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.