Stories of Adventure

SusExp 2009: Epilogue

2009-08-25T06:29:00.003Z

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)

2009-08-21T21:36:00.006Z

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)

2009-08-21T20:58:00.006Z

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)

2009-08-21T20:35:00.004Z

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)

2009-08-21T07:45:00.009Z

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)

2009-08-20T22:10:00.005Z

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)

2009-08-20T20:43:00.008Z

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)

2009-08-20T06:13:00.010Z

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)

2009-08-19T21:29:00.013Z

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:

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;
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)

2009-08-16T21:38:00.007Z

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.

SusExp 2009 Day 2: Uig to Portree (by road!)

2009-08-16T21:29:00.004Z

Well, today’s been a funny first day of the expedition. We got up around 9am, probably should’ve been earlier, but the beds in White Wave Outdoor Centre were so comfy and we needed our beauty sleep. I made a To Do list and same made a lovely breakfast of uncooked porridge oats with water and powdered milk – uncooked oats new to me, and they were surprisingly tasty! We started getting ourselves together then went down to see John and Anne. After a coffee and a nice chat and letting them know our plans we started getting the gear together. I put our Patagonia and White Wave stickers on my boat and phoned various local producers and press people, while Sam sorted out kayaking stuff with John. After loads of wee bits and pieces we finally managed to get away at 1pm. So where were we going to go?? After checking the forecast which said southerly force 4 to 5, gusting 7, we decided we wouldn’t try to paddle from Staffin to Portree. After a wee think we decided to drive to Portree after dropping off a few posters in Uig and trying to pick up some beer from Skye Brewery (also in Uig) – unfortunately they’d run out!

We arrived in Portree, spoke to some local suppliers (Vanilla Skye, Portree Butchers, and Isle of Skye Bakery), got our food drop off from Skye Berries from the local food van, got some fish and chips, sat in a café look at maps, discussing emergency procedures and drinking coffee, then went to find a camp site. The latter a simple task you may say, an hour later we were still looking. In the end, after it started raining, we decided to go and camp in a forest just out of Portree, after a long decision making process.

There was nothing wrong with the decision but it was based on getting shelter from the rain, however, the forest wasn’t old enough so there was no cover that wouldn’t need extensive clearing of lower branches that were still alive, and it wasn’t raining anymore! Also we thought we might get dry wood, but it pored so hard earlier we had to cook on the petrol stove, and we hadn’t got any paddling done. Those things aside, it was a good day: we tested out some new equipment; got some food; worked out lots of safety stuff and I think we have a better plan for the remaining time. Sure, I didn’t want to have to drive anymore, but the weather hasn’t allowed us to stick to the plan, so we just have to do what we can. I’m just looking forward to getting on the water and into expedition mode – and leaving the car behind. There was a beautiful sunset which turned the black cullin in the distance and awesome orange-pink which in a way made the whole day worthwhile. Time for some more beauty sleep…

SusExp 2009 Day 1: Barra to White Wave Outdoor Centre

2009-08-04T10:45:00.000Z

So, as you know, up at 5.30am this morning – it’s been a long but productive day. Managed to do everything that needed done to the website this morning so I can do justice to my sponsors and make it clear for people looking at the site. Also picked lots of nice veg [insert veggy photo here] and collected some other stuff from house – home made bread and jam.

Finally managed to make to ferry which left at 9.20am - it was so busy!! It was the aftermath after Barrafest, so many people heading home after an alcohol fuelled weekend of fun – it could have been me too! But no, I choose to expose myself the rigours of the outdoor life voluntarily! The crossing was fine, maybe a wee bit choppy going into a force 4 to 5, but nothing the Clansman couldn’t handle. Had another few chats with old and new friends, ate, slept, read and the next thing you know I’m walking off the ferry in Oban.

Met Sam in Oban, got the boat tied on, went to get the kit, from outside edge, that we hadn’t got already (epoxy putting and a head torch) and a few tools from the pound shop for the repair kit soon to materialise…then off we drove on what was now starting to feel like the start of the expedition.

To cut a long story short…here I sit in my sleeping bag in White Wave Outdoor Centre, thanks to John and Anne, trying to be proactive in keeping up a blog. The journey up was fine, we got some food shopping and a meal in Fort William and came up the Skye Bridge way as opposed to getting the ferry (too much hassle). Crossing the bridge felt like another milestone – it really felt like something that I’d wanted to happen for a long time was finally happening, I’m pretty excited, although also apprehensive about how our luck will play it’s part in the trip and what nature will throw at us.

On that note, I’m off to try and get 40 winks…

SusExp 2009 Day 0: Barra Preparation day

2009-08-04T10:44:00.001Z

On the list of things to do today were:

1) type up the St Kilda trip report from hand written notes;
2) find and pack all my kayaking kit;
3) fix the solar panel back on to the boat and check all the electrics work;
4) work out what’s wrong with the website and how to fix it;
5) pick some fruit and vegetables.

So I got started. First things first…a cup of coffee. Then the tasks began. I can be quite work averse at times, so usually do the easiest things first unless something’s a higher priority. So I sat with my laptop writing up the notes from St Kilda – it was nice being reminded of the feelings and experiences of the last kayaking trip a few months ago. After some nice soup me and my dad got started on the solar panel fixing, and minor boat modifications. A bit of rewiring here, a bit of drilling there, and some sawing thrown in for good measure, my boat was ready to be charged with sun power once again – see Sea Kayak LORAH page for a description of the set up for the solar photovoltaic panel, plus a nice modification to the deck lines with some old hosing to make better handles. Got finished at 6.30pm and had a drink outside in the sun and a roast chicken dinner. Now all I had to do was find kayaking gear and fix the website – oh joy!

To cut a long story short, I stayed up till 2am then got up at 5.30am the next morning to try to sort the website. Thankfully, by the time I got on the ferry the next morning I was satisfied with how the website was looking and my efforts weren’t in vain!

SusExp 2009 Day -1: Stirling to Barra

2009-08-04T10:39:00.002Z

The first day of holidays! After packing all the gear the night before, tidying the flat, and failing in my last attempt to try and use the online web editing software, I set off on the bus at 9.20. Nobody wants to hear about a bus journey. 2.5 hours later I arrived in Oban. It was my first time on the mainland west coast in a while so that was nice. I popped into Outside edge to pick up a few things – they have kindly given us sponsorship in the form of a discount, so stocked up: 10m tow line; cow’s tail with karabiner at both ends; and some glow sticks. Got wireless internet while waiting in the Cal Mac office, so sent a few e-mails, had a wee snooze, and jumped on the ferry. The ferry journey passed quickly, bumping into one or two people I hadn’t seen in a while, and eating the world renowned Cal Mac macaroni and cheese – mmm mmm. So…5 hours and 20ish minutes I arrived in Barrabados where my ma was waiting.

It was good to be back home. There was a festival on, the Barrafest that I knew loads of old friends would be at, so I was kind of sad to be missing that, but there was just too much to do tomorrow. It’s always nice to arrive home. Anyway, I’m writing this blog for you to read about sustainable expeditions, not my personal life, so I’ll move on.

P.S. Due to technical logisitics issues, I'll need to wait till the end of the trip before uploading photos. I'm sure there'll be a few good ones so please check back - thanks!

A Week on the Edge: D9 – Taransay to Barra via Leverburgh

2009-08-03T06:12:00.003Z

Now on the warm down to the trip. Well into a routine now, we lifted the anchor and set off from Taransay for Leverburgh. The weather was fine, nice journey. Arrived safely. Just in time to catch the ferry from Leverburgh to Berneray. And so the trip came to and end.

