when we were finished our paddle for the day.

As we approached, I was slightly worried by the flurry of yachts that were coming the other direction under the bridge, which was surely an indication that the tide had turned.

However, when we made it to the Skye bridge I was comforted to see the tide still taking us in the right direction. A short while later we were entering the Kyle Rhea which reaches up to and above around 8knots (about 15kph). I took the GPS out to see what speed we were getting. Although the water was pretty flat, the GPS was flicking between 9 to 12kph. We paddled to see how fast we could get, and I’m sure pretty sure I saw it at 19kph (nearly 12mph) at one point – not bad considering we were coming through at roughly two thirds of its max rate.

After the second milestone of the trip, we were keen for lunch and had it on flatter bit of the coast. Got Kelly going and had the usual simple lunch of oatcakes (Highland Oatcakes) and Barra Bread (which was needing used by this point), plus cheese (from Arran) and some salad (from Deirdre and Bill Peppe), as well as some hot water boiler on Kelly. Just hot water was something Sam had got me thinking about trying, and I really liked it, so simple and refreshing and rehydrating.

The wind was being funnelled slightly down the coast but there was a more southerly part of it, so we decided to cross to the other side of the Kyle Rhea on the coast coming from Glen Elg to the Sandaig Islands before it comes round into Loch Hourn on the north side of Knoydart. A fantastic bit of coast with pine trees coming right to the rocky shore, it looked like how I imagine parts of Canada to be, and half expected a wolf or bear to be roaming the coast. I think I would come back and paddle round Skye again just for a few nights on this specific bit of coast.

After a food break at Sandaig we set our compasses for the crossing to Sleat Point and set off. With a slight head wind from the south we aimed off a few degrees to take account. The sun was starting to dip and looking across to the Black Cuillin made me feel proud to be Scottish, and also made me long for some mountain challenge somewhere – I reminded myself that the Cuillin was on my list of things to do sometime.

Saw porpoises off Isleornsay that appeared to be fishing. Sam with went fishing with his optimism, and as the water was flat and the weather fine, I carried on along the coast. A few hours later I landed at Armadale to set up camp. We’d got separated by miles, not something I’d normally do, but the risks were low, and I think we both probably wanted a bit of time to ourselves.

‘I’ll show you why I took so long’ Sam said, and pulled a mackerel out from under his deck. Lovely – fish soup it was then. Then Sam hit me with another gem of an idea – a night paddle. It was a full moon, the weather was good, and we needed to get some more distance under our belt. After another iterated decision making process, rightly swaying from not going so that we got a good sleep, but Sam convinced me it was a good idea. ‘On one condition’ I said ‘that we still get away early in the morning’. Agreed.

So Sam got cooking his mackerel soup and I went to the Ardvasar Inn to pick up some supplies – butter and cheese and also some mars bars to get us through our night paddle. Sure, Mars aren’t local, but we needed something as a pick me up from a safety point of view. Also, I couldn’t resist the temptation of hot fresh coffee, so got one of them too. The Ardvasar Inn was packed with people which felt quite surreal. Two very different ways of life crossing, one that the expedition, with mainly natural stimulation, and two, a busy social scene, surrounded by people and light and music. It felt appealing to stay there and drink and be merry and speak to girls, but it also felt a bit overwhelming and I soon realised that at this time I wanted the simplicity of sea kayaking. I left the pub and set off back to the shore to get some soup.

One tasty soup later, we managed to get back on the water at midnight. Keen to not compromise on safety, I gave Sam a handheld flare in he needed to draw attention to himself, and we also both stuck glow sticks to our heads so we could keep track of each other. It was pretty exciting, I hadn’t been on a night paddle for a while, and was happy with Sam’s idea. Paddling in the moonlight was a peaceful and calming experience, but we were both pretty tired and keen to get to our destination – Sleat Point.

While paddling, there was some kind of phosphorescence which I’ve only seen a few times before, unfortunately couldn’t get a photo, but it felt special to see something that only happens at night and that you only see in specific areas when you disturb the water and look closely enough.

Arriving at Sleat Point at 2am, we were both struggling to keep our eyes open. What a paddle, I loved it! Pulling the boats up higher than the water would be when we got up at 6am, we hastily got our bivvy bags and sleeping bags and each found ourselves a spot for the night.

