Day 28: Garenin Hostel, NW Lewis to Port of Nis, Butt of Lewis (25Nm, 10hrs)

Today was a fantastic finale to the expedition, involving the longest paddle, the most exposed paddling and the best finish.

It started at 7am in my bivvy bag with a nice sunrise. I went up to the hostel to boil the kettle for a cup of tea and to fill my flask, and heated up my black pudding and potato omelette from last night. It wasn’t as tasty as last night for some reason but I ate it nevertheless. After chatting to various people I managed to get on the water at 9.45am, 45mins later than I planned to, so that meant I’d be arriving around 7.45pm.

So I was off on the last day of the expedition, I’d nearly made it, so far, I couldn’t believe it, I’d nearly managed to paddle the whole length of the Outer Hebrides! Although it was far from over. I came out of the mouth of the inlet the hostel was in,and started along the coastline. There was coastline as far as I could see and further and I seriously wondered if I was capable of doing it. I carried on paddling. I was pretty good at being happy in my own company by now, not to say a paddling buddy would have been great, and coped with various activities such as singing and making up songs, talking to myself which I thought was pretty good conversation (!) and listening to the few hundred MP3s on my mobile phone which I now knew off by heart. The coast just went on and on and on.

One nice thing that happened was befriending a Fulmar who thought I was a fishing boat and kept on landing in front of me and watching for waste fish as I drifted by. It did this for a good 20mins and I started feeling sorry for it I aimed straight for it when it was in front of me, which scared it and it flew away and didn’t come back. The weather was great, clear blue skies, not too much swell - I stayed roughly 1km off the coast to avoid swell in the shallower water - and I was working with the tide (the whole 1Kt of it!). The paddling was a cycle of paddling as long as I could before the aches and pains got too much, then having a rest to stretch and move around to get blood flowing in my legs/feet again.

A nervous point on this leg was paddling past the army firing range which had ‘Danger’ labelling the boundary of an area on the map that I was paddling through. I thought about phoning the coastguard to make sure it was safe, but in the end thought they would probably see me if they were going to shoot anything. I couldn’t help wondering if things were going to fly past me at any time and explode!

I got to the planned lunch spot at Siadar, recharged the mobile phone which had run down due to listening to music, had some coffee and a cup of soup with the locally baked bread. After a 20min break, periodically floating my boat inshore and moving my stuff as the tide came in, I felt refreshed and ready to carry on.

So I continued with the tide and the sun into a light northerly wind on the next 4.5 hour paddle - the final leg! I was pretty ecstatic for a good while (probably partly due to the coffee), coming to terms with the fact that I had nearly paddled the 250Nm (275 statute miles) up the Western Isles. I looked back to see how far I’d come, grateful to see the headlands fading into the haze.

If paddling long distances does anything for you, it forces you to think about forward paddling technique! I think the technique frequently anyway but forward paddling is really the most essential skill in sea kayaking and good technique makes paddling much more efficient. Coaches often talk about aspiring to make kayaking skills effective and efficient, but I’d now like to coin the term EESSy (effective, efficient, smooth and stylish - in that order) which I think adds two more important qualities to skills and I’ll be using that in coaching - ‘…how can you make your strokes more EESSy?...’

I passed some creel buoys and was happy to see them downstream of the rope in the water meaning the tide was flowing in my direction. Then I got to a skerry which had an eddy NW of it, again comforting me because I was going with the tide. I was getting closer, now only an hour from the Butt. The anticipation was killing me! Eventually I got there, great!

What a place for paddling, with loads of islands and a natural arch above the HW line, but I couldn’t explore because it was 7pm and I needed to get on. I was nearly there! I rounded the Butt and had 3km to Port of Nis. I enjoyed the coast with the deepening light from the start of the sunset and the reduced swell on the east coast of Lewis. The tide had started flowing in the wrong direction for me and the last headland I had to cut in close land to avoid the current which looked a good 2-3kts.
Then I got to the harbour - woo hoo! It was like some kind of Mediterranean beach and with a flat sea, everything lit with sunset orange, I landed at the slip way in Port of Nis! I had done it! I sat down to come to terms with the fact that I had done it! Then some pals (Sean ZS and Innes) arrived with their bio-diesel, from used vegetable oil, van. They gave me a can of Tenant’s Lager which I gulped down - thanks guys! The rest of the night is another story which involved sausage rolls, whisky, more lager, and a party in Stornoway.