If you’re just reading this, I did do a longer write up of the days 3, 4 and five which were the main paddles and rest day…probably the most interesting of the St Kilda trip.

Now 7am…I’m away to Skye for a paddle…

A Week on the Edge: D8 – A day on the Elinca

2009-08-03T06:12:00.001Z

A day on the anchor in the bay on south side of Taransay. Good chance to relax and read my book.

A Week on the Edge: D7 – Conachair (430m) then St Kilda to Taransay

2009-08-03T06:11:00.000Z

No time to write anything for this either. In short, I climbed the hill, Conachair, then we set off back to the ‘mainland’. It was a bit of a gale and the swell was pretty big. Nevertheless, we made it to Taransay safely.

A Week on the Edge: D6 - Another day of rest

2009-08-03T06:10:00.000Z

Just found out I’ve lost this bit of text. Had written in last night but can’t have saved it!! (I thought computer’s weren’t supposed to let that happen anymore?) No time to write it again. The title says it all. I can’t remember what I did but it probably wasn’t much, probably got up late and went to bed early. Moving on…

A Week on the Edge: D5 – A day of rest

2009-08-03T06:08:00.002Z

Today's been a day of relaxing and recovering , both from yesterday's epic paddle and list night's whisky. Didn't sleep great, maybe due to dehydration from drinking. Spent morning tired but chatty, chatting to Julie and Uwe who headed off in the helicopter – the end of their bird counting stint on St Kilda. Fell asleep in the afternoon for a few hours – afternoon sleeping's great – mental note: do that more often! After waking I felt refreshed thankfully. Had a shower, brushed my teeth and felt like a new man! Moved the tent as this would be my fifth night of camping, to save affecting the grass below too badly. I'd been invited for dinner by the NTS work party so went to the cottage for a great hot meal. It was a nice privilege to sit at a table, with people, drinking wine – a welcome break from camping – in return for showing some photos on a laptop: good deal for both parties I think! The group went to the Puff In after, so after sitting outside in the rain, quickly downing a pint, I went back to the tent.

A Week on the Edge: D4 – Crossing Boreray and climbing Mullach an Eilean (384m)

2009-08-03T06:07:00.001Z

Today was without a doubt the most amazing one-day sea paddle I've ever done! It hadn't clicked before now that I was actually on St Kilda, but when I was paddling across to Boreray and the gannets were flying overhead, it clicked, and life suddenly seemed very simple – free from worry and able to just be aware of the experience of now.

When I woke up I made a tuna sandwich before anything else because I was so hungry and just wanted food straight away, then fried some sausages and mushrooms to have in another sandwich. Sat chatting to Julie and Uwe most of the morning, thinking about where I'd paddle that day – Boreray was top of the list! So it came to 12 o'clock, I still had a few hours of the north going flood tide left, so I got my stuff together and set off. The crossing was into a small swell which slowed me slightly, nevertheless, one hour later I got to Boreray – wow! I started paddling anticlockwise round the island and passed the landing point which –being a near vertical rocky face with 1m of swell and coated in barnacles – didn't exactly look appealing! 'Would I land there?' I thought to myself. I thought I'd paddle round first and mull over it. A few minutes later I decided 'yes' – this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I wasn't prepared to miss. Sure it was a tad risky, but what' life without risk? I round the north side of Boreray and slowly Stac an Armin came into sight, towering from the ocean below. Thousands of gannets spiralled above my head.

The swell calmed slightly on the north side which was comforting. Coming round to the west side of Stac an Armin I looked up in awe at the shear cliff face of the highest (190m) sea stack in the British Isles. Found a cave near the bottom of the cliff – as with all caves I'd been in, I was thrilled and sacred in equal measures, wondering if any of the actively eroding rock would choose to fall at that moment.

Crossing back to Boreray was like watching a scene from Lord of the Rings, craggy steep slopes towering from the sea then disappearing into the cloud.

I disturbed a few common seals who were as surprised to see me as I was them! And so I rounded the south tip and got back to the landing spot. This would be the culmination of my 5 star sea kayak training and practice. Having decided on my plan of action, I got my tow rope out, tied it to myself and the boat, slipped into the water and swam over to the barnacle covered rocks, waited for the swell to life me to a step, then climbed up. Pulled boat round and after some painful and dangerous lifting, both for me and the boat, up the near vertical face, I managed to secure the boat using a few climbing anchors.

Phew! Then the next challenge – the rock climb up to the steep grassy slopes – not very technically difficult, but the level of exposure and consequence was unlike anything I'd ever done before in my limited climbing experience! And so I ascended, keeping clear of the cliff edge and eventually reaching the top. Although only after passing the test of the Great Skuas who when I neared the top, continuously took turns at dive bombing me while I dived to the ground to avoid them. (Spot the Skua in the photo below, before it took off to take its turn. Skua videos on the SusExp Youtube page.)

I cautiously approached the summit and, being s?*! scared of heights (or at least standing at the edge of high cliffs) I peered over the summit to thankfully see a steep grassy slope, instead of an overhang into an abyss.

I spent 5 minutes at the top then made my way back down, taking my sweaty crocs off for easier walking and to use as a shield against the Skuas. The descent down the grassy slopes was pleasant but the down climb on the rocks to the boat was definitely a lot more intimidating than the climb up. I did the rough water landing sequence in reverse, jumping into the water then getting back in my boat by getting a leg over and shuffling up the back of the boat.

Relieved to be relatively safe again, I set off back to Hirta, running with the swell and the wind, but nursing a strained elbow which was complaining about the steep reintroduction to sea paddling. 45 minutes later, after some surfing and avoiding the cruise ship, I arrived in Village Bay, completely satisfied with what had been my most amazing sea paddle...ever! Had a wee chat with who had sailed from the Monach Isles in a tiny boat and was camping on the boat with a sheet over the boom – what an incredible journey that must have been – before going into relax. I think I was more relaxed on the water today after experiencing and getting used to the bigger swells yesterday.

The rest of the night is another story which involved Ian the NTS ranger, Glynn the NTS archaeologist, Will the Skua Man, Julie and Uwe, a nice hot meal at a table, whisky and honey schnapps, and lots of laughter tales about the recent weeks.

A Week on the Edge: D3 – Circumnavigation of Hirta and Soay

2009-08-03T06:05:00.004Z

Today was a day of very mixed feelings, from fearing for my life to being deliriously happy to be alive – the latter probably induced by making it through a few situations alive! - And all those no so extreme feelings in between: but mainly fear. It was a day of risk and adventure, and seriously questioning my reasons for doing this, and rediscovering the answer. A day when I felt lonely and would have appreciated company, but also appreciated the loneliness that solitude brings and the insightful perspective on life that can bring.

I set off on my paddle after a breakfast of sausage and mushroom sandwiches and mint tea. There were many high and low points today – I'll try and distil into the most interesting...

I left the bay through the gap between Dun and Hirta and set off west. The south coast of Hirta is incredible, a baron, rough vertical landscape, punctuated by dykes, dotted with sea birds and rendered with plants. Coming into the swell was pretty intimidating, it's hard to say how big the swell was but at times it was probably around 10 feet – this was a calm day. Dodging in and out between the skerries, going in as close as I felt comfortable with, I explored the caves – I couldn't really go that close because there were so many waves crashing on rocks and so much white water it would have been crazy even by my standards. I got to the gap between Soay and Hirta and eyed up an arch.