Food diary:

• Breakfast: uncooked oats with water and blueberries;
• Lunch: Barra and Isle of Skye Bakery bread, with Barra Bramble jam and cheese;
• Dinner: Sam’s mackerel soup with onion and potato;
• Snacks: mars bars (on night paddle); coffee in Ardvasar Inn.

SusExp 2009 Day 4: Camas Ban to Pabbay via Portree (30km)

I woke up this morning to find Sam already up and about, as were our midge friends. After getting out of the tent I searched for my midge hat to stop the fast descending blood suckers. I really hate midges with a passion! There aren’t many things that frustrate me to the extent that midges do, but I guess they keep visitors away, so can only be a good thing!

To my slight surprise, I saw smoke coming from the fire – only slight because I knew this was second nature to Sam to keep a fire going overnight. Even better…there was a pot with eggs and potatoes slowly frying on embers and Kelly was boiling ready to make some tea.

I’d like to note two things here:

1. Some people may object to lighting fires on the grass – in response to that, this fire place was already existing, so we weren’t making any additional impact;
2. There was loads of broken glass in two spots that had been used as fires. Before leaving, we picked up as much glass as we could find from one of the spots, so left it in better condition that we found it.

After a two-course breakfast, firstly eggs and potato, then blueberries and gooseberries we got on the water, ready for our first real day of expedition. Before we could head south, we had to go to the local produce sale to pick up a number of items that were either being given to us, or we were going to buy, and also to have a look around to see what other locally produced things were on offer. To cut a long story short, we got back in our boats a few hours later, full to the brims with:

• Potatoes from the market stall;
• Sausages from Portree Butchers;
• Vegetables from the market stall;
• Bread from Isle of Skye Baking Company (plus some chanterelle mushrooms Barrie the manager had found);
• Beer from Isle of Skye Brewery;
• Whisky from Talisker Distillery;
• A load of goodies from Vanilla Skye.

During the day we met another paddler, Petr Major, who had been paddling for 3-months from Poole – our potentially 2-week long trip paled into insignificance in terms of distance and duration. After a few nice chats to Petr he decided to paddle with us for a bit, so we set off about 2pm and headed south out of bay. It was nice to have some different company, in particular I enjoyed the conversations about the world of sea kayaking.

Petr’s got a few websites, one is www.galeforceimages.com and the other’s his blog which is something like walkingonshoulders.com or standingonshoulders.com, something like that. As we rounded the headland to the south and came into the headwind, Petr decided he didn’t want to paddle any further, I would have done the same, so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

So we carried on, personally, now feeling that we were finally on our way starting to get serious distance under our belt stepping closer to a successful circumnavigation with every stroke. No one knew what adventures the trip was going to bring, but it was exciting to think of what might lie ahead, wondering what challenges we would make. I think part of adventure is not knowing what is going to happen, and we definitely didn’t know, which I truly enjoy.

Following the coastline, we paddled a course pretty central in the channel between Rassay then Scalpay and the mainland of Skye. The tide was still on the south-going flood which was taking us slowly in the direction we wanted to go. We passed Sligachan, which has a long inlet leading to a traditional starting point for doing at least some of the peaks on the Cuillin, namely Sgurr Nan Gillean and Am Basteir. We stopped for a short while at the salmon farms to watch the fish jumping and being fed, then continued along the straights with their undulating width. Thankfully running with the wind, we were making good time, but the day was getting on I was keen to land soonish. We decided on Pabbay, a good distance for the first serious day paddling. However, as we ran with the wind I thought ‘maybe we could get to the Skye Bridge’ which we could shoot through with the tide as it was still flooding.

After various iterations in our thinking, we decided it best to finish earlier rather than later, and so landed on Pabbay on a shell beach, the weather fine, the sun shining, satisfied with out first day paddling and looking forward to hot meal. Before we landed we noticed the interesting geology which was the protruding dykes (I guess they were basalt from their appearance and commonality on the west coast of Scotland) – the funny thing was that they look so manmade, like walls of huge dark blocks that had been built to protect a harbour.

Due getting there later than I would have liked, we had no time find firewood, and also because we were tired from the first day paddling, we got dinner cooking on the petrol stove. Some time later, we had a tasty hot meal of potatoes, carrots, sausages and chanterelle mushrooms.