The next day we went for a trip out into the Minch on a 67-foot yacht which Innes and his dad Angus charter. What a life! Sean, Innes and Alison gave me a lift and buddied me down to Leverburgh where I paddled across the Sound of Harris with the wind which was great, and had a wee play in the wind and against tide next to the hostel which was quite a big area of 1ft standing waves with the tide ripping through at 3ish knots! Stayed with Brian and Kath, the friends with the wind turbine, left the boat there, stayed over night and then got the bus the next day to Eriskay and the ferry back to Barrabados!

So now I’m back at home, eating lots of green vegetables that are growing in the garden! That’s it. The first Sustainable Expeditions expedition is finished! I’ll wait a couple of days then I’ve got a few kind of results of and thoughts on this expedition which was really a bit of an experiment.

Day 27: Reef to Garenin Gatliff/SYHA Hostel, NW Lewis, via Callanish

Today was the second last day of the expedition and the last night of camping.

I had stayed at Paul and Alison’s for the second night, thanks to their generosity. I had some muesli for breakfast, packed my stuff, said my goodbyes then walked to my kayak with my newly dried clothing. Everything was covered in sand and there was a message on the boat: “Hello from Stornoway Canoe Club! Keep on moving!!!” So that’s what I did. It took ages to pack the boat and get ready because I was out of the swing of things, but I eventually got on the water at 10.45am.

I was exploring west then east Loch Roag. It was great - flat water with no wind! I enjoyed the relaxation but after 15min of an open crossing got bored and had to put music on my mobile phone. Then I got to an island and found this great natural arch right through quite a wide point of the island, must have been 100m long and a good few meters underground.

After paddling under the bridge from mainland Lewis to Great Berneray, I paddled with the tide to Callanish, had a wee look at the stones and had some potatoes and chocolate cake for lunch. The stones are interesting to look and find out about, probably erected around 3,000BC. After that it was north to the hostel. Into a F3/4 again for a bit in mid-afternoon, but thankfully it died down almost completely after a few hours and I could enjoy exploring the coastline again. The coast is an abundance and maze of rocky outcrops and inlets that could provide hours of endless fun for exploring in a sea kayak, especially if there was a bit more swell. As it was there was only a foot or two of swell which increased as I got further out of Loch Roag. I had only glimpsed the second map (which the hostel was on) today, so I paddled off the first map then along the coast hoping to find the hostel. I knew it was a rocky beach and saw a few with big boulders for shores which worried me, but I eventually found it to be a nice shingle beach.

So I got to land, set up camp, cooked dinner in the hostel due to lack of any firewood or heather, phoned people, found sorrel and watched an awesome sunset. Another good day but I’ve got diarrhoea from the food poisoning and am a bit dehydrated due to that, so it’s not all good!

Food today: breakfast - muesli; lunch - potatoes + chocolate cake; dinner - fried potatoes/omelette/black pudding.

Day 26: Reef, NW West Lewis

Today was much better in comparison to yesterday but I still wasn’t feeling great and it didn’t involve much Sustainable Expeditions stuff, so again I’ll make it short and sweet. I got up and did some e-mailing and blog writing, then went to the school sport’s day with Alison/Paul’s kids. After that I borrowed Paul’s bike and cycled to the nearest shop (30min cycle) to get some emergency food, then spent the rest of the day writing up the blog which felt like it took ages. I usually write a page of A4 in my pad about how things have gone then type that up whenever I can, so a week’s worth of writing takes a while to type up. I eventually finished at 9pm then enjoyed relaxing and reading a magazine.

Food today: breakfast - muesli + tea; lunch - cheese sandwiches; dinner - fish fingers, peas and chips - lovely!

Day 25: Reef, NW West Lewis

Today was undoubtedly the worst day, so I’ll make this write up short and not so sweet.

I woke up with my neck in agony and could hardly move it. I had slept without any kind of pillow and who knows what I did to my neck but it was sore! That was today’s first lesson. This was about 9am, so I thought I’d wait to see how it went. I ended up in bed till 12pm(ish) then it started raining, soaking my stuff that was hanging on the improvised washing line - tow rope tied to either end of kayak with split paddles making support on middle. I also felt sick and was sick nearby my camp after trying desperately to keep whatever it was down. Up came last night’s barbecued vegetables which I thought should have been digested by now, so I thought maybe a dodgy mussel had blocked up the plumbing. Whatever it was, and I’m sure it was the mussels that I had taken from the inlet with not a huge amount of flow, next to the road, I felt sick for the rest of the day. This in combination with a stiff neck and the rain made it pretty miserable.

So I eventually went up to knock on Paul and Alison’s door to ask if I could use their bath as I’d got cold after getting wet in the rain. Thankfully they said yes, and also offered me dinner and a bed for the night, which made life a lot more comfortable than it would have been. Thank you Paul and Alison!

Food today: breakfast/lunch - bread and jam; dinner - pasta and vegetables.