For a short while I'd been hearing a banging and thought I might have been taking on water and it was sloshing around in the boat. Just then I looked behind me and say my day hatch cover was off! Disaster – all the flares were soaked! This was a big problem. After a couple of minutes of trying to work out how this had happened and trying to decide what to do, I came to the conclusion that I would just carry on – what use were flares when I had neither mobile phone or VHF signal and the nearest lifeboat was probably half a day away?! This is the thing I really enjoy about paddling on your own, you've only got yourself to worry about and can do what you want – not to say I don't enjoy paddling with other people too – but the lack of responsibility for anyone other than yourself is quite liberating.

Back to the arch...after waiting for a calm period I went for it, just as I did a wave rolled across the gap and pushed me towards the rocks. At this point I decided I wanted to live another day, paddled backwards as fast as I could, and went round the safe way. Rounding Soay was pretty cool.

Found a huge blow hole (see SusExp Youtube video soon to be uploaded) on the west side, then continued round CCW back round to the gap again. Going straight for the safer gap I was faced with a difference challenge – the south-going tide was running through, not that fast but enough to make it wee bit choppy and to take a bit longer.

I was relieved to get to the calmer north side of Hirta and enjoyed the relatively relaxed paddle along the coast towards to cliffs. A lovely bit of coast for exploring some huge caves and arches – all of which I tried to get quickly in and out of as a boulder fell last year from one of the arches.

The lack of control you have in these situations sends shivers down my spine and adrenalin pumping through my veins. I just think 'one fall and that's it...over'. Good for making you appreciate life. So I got to the cliffs below Conachair – at 430m they're the highest sea cliffs in the British Isles. The cave I went into below these cliffs made me feel particularly insignificant and powerless, so I took a quick photo then carried on.

Looking up the cliffs that disappear into the cloud which had a golden glow from the sun was truly awesome – it was like some exotic tropical island. To be honest I don't feel words can do justice, but hopefully a photo can go part way.

Adrenalin still pumping I continued round, now keen to get back for some proper food – I had munched my way through a pack of jelly babies. Also keen for a shower as I'd had to just do a pee in my gear a few times as getting out of the boat wasn't really an option I liked – plus you can't beat that initial warm feeling. Moving on... I rounded the north point and got back to the tent for a dinner of tuna-may sandwiches and chocolate biscuits. I'm lazy with cooking but all my easy food is running out and soon I'll have to start cooking something!

A Week on the Edge: D2 – Round Dun and through an arch

2009-08-03T06:03:00.001Z

Now writing this at 6am the morning before I leave for the Skye trip, I’m tight for time, so I’ll need to make this succinct….

After another tasty meal on the Elinca, including some of Angus' fine scrambled egg and everything else that is part of a good healthy Scottish breakfast (Stornoway black pudding), we went back on the island. I said hello to a few people then tried to decide what to do…I had to go for a paddle…just s short one. So I got kitted up and set off on a trip round Dun - there (were) a few arches that I wanted to see if I could get through.

Needed and easier day to get used to the swell before the bigger paddles, so this was it. I headed out the gap between Dun and Hirta, sat bobbing around for a bit getting used to the swell, then turned left. Coastline similar to Hirta (see day 3). Nice introduction to the swell. Found an arch and after timing it to avoid breakers, got through safely…a few crashed in scaring me though…I suppose it’s partly the fact that the waves are all much louder in caves/arches that makes them seem worse. Maybe they weren’t that bad, but it was my first day paddling since last summer, so I was erring on the side of cautious. So I got through, went back across the bay, practiced some self rescues, went in and had tuna sandwiches for dinner and read my book.

A Week on the Edge: D1 (Berneray to) Leverburgh to St Kilda on the Elinca

2009-08-03T06:01:00.001Z

After a good night's sleep I was ready for the next step in the journey. The ferry left around 7ish, had a fine crossing, beautiful day, flat water. The way the ferry weaves in and out of the islands to cross the sound is worth the journey for that experience alone – the Christmas tree of red and green lights leading the skipper safely. Some great islands for camping here, but also a fair bit of tide coming through at times – check the yachtsman's pilot for the western isles if you'd like to confuse yourself. As we got closer I saw the tallest mast at Leverburgh pier and new this must be the Elinca.

So we arrived in Leverburgh, and sure enough, the Elinca was preparing to leave. Skippered and run by Angus Smith and his son Innes who have a company called Beyond the Blue Horizon based in Stornoway, the Elinca was one of the few boats designed for the BT Global Challenge, a 67-foot steel hulled boat that'll stand to most things (as testified by Angus and Innes!).

I carried my boat and gear over, said hello to everyone, tied my boat down securely, packed the bags away and started helping. Innes and Angus kindly offered me the lift out (and back) in return for peeling potatoes, pulling ropes, and washing dishes. Innes wasn't slow to start me on these tasks – thanks Innes. Even if you're paying for the trip, it's great value for what you get.

So we untied, and set off. A fine day for a crossing, we headed west – next stop St Kilda!! I hadn't been on a yacht in a while – since May last year, on the Elinca, heading out in the Minch to test some of Angus' new rigging – so it was a real privilege. The sea was relatively flat and crossing was like crossing a desert waiting for the mirage of palm trees that is the St Kilda archipelago. To cut a long (5-hour) story short, we arrived safe and sound. Seeing St Kilda appear on the horizon was half the excitement, and after rounding Boreray with its stunning sea cliffs and surrounding Stac and islands – Stac Lee and Stac and Armin (the highest sea Stac in the British Isles) – we parked in Village Bay. Wow, it's like some different world. I couldn't believe we were actually in St Kilda.

It was still earlyish in the day so we went ashore on the tender, I set up my tent in the campsite (small area with a few walls dedicated to campers), said hello to a few locals – Julie and Ewe, who were counting birds for the RSPB. Walked into the Puff Inn, the pub on St Kilda which is only usable by the military base (there's a missile tracking range) and NTS sponsored staff. The NTS ranger for 2009 is Ian who I asked for, said hello to, and found out he knew nothing about me coming! Funny seeing as I'd been e-mailing the NTS about this for months, however, I'll gloss over that one with the caveat that I felt bad for Ian because I arrived unannounced and he seemed pretty shocked. Although, there was a surprise in store, which I think redeems me.

Had a tasty dinner and sleep aboard the Elinca.

A Week on the Edge: D0 (Stirling to) Barra to North Uist via Glasgow airport

2009-08-03T05:39:00.001Z

The first few days I didn't keep a journal and, writing this 2 months after, I'm struggling to remember the details. But I'll try what I can, without putting in any boring details. No need to mention the train journey from Stirling to Glasgow – trains are trains. However, people come from all over the world to do the Glasgow-Barra flight, so it's worth a mention. The weather was fine – in the Aberdonian sense, as in fine is good. It was a sunny day. I love the flight on a good day because you see so many iconic parts of Scotland: Glasgow; the Clyde; Arran; most of Argyll and Bute; Islay, Jura, Scarba; the famous Grey Dogs tidal race (the Corryvreckan Whirlpool's more gentle wee brother); the bridge over the Atlantic; Mull and Iona; Ardnamurchan point; Coll and Tiree; Canna, Rum, Eigg and Muck; and 1 hour later, as if saving the best till last, Barra. Sometimes if you're lucky the pilot goes the scenic route, coming up through from the most southerly islands Berneray (Barra Head) and Mingulay – the view of the cliffs on Barra Head and Mingulay is amazing!