The next day was a time critical day due to the tides under the Skye bridge and through Kyle Rhea, a few miles further round, so we needed to be up early. Camping in the long grass, we would have a comfy night’s sleep, though we would have the midges to share our blood with in the morning.

I tried to write the blog that evening, but passed out after writing the first few lines…

Food diary:

Breakfast: last night’s potatoes fried with eggs. Potatoes from Barra, eggs from free range hens, cooked on fire lit from embers from last night’s fire using Sam ‘Bushcraft’ Bonfield’s professional skills. Blueberries and gooseberries plus mint tea;

Lunch: rhubarb crumble, wine gums;

Dinner: local new potatoes, free range sausages from Kate Quirk (who is treasurer for Skye and Lochalsh Horticultural Community Interest Company or SLHCIC) runner beans from Deirdre and Bill Peppe, garlic from the local produce sale, beer from Skye Brewery, and Blueberries from Ian Brown at Skye Berries.

SusExp 2009 Day 3: Portree to Camas Ban (1.5km)

Woke up this morning and the wind was howling – the forecast was right then – southerly backing south-easterly 4 or 5, gusting 6 to 7. I was relieved to have one more day to sort stuff out – we hadn’t packed the boats yet or practiced rescues, two big tasks. So we had breakfast, unset camp from our forested site, and drove to the pier in Portree – yes drove, our expedition hadn’t really started yet and it was poring last night and we needed good shelter and also wanted to get a fire going, which is why I justified the driving to myself.

I was starting to get restless because it was now two days of paddling that we had missed due to the weather – will we be able to make it up and get all the way round Skye? This was the main question running through my mind, or variations on a theme of how we could make it. I also had the conflicting interests of the trip: 1) to paddle as far as possible when we can, in order to make it all the way round, and 2) to spend time on land trying to find and catch enough food to sustain us and getting to know the land and its people. This is the problem with circumnavigations, if you don’t make it round, you feel like you have to come back and try again, but there are lots of other things I’d like to do – big climbs and other big paddles – so I don’t want to have to come back for a full attempt again. That said, if I had to, I would, and I wouldn’t compromise the safety of Sam or myself to any disproportionate degree.

Back to the objective stuff…we had another great coffee (Sam had cappuccino, I had espresso) from the café below the Caledonian Hotel in Portree – thankfully the coffee picked me up and kicked my brain into gear. We looked at the maps more, and talked about safety and what we would do in emergency situations.

We packed the boats, Sam packed and it seemed like packed and repacked and repacked. Understandably he wanted to make a good job of it and I was sensing he was erring on the side of perfectionist, but I was keen to get on the water. I let him take his time without complaint from myself and we got on the water about 4ish after finding some Portree girls to take a leaving photo. They were telling us about the Skye Highland games dance tonight as it had been the games today. No time to consider that just now – we headed off.

Ten minutes later we arrived, set up camp, then had a quick discussion about what rescues we’d practice and how we’d practice them. I had no wetsuit, so wasn’t keen for continual dunking.

So we practiced Eskimo rescues, rolling, self rescues plus played with various strokes. When we were satisfied that we were cold and wet enough I headed in to start dinner and Sam went to find firewood. I got the dinner of tatties and sausages going on the MSR petrol stove – no time tonight to cook on natural fire – and Sam returned with a few logs. After dragging them through the water and in my ignorance, I wasn’t optimistic about getting a fire going. However, after having a chat about the motives of the trip, I think Sam was keen to not waste his efforts and to get the fire going – and I was keen to know how to do it also.

Low and behold, two hours later, after sawing up logs, splitting them with an axe, splitting into smaller bits with a knife, shaving off the wet bits, making feather sticks and splitting into as fine as possible, we managed to get the Kelly Kettle going pretty easily. I was amazed and impressed that we (Sam) had managed to get a from a damp looking log that had just been towed through the sea. I went to bed satisfied, and unknown to me, Sam was setting up the fire for a treat in the morning…

Food diary:

• Breakfast: uncooked oats with water and blueberries; fried potatoes and egg;
• Lunch: fish and chips;
• Dinner: boiled potatoes and sausages; blueberries and gooseberries for pudding;
• Tea boiled on Kelly Kettle lit from driftwood towed to campsite in the sea.