After landing on the beach and getting my bag and waiting for my dad to finish work as the security guard I had to get home and sort all the kayaking stuff and be on a ferry to Eriskay 3 hours later. After inflating the new Handirack (roof rack that fits on any car with 4 opening windows – or can be made to fit on a 2 opening window car if you use the boot) - great value at £55ish for a roof rack that'll fit almost any car – collecting all the paddling and saying a quick hello to the folks I was on the ferry with my mum driving to Berneray ready to get the ferry across the Sound of Harris the next morning. Stayed in North Uist Outdoor Centre, and handy wee stop just outside Lochmaddy.

The Environment

2009-02-02T20:38:00.006Z

While at work today, I was stuck for motivation, so I thought I would try to write about something I was inspired to write about...it happened to be some environmental issues.

I'm currently looking into more natural and sustainable methods of making kayaks. There is a manufacturer who makes resin from 95% vegetable oil derived products, which I might end up getting a kayak made with. I'm going to write a report weighing up the advantages and disadvantages that there will be from this. While writing a draft plan, one of the questions I plan to address is 'how can these materials help the environment?' Two answers I can see are that organically produced materials are renewable, and that fossil fuel based materials will in the long term, run out.

I think one of the problems is that in some ways, humans operate like business, i.e. in the interests of personal gain and reducing costs. This is most prominent in terms of effort. In business, traditionally the environment is viewed as an externality, which means it's a cost that the affected party does not take a decision on, and will only pay it if they have to. In some ways, it is not in our interest to look after the environment in the short term as it is more effort. However, in the long term, not caring for the environment may cause more costs than investing in preserving the environment now. Which then got me asking myself, why should we care for the environment? The immediate answers that came into my head were:

to invest in the future, for our children

environmental stability

respect for the environment including all the animals and plants around us

if we run out of resources, they will get more expensive, wars will start, and it's only a matter of time. Resources will run out.

So I then thought, why should we not bother about the environment?

we're living for now, live life as richly as possible

who cares about the future

we can and will adapt

easier to do nothing

It seems to me that none of the latter are long term solutions. So I then tried to look more objectively. What are the problems?

There are so many people, and it's only an increasing problem! The less people there are, the longer our energy will last

Energy generation and waste are only second order problems. The are symptoms of the causes, which are that we could use less energy, and we could waste less. I think that if we have waste at all, we have done something wrong. In pre-industrial times people lived on what they had around them, and wasted much less - the only waste was probably organic, which got put back into the ground as fertiliser, or fed other animals. Instead of staying up when it's dark, with lights on, listening to music and watching TV, people maybe played simple instruments or chatted or played games or just went to sleep.

I guess it must come down to individual's decisions about how you want to live your life - I'm not here to tell anyone how to live their lives. Do you want to consume as much as possible in the conception that this is a richer life, or consume as little as possible, or somewhere inbetween? The extremes could be:

A high earning investment banker or CEO who flies to work, has a huge office with the heating on, but windows open so it's warm but feels fresh. He relaxes at lunch time in a jacuzzi. He goes home to a huge house and huge family, walks around in a t-shirt in the winter time with the heating on, and flies away for a relaxing holiday at least 3 times per year to lovely exotic places. Is this a successful person in our current society?

A family of 3: 2 parents, 1 child, hence reducing the net population once the parents are gone, will reduce. They live in a small cottage in the UK by the sea. They grow their own vegetables and have their own animals, and rarely have to go to the shops, but when they do, they buy local produce. When they are on holiday from work they prefer to stay at home and just read books, or go down to the shore or up the hills with their children and neighbour's children. Their house is insulated well beyond the minimum that the government recommend, so they don't have much of a heating bill, but when they do get cold, they put a fleece on. They also have lots of trees planted around the garden which their family have lived in for generations, so if they're cold, the chop some wood from their totally self sustaining forest. Life is simple but satisfying. Not much development, but they have everything they need to survive - food, fuel, and their close friends and family. The are all experts at surviving on what they have around them, being skilled hunters, farmers and craftsmen.

I know which I'd prefer, but it's not that simple. There are an infinite number of possibilities inbetween. It's not that I'm against the first example or for the latter example. But I know which way that I'd personally lean and prefer. Although I don't know eactly where I stand on it.

I'll leave you with that thought. Nothing conclusive, just food for thought. Thanks for reading and please keep looking for progress on the next SusExp trip which will be round Skye.

Caffeine fuelled inspiration...

2009-01-18T19:50:00.004Z

I haven't written in a while, since the last day of my expedition up the Western Isles in May 2008. This trip was a truly amazing journey for me, much more than I ever thought it would be, from so many different perspectives.

I'm sitting in Portsmouth, with my relatively new job doing renewable energy project management, which I'm about to be made redundant from due to restructuring, so I'm coming back to Scotland! I can't wait. Even though I was aware of it, it's surprised me how much moving away has made me realise what I miss and what I want to go back to.

So I'm planning the next Sustainable Expeditions trip: Round Skye for a few weeks in July (or August). I'm hopefully going to know much more about living in the outdoors, what you can and can't eat. And hopefully will get a lot more local produce as well. Also, because it's more accessible, I'm hoping that some paddling buddies will be able to come along. I'd really love to have some outdoorsy people along who can help contribute to the cause that is learning more about being self sufficient. So, the plans continue. I've got a boat manufacturer who's interested in giving me a boat made majorly from natural ignredients, so we'll see how that goes. Watch this space! And please get in touch if you have any thoughts/ideas/opinions.

Ciao for now.

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

2008-06-03T10:26:00.001Z

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

2008-06-03T10:25:00.001Z

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

2008-06-03T10:24:00.002Z

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

2008-06-03T10:23:00.001Z

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.

Day 24: Reef, West Loch Roag

2008-05-29T19:33:00.004Z

Today's been a day of rest that was well needed after yesterday.

I only woke up at 12am when the sun woke me from being too hot. I finished writing the journal entry from yesterday because I fell alseep while writing it last night. After that I got up, rinsed my salty clothes using the tap at the nearby campsite, hung them up, had breakfast (bread + jam) and drank some water.

I needed to get some more emergency food after eating it all yesterday so I wondered into Valtos to find a shop. Unluckily there was none but luckily I went to say hello to Alison/Paul who told me where the nearest shop was and lent me a bike. I cycled there and splashed out - a bag of assorted caramels and two dairy milks emergency food and a can of tango which was great! (I disposed of it in the nearby recycling skip.) Then cycled back to Valtos, picking up some mussels on the way back, where Alison/Paul invited me in for a cup of tea.

We chatted for a few hours then went for a barbecue on the beach where we had potatoes, mussels, scallops, Halumi cheese (sheep's cheese), skewers with vegetables and chocolate cake. I didn't eat many potatoes, so they'll do for lunch and dinner tomrrow. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways, neither more than 1km, mine less than 100m to my bivvy.

So I'm lying here in the dunes writing this having just watched an awesome sunset over the hills. I just heard the forecast on the VHF - NE4/5, 6 in the north - not good at all! I doubt I'll either make it or attempt to make it to the Carloway tomorrow.

Mealasta to West Loch Roag (13.5Nm, 7hrs) via Aird Bhreinis, Ard Mor Mangurstadh & Gallan Head

2008-05-29T18:30:00.004Z

Today was without a doubt the hardest day of the expedition so far, both physically and mentally.

I started off well. I planned the trip the night before and set my alarm for 7am so I could be away by 9ish. After a few 'snoozes' I got up and ate my pre-cooked porridge. The wind was chillingly cold so I sheltered behind a rock to eat. Then I packed stuff up, dragged the boat to the water's edge and packed it. Ready to go at 9.15am, fantastic, my earliest day yet!
It was still pretty breezy, probably F4/5 gusting 6. I had four headlands to round, with exposed open crossings in between and knew it wasn't going to be easy. So I set off, full of porridge/jam, on what was going to be the most difficult paddle of my life so far. What followed was 7hrs (not including breaks) into a F5/6 wind. At first, while I was still fresh, it wasn't too bad and I found refuge in the numerous inlets which although were still breezy, there were spots that were pretty sheltered. I had to have two lunches to keep me going, which were pasta and sauce, and beef olives, thanks to Iain from STV. I made it to the headlands one by one, Mangurstadh was a bleak place with spectacular cliffs and rock gardens, but nothing living there, no plants or birds - the rocks all looked new which made me think it was still eroding relatively fast. It didn't feel like a place that humans should be, so I carried on. The headlands behind me seemed to take forever to get closer! Eventually I got to Gallan Head and had another toilet/lunch stop. I felt refreshed but knew if something went wrong after this and I ended up on the rocks, me and my boat were as good as bananas in a food blender. So I carried on. The worst bit of swell was the first bit where the sea bed shallowed and the waves were reflecting and interfering with each other. I very slowly watched Gallan Head get further away. This was the worst part and I seriously questions my reasons for doing the trip. I cursed and swore and screamed as loud as I could at the wind and the waves as they played with me like a puppet.

I ate the last of the emergency food - boiled sweets - and was determined to make it! I could write a book about this, but to cut a long story short, eventually I made it to the camp site in West Loch Roag. I was wet and cold and needed to change into dry clothes. Then I needed to get away from the sea and the boat, so I took a walk into the village to use the phone. While I was on the phone telling family I was still alive, Paul who I'd met on the beach yesterday, popped round outside the box, signalling beer + food, which I was only too happy to accept! Paul and Alison gave me a nice pasta with tomato and vegetable sauce, then home made ice cream with Scottih raspberries and strawberries. Then offered me a shower which again I gratefully accepted - I also felt at least a kilogram lighter after the shower. On my way out Alison gave me a still-hot freshly baked cake. Again, I'm touched by the friendliness and generosity of the people I have met. I also left my sandals on Mealasta, so Paul gave me an old pair of shoes.

So I walked back to my campsite, hung clothes to dry and fell asleep in my bivvy, minus the tarp because if it's not going to rain, then it's more trouble than it's worth. I ate the whole of the cake on the 15min walk back!

Day 22: Mealasta

2008-05-29T16:20:00.003Z

Well, today's been eventful as usual. It's 6pm and I'm writing now because I've got time and because I need to get sleep early for an early start in the morning.

Eventful as it was, it's also been nice and relaxed. I got up at 9am, wrote the blog for yesterday, then for the fire going for breakfast. There was no heather close by so I made it my goal to light the fire with one bit of paper which worked just fine. I made some kindling sticks, as in bits thin enough that they would catch light quickly from the paper. Crumple the paper, pile some kindling on top, light the paper and hay presto - fire! Then lightly pile on progressively larger bits of wood (but not too soon). Then get some nice square stones to put the grill on. So I cooked some porridge for breakfast in the morning with jam and boiled some water for tead.

STV came at 11am(ish) and we did a wee bit of filming which will be on North Tonight either tomorrow (Monday) or the day after - fantastic! This is what the whole expedition's about - raising awareness and making people think. Iain McIver from and Michael the cameraman from STV were unbelievably kind, bringing gifts of locally baked bread, free range eggs, beef 'olives' (local beef), jam and salmon! I was set up.

After that I went to get some heather to light the fire again, it was a nice 15min walk up the hill which allowed me to look over yesterday's journey from Husinish - all 11km of it!

So I cooked dinner on the fire which had been kept going since PJ, Lewis, Nina, Suzie, Frin (the last three being the 'Lewis/Harris bikini girls') and Kara had cooked their lunch. Potatoes and beef olives (mincemeat rolled up in slices of beef) with stew - lovely! The porridge is cooking just now so I don't have to cook in the morning.

So now I'm sitting next to the fire, it's another nice night and there's some sorrel growing at the river so I'm going to get some vitamins! This place is idyllic, but then so were all the other places! I've packed the boat ready to try and leave at 9am.

Food today: breakfast - oatmeal with jam; lunch/dinner - potatoes, beef olives & sorrel.

Day 21: (Morning after) Husinish to Mealasta (6Nm, 3hrs)

2008-05-29T14:53:00.004Z

Yesterday had potential to be one of the worst days of the expedition so far and in some ways, it was.

Through the night, the rock for the tarp line had moved and the tarp had come off the pole and was flapping around. Then the pot of porridge I had precooked blew over so I had to get up again to cover it. Then through the night the wind picked up which was pushing the tarp down on me as if the elements wanted to bully me a bit after all the good weather so far. I woke up in the morning at 9am and looked at the porridge, it was covered in sand, so breakfast was cold sandy porridge with jam. Then I planned the trip, Husinish to Gallan Head (19Nm). The only problem was that it was blowing force 4-5 NE or E which was totall the wrong direction for me. It would be 10+ hours to Gallan Head, so I planned to just see how far I got and camp wherever that may be.

So I set off. I should have been up much earlier, and have now vowed to plan trips at the latest the night before. I made slow progress, quartering into a F5. Eventually I made it across the bay to more sheltered water. The coastline to the east looked awesome for exploring but I had to resist. I continued, making better progress in the shelter. So many inlets that I wanted to explore but I knew I had to push on. I was now looking for a lunch spot. Eventually I found a nice beach at Mealasta.

And, of all the places I thought I'd find girls in bikinis, the west coast of Harris wasn't one of them! After nice chats and gifts of cheese sandwiches and apples, I set off again. The journey got more negative again. I was going to have to paddle directly into a F5-6 for 3k to get to the next stop. I checed the GPS and was managing to make 0.5kph! Then I heard to forecast on the VHF - F4-5, 5-6 in the Outer Hebrides. That was it, no way was I paddling into that. I turned around and with with an average speed of 7kph and a max speed of 13, I got back to the beach in no time!

I set up camp and went on the search for firewood and thanfully found some, but no heather. It was going to have to be a stove night. Luckily the Harris bikini girls as I called them, and PJ, offered me dinner which I accepted gratefully. A nice night of chat and whisky followed.

Day 20: Husinish, North Harris

2008-05-29T14:11:00.003Z

I say this every day, but again today has just been great, a slow start but great all the same. I'm sure other people might people might think this was boring, but I like it, here's why...

I woke up at 8am and wondered around for a while coming up with a plan of what to do today. A few things were on the list: find firewood + heather; find food; phone people like my folks, the coastguard, and the media to let them know I'm still alive and how it's going; find water. So I tried to start on my list of essential activities. I couldn't cook breakfast before finding firewood, but I was still weak from paddling, so I ended up falling asleep for an hour. After waking up again at 10am(ish) I went to search for wood and eventually found a palette - fantastic, I could have a fire tonight. I also tried to find a mobile signal up a hill but there was none. So after chopping the firewood and making a fireplace, I had a quick chat with a local guy who pointed me in the right direction, which ended up being a 45min walk along the road to the watershed where I could see the mobile phone mast to the east. So I made my calls and on the way back collected some dead heather and a wee bit of peat. Spea to friends/family was nice and I'm starting to look forward to coming getting home.

When I got back to camp I had to have another sleep, which I also did on the road back. I don't know if it's too hot or because I hadn't had enough food, or because I was still shattered from yesterday's paddle.

After I woke up I got cooking dinner, which tonight for lack of finding or catching anything was potatoes, a few spoonfulls of jam for pudding, and dried mint tea.

So now I'm sitting infront of the fire, drying my wellies, it's another nice night! I tidied the campsite and am looking forward to setting off again tomorrow. I've got loads of thoughts about the expedition, about what's possible and what isn't, about life and how we could/should life and the costs/benefits of different ways, but I'll save writing them till the end!

Food today: breakfast - bread + jam; lunch - hard boiled eggs + white pudding; dinner - potatoes.

Day 19: Berneray to Husinish, Harris

2008-05-29T13:34:00.006Z

Today has definitely been one of the best days of the expeditions - that's not saying much though because it's all been fantastic.

I was up at 7.30, woken by a flapping tarp which had come off my wooden peg. I had an easy start, packing my stuff away in my routine method at a relaxed pace, then went to the hostel to make breafast - porridge with jam. After saying goodbye to the travellers I had met, I carried on packing. I've got a happy routine system now: food and sleeping stuff in front; all emergency stuff including hot flask of coffee in the dat hatch, and everything else in the back hatch (clothes, electric stuff, paper/books.)

It was the windiest day so far today, at around F4/5 sometimes 6 east or southeast. I had the right maps out and planned the trip assuming 4kph into a F5, working with the tide in the Sound of Harris, and then it was off. It took a while to get across the Sound but once I got to the channel between Harris/Ensay the tide was taking me NW, great!

I rounded Toe Head and found some amazing caves where I had to make a precarious emergency toilet stop. The inlet with a beach I had planned to stop for lunch on unfortunately had boulders before the sand so I couldn't easily stop witout dragging my boat over rocks which I decided against, instead opting for a balancing act on submersed stones which resulted in my losing four slices of bread, and eating lasnight's pork off the bone and eating tonight's pudding - chocolate cake. Then the longest crossing so far, roughly 10Nm from Toe Head to Husinish, with Taransay on my right side. It was great paddling in a new place with new things to look at. I was seriously starting to wonder if I'd lost my passion for exploring and this totally refreshed my enthusiasm for it!

So I got to the N beach, set up camp - the best tarp set up yet, with a sand shelf for more height - phoned STV, helped people packing their boat for Scarp, cooked on MSR because there was no firewood. Now I'm lying here under the tarp, lovely night again. Expedition life is harder than a 'conventional' life but simpler.

Food today: breakfast - 2 portions of porridge with jam; lunch - pork + chocolate cake; potatoes and dried ham; 2 oranges from the Scarp people (David + Lesley), and a mug of coffee.

Day 17: Lochmaddy to Berneray (~12Nm, 4hrs)

2008-05-21T18:08:00.009Z

Today took ages to get started due to coming back from my mid-expedition break in Skye. I got back to Lochmaddy Outdoor Centre at 8.30ish lastnight and there were people there! It was nice to meet some new people: a bird photographer; some BT people; and a holiday cyclists. I managed to eventually leave the hostel 11.25pm. I worked out tidal stream times and planned the trip the night before, so it was just a matter of packing the boat.

I decided to leave a few things in the outdoor centre to pick up the the return journey. The Kelly Kettle, it's great, but takes up too much space when I already have pots that I can boil water in - though not as efficiently. Also left behind used maps and charts, face mask, sun hat and spare flask. It's all so far unused kit that I didn't want to be carrying.

I set off intending to have lunch on a skerry but didn't have time due to the late departure as the tide was turning, and the flood tide, which flows SE in the Sound of Harris, was at it' spring rate almost, in the wrong direction, so I wanted to avoid it as much as possible.

I got to the hostel shore, had a wee play in the tidal race that was flowing, then landed to set up camp. The east facing beach on Berneray is amazing and has a great view. There were no rocks at the campsite I chose on the machair so I had to chop some wood for tent pegs. The sand was too far away from camp and although I dug up the top layer of vegetation next to the camp, I decided in the end it would be best to just use the cooker at the Gatliff/SYHA hostel to save messing up the environment. The hostel's now been refurbished with aluminium foil lined insulation which makes it much lighter inside (roof was black before) and much warmer! I cooked dinner, had a few nice chats to people: German couple on 6 week tour of Scotland tour; NZ couple on Europe tour and a Glasgow couple just cycling around. So now I'm lying here, shattered from the day's padling.

Today's food: breakfast - porridge/jam; lunch - smoked salmon; dinner - potatoes, lamb chops, carrot.

Day 11: Roisinis to Lochmaddy (12Nm, 4hrs)

2008-05-15T20:53:00.002Z

Again I'm writing this in hindsight - was too tired and last night to write.

I'm sitting in Lochmaddy Outdoor Centre. Slept in the porch of the centre which was pretty luxurious, having a roof over my head and not having to set the tarp up. The paddle was good, as usual, in lots of ways, with a few challenges here and there.

I had a crap night's sleep so I ended up in 'bed' till 9am. I thought this was a wee bit late considering I had to get to Lochmaddy, so I skipped cooking anything and just had bread and jam, dragged my boat down to near the water's edge, then packed it.

I had this idea (above) when I was packing things away, that for the campers, it would be easier if a pile of stones was left at good campsites so they could be used to hold down tent pegs/tarps. In the long run, it would save energy because people wouldn't have to keep lugging stones backwards and forwards. Maybe this could catch on...'leave a pile, save a mile?!!'

Then the first oversight of the day…I usually plan the day's trip after packing the boat, but this time I was moving on to a different map, which I had already packed away! "Oh well" I thought to myself, "I'll do it without the map". So I set off along the coast hoping for a "Turn Left Here" sign - there was none, but I found Lochmaddy in the end. Throughout the day I had a severe case of having a sore bum - sitting in a kayak in the same position all day, no matter how much shoogling around and stretching you do, you get sore - maybe I need to pad my boat out a bit more. The next challenge was finding the outdoor centre, which after paddling down the wrong inlet (navigating from a vague childhood memory), then paddling back and asking someone, I found it.

I pulled my boat up, had a wee look in the centre to say hello – no one there - then went for a walk into town, used the internet in the museum, went to the nearest bar to find another place I could use the internet, got chatting, had a few pints, arranged to borrow someone's laptop so I could write up the blog. Then went back to the centre and met the people who were staying there - a group of divers who were there for the week diving off a wreck in the Sound of Harris. I had what was possibly my nicest tastiest dinner yet by making use of the oven – lamb chops, peeled potatoes and sorrel! MmmmMmmm! I also put the joint of lamb in the oven, went for a few more pints, wrote the blog in the pub on the guy’s laptop, then went back to take the meat out which had been slow cooking on 150 deg C for a few hours – it was perfectly cooked, just by luck because I hadn’t timed it. There are lots of good things about this place, one of which is that there’s Sorrel – I’ve only found it where people have lived or are living and no where else, so I’m eating as much as I can to get as much green stuff as possible!

Day 10: Roisinis to Carinish, RTN (12Nm, 4hrs)

2008-05-15T20:51:00.002Z

I'm lying in my bivvy bag at the end of another good day. I'm lacking inspiration to write - maybe a few swigs of whisky will help - yup, that's better...

Today was a day of rest. I used the MSR petrol stove, to save effort of collecting heather, to cook porridge with jam. I enjoyed the porridge more than I ever have before, enjoying the change from concentrated protein breakfasts of eggs and blackpudding. After breakfast I went for a wash in the nearby loch and took the opportunity to wash some clothes too. It was unbelievable refreshing, after I'd got over the shock, splash my face, rub myself down with sphagnum moss and go for a swim.

After some sunbathing I made a shopping list and set off for a day trip to the shops to restock. It was a longer paddle than I had thought, however I was working with the tide, so that was nice. I got to Carinish Inn to have a pint and hopefully find some local producers. I didn't find the latter, but the pint was great - a nice cold Tenant’s Lager! After chatting to people I got a list to the nearest shop, got some locally produced food (bread, jam, oatmeal) and walked back to the boat.

A pleasant paddle back in the sun followed. The weather was just fantastic! I got back at 6pm and started preparing dinner: cleaning mussels; peeling potatoes; and collecting heather + firewood. Tonight's dinner was the most decadent yet - venison + mussels, potatoes, with golden syrup cake (baked in the UK), although I ate the cake first! It was all really nice, but I'm longing for fresh fruit and vegetables!

I'm happy that I've now caught up with daily writing and video diary entries. Pretty tired...

Day 10: (Morning after…) Loch Ayenort to Roisinis (20Nm, 7hrs 30mins)

2008-05-15T20:49:00.002Z

I’m lying on top of my bivvy bag in the morning sun, listening to the wind up radio. It’s a program about a play on the selfishness that is almost forced upon people in a capitalist economy. I would have written last night but I was too tired after the long day.

Yesterday was my longest paddle ever, both by distance and time (20Nm, 7.5hrs) and was my latest arrival of the expedition so far (7.30pm). The day started in the Otter hide. I got up, found breakfast in the boat (sea gull and hens eggs and Stornoway black pudding), cooked it on the camp fire, then went up to get some water from Archie’s tap and say a last good bye. One and a half hours later I left, after a cup of tea, bit of cake and an in depth look at the weather forecast on the internet.

So I was off on what would be my longest day so far. I set off at 11.45am – I wanted to be away at 10.30am. The tide was now ebbing, which means its flowing south in the Minch and would be against me all the way.

To cut a long paddle short, it was amazing. I watched a sea eagle patrolling the coast, watching me, being pestered by the gulls and oyster catchers. I saw my second lighthouse of the trip on Uisinish point, made a 6Nm open crossing, ate my emergency mars bar, worked on my forward paddling (constantly), paddled into one of the best caves I’ve ever been in, had to navigate using a compass and map for the first time on the expedition to find my way through all the skerries and inlets to find the right one, and eventually arrived at Roisinis point at 7.30pm. I wanted to use the emergency stove but instead went to collect firewood and heather, peeled potatoes, packed my lithe full of chives/wild garlic/dried ham, cooked it up, and had a few spoonfuls of jam for pudding.

I now feel pretty connected with nature and a bit disconnected with civilisation and the rat race – both good things I think – not that there is much of a rat race in Barra, or at least not from my point of view. Maybe there is for other people, but not many I don’t think – Barra’s too relaxed a place for anyone to be in a race other than the Craigard or the Castlebay Bar.

Today’s food: sea gull + hens eggs, Stornoway black pudding; mars bar; lithe stuffed with wild garlic + chives and potatoes; jam.

Day 9: (Morning) Preparing to leave Loch Ayenort for Roisinis

2008-05-15T20:47:00.002Z

I was too tired to write last night, so I'm now sitting on a rock on the shore in Loch Ayenort, in front of the fire that I cooked breakfast on and am now burning some peat, which has got a lovely yellow coloured ash and nice smell. The morning sun (9am) is casting a pretty light on the Loch, and I'm just about to start packing my boat before going up to say a final good bye to Archie, Angie, Margaret and Graham, who are some of the most generous and hospitable people I've ever met - thank you for all your help!

Yesterday was as usual, a good day. I got the fire going for breakfast, cooked some porridge with jam and boiled some water for a flask for tea, collecting some of the leaves that Archie said could be used for medicinal tea - I later found it was Comfrey.

Then I went up to meet Alistair McEachan, who again was very kind. We had already arranged by e-mail to meet, so Alistair came with gifts of Record potatoes, lamb chops, a joint of lamb and a leg of venison! That'll be on the grill tonight with a few herbs! We had a cup of tea with Alistair before he left.

Then it was off fishing with Archie along a few headlands and reefs out of Loch Ayenort. My fishing attempts so far had failed, so I was eager for success! And to cut a long story very short, it was successful and by the end of a few hours we had over ten lithe and sathe. Also on the trip out we collected some pigeon Cach from a cave, saved a lamb from certain death on a cliff, collected some sea gull eggs which I just hard boiled for breakfast and lunch, and collected some mussels which are tonight's dinner together with fish and venison, or maybe I'll save the venison and mussels for tomorrow!

We had a nice tea with chicken soup, mussels, Barra (Jimmy Ferguson's) pork with Alistair's potatoes, and some jelly for pudding.

I've learned quite a bit over this few days, not least that mussels like a bit of fresh water. So with my faith in humanity refreshed and my water bottles full, I head off to face the next challenge...

Day 7: Blue Lagoon to Loch Ayenort (16Nm, 6hrs)

2008-05-15T20:45:00.001Z

Another good day - the longest yet. It has been a day that I could not have predicted. I am now of all places, in luxury accommodation – an Otter Hide - it has four walls, a door, a roof, and even a window! The events of today that led up to this were...

I was up at 7.30am for an early start to the long day ahead. I wanted to see how long it took me to get ready, for future reference. It came in a cool total of 2hrs 15mins, including collecting heather, starting a fire and cooking breakfast.

So yesterday I set off on what was to be the longest distance I've paddled yet. It was the second bit of virgin water that I had paddled on the trip, the first being round Berneray/Mingulay, only this time I wouldn't be home for three weeks. It was quite refreshing to be paddling a coastline that I hadn't paddled before, with new things to look at, though I knew that time was tight and that I had to get on. After a nice lunch spot just south of Loch Boisdale, and avoiding the CalMac ferry, I eventually made it to Loch Ayenort around 4.30pm.

When I got ashore I thought I would take advantage of the houses and ask for some water before trying to find a campsite. I got chatting to a guy called Archie, who offered me water, eggs, mussels from the shore below his house, and use of his phone, which I used to check-in with the Coastguard and arrange food pick ups. After some bartering, we arranged for me to do some peat cutting in return for dinner which I thought was a pretty good deal. Archie is going fishing tomorrow in his sailing boat and after yesterday's failed attempts, I'm keen to go along and see how it's done!

Today's food was: breakfast - hard boiled egg, Stornoway black pudding; lunch - bread, jam; dinner - home made soup, scallops fried in butter, oatmeal and cream, and mushroom risotto; and a cup of tea! Wow, creature comforts are great when you haven't had them for a while!

Since the expedition started, I've been noticing an increase in my general levels - maybe because my bodies getting used to the exercise! Also the skin on my hands has turned to leather!

Reflection on today: I was touched by Archie's friendliness, and what I'd like to think is a kind of Hebridean generosity and hospitality. He also offered to let me sleep in the Otter Hide that he built on the shore, which was a warm welcome change from under a tarp.

Day 6: Blue Lagoon (1-2Nm, 4 to 5hrs)

2008-05-15T20:22:00.001Z

I spent today trying to either catch or find food. Both failed, not for lack of trying.

It’s a nice night again, the mist has come in in the last few hours. That’ll be the forecast warm front I guess. It’s high water just now so the coast looks clean without the 2 to 3m of sea weed.

Firstly I was fishing on the north coast of Gighay with a rod and some mackerel feathers. I have to admit I’ve never caught a mackerel, or anything else now that I think about it, from the sea with a rod, and I had little faith that I was going to this time. I tried deep water, shallow water, flicking it up and down, towing it, but nothing. I came round a point and saw a cormorant looking alert and I thought he/she much be fishing, so I paddled over, scared it off, and had a shot – still nothing. Eventually I got a snag and lost my tackle, so that ended that fishing for the day.

Then I thought I’d try to find some other protein. I was hopeful for mussels. I searched high and low, under a food few stones, sweeping sea weed aside. By the end of my search I had found a grand total of six mussels, and left them where they were to help their sparse population. Does anyone know where mussels like to live?

So no protein for tonight’s dinner again then – unless there’s protein in the stringy sea weed that I cooked? The rest of the day’s time was taken up with collecting and boiling water, cooking dinner, moving the bivvy/tarp to get better shelter from the light shower, and of course the video diary, and planning tomorrow’s journey – approximately 15Nm.

Reflecting on the day, I’ve improved my cooking technique by using stones to support the grill instead of wood which means I’m not wasting wood.

Today’s food: breakfast – last night’s dinner; lunch – bread, jam; dinner – potatoes, shrubs, stringy sea weed, yoghurt cake.

Day 5: Castlebay to Gighay (Blue Lagoon) (6Nm, 3hrs)

2008-05-15T19:49:00.004Z

Today’s been another good day on the whole with its ups and downs. Trying to leave home this morning took ages because I had loads to do, including putting a Sustainable Expeditions sticker on the side of the boat. It seemed to take forever to get ready and I longed to get on the water in my kayak, where life is simpler.

So eventually I got on the water at 1.30pm after getting up at 6.30am to get ready! I was a wee bit stiff, but after my muscles had warmed up a wee bit it was fine – I could enjoy the paddling as usual. The weather has been fantastic – I think that’s the reason that my experiences have been so positive so far. It the weather was crap I’d probably be in a bad mood and thinking about quitting the trip by now. Anyway, it’s not, so I’ll carry on. I paddled along thee coast on a NE bearing which took me straight to the blue lagoon, after 3 hours of paddling. I feel happy going out to sea now – before I was a bit nervous about leaving the coastline.

Weather forecasts just came on the VHF from Stornoway Coastguard – that makes it 10.10pm – NE F3-4. No good for paddling up the Western Isles, but tomorrow is a hunter gatherer day so it’s ok.

I tried a bit of fishing with mackerel feathers on the way into the lagoon – no joy. I then had a look for mussels – also no joy. I chose my campsite for wood. I chose my campsite for the highest probability of driftwood. No protein in dinner, but it was probably the best dinner yet – potatoes with spinach, flavoured with chives and luvvage. Also, used half and half sea water/fresh water, which seemed to work fine – tatties were tasty. Then rhubarb sweetened with honey, all cooked on an open fire.

All building my level of challenge slowly, loving it so far!

Day 3: Mingulay to Castlebay (4hrs, 12Nm)

2008-05-07T13:56:00.004Z

Finishing the 1^st leg of my journey, it’s hard to say what has been the best bit so far! It’s all be been fantastic, the paddling, the camping on Mingulay, the wildlife. The circumnavigation was kind of like a warm up for me to get into swing of the expedition thing. It was a chance to paddle in a place I have wanted to paddle since I started paddling! Now my days not trying to get from A to B up the Western Isles will be spent trying to find and catch food.

The highlight of today was in the morning. The seal pups that were on the part of the beach I had camped, had over the 3 days got used to my presence. I didn’t bother them and they didn’t bother me - don’t know if we would have managed this with a group. When I got up in the morning there was one seal pup who didn’t mind me intruding on his beach at all…

I cooked my breakfast of duck egg and nettle omelette and Stornoway black pudding, boiled water for the flask (both on the MSR stove as I now had no wood to even try lighting a fire with), had a wee chat with the boat skipper who takes visitors to Mingulay, then headed off NE back to Castlebay.

Today’s food: breakfast - duck egg and nettle omelette; lunch - 2 x mars bars; dinner - local potatoes, Swiss chard, haggis, neaps, tatties.

Day 2: Round Berneray and Mingulay (4hrs, 12.5Nm)

2008-05-07T13:41:00.009Z

In one word, today was fantastic, totally making up for the difficulties of yesterday. In a few more words…I woke up this morning, the mist had come in, everything was damp, no chance of getting a fire going even with my emergency firewood imported from Barra. So again, I had to use the emergency stove! I was so hungry and couldn’t wait for porridge, so I had the rest of last night’s pork and potato stew and some of tonight’s pudding - home made carrot cake.

This has made me decide that I’m going to build the level of challenge slowly. It would be very hard for me to start the expedition, having honed all the skills that I will need, so I’m now looking on the trip as a progression of skills and an experiment as to what is actually possible.

I planned my trip round Berneray and Mingulay to work with the tide, first working out the HW/LW times, then working out tidal stream times, then planning a trip to work with the tides. I then did a specific risk assessment, identifying hazards on the planned trip, and identifying escape routes if anything happened (there weren’t many!). I was too tired to write up a journal entry at the time, but I’m writing it now, at home on the computer. Instead, this time, I’ll put a few photos in.

Morning sun shining through mist.

South coast of Berneray.

Cliffs and natural arch, W coast of Mingulay.

Grey seal pups.

There is something beautiful about the innocence of a place like this, not regularly visited or inhabited by humans, it felt like a new level of exposure and solitude. I kind of felt sad to be disturbing the seals in the environment they usually have to themselves. A couple of motor boats visited, I guess they were wildlife spotting, but when the boats came round the point, they scared a lot of the seals away. This somehow made me feel privileged that they were letting me get so close!

So reflecting on the first day, am I going to make any changes? Yes. Kit I’m dropping off at home will be: the 5 litre water container, in favour of a 1-litre SIGG bottle and the bladder in my BA, from now on I’ll just rely on river water; wetsuit - if I have to swim and dive for razor fish/clams, I’ll do it in shorts; on land footwear - don’t have space, sandals and wellies are enough. Kit forgotten in a rush/to add: trowel and toilet paper (the latter for emergency fire lighting).

Today’s food: breakfast - last night’s pork/potato stew; lunch - bread/jam/dried pork; dinner - dried pork and potato stew; pudding - carrot cake.

Day 1: Vatersay to Mingulay (3.5 hours, 8Nm)

2008-05-07T13:25:00.004Z

It’s been an eventful first day. Paddling first against then with spring tides had me on edge slightly, or was that just the solo paddling? I ended up setting off on the water at 3pm, and after some stunning paddling, some wind against tide, and just some wind (coming down off Mingulay), I eventually arrived at 6.30pm.

When I was paddling round the east coast of Mingulay the wind was probably F4 coming off the island, which made the last leg hard and if there’s one thing I don’t like, it’s paddling into the wind.

Then I was given my next challenge…as I paddled down the coast of Mingulay I noticed that it was no small swell that was rolling onto the rocks, and I also saw wee explosions from waves on the beach! Oh no, ‘how big is this surf?’ I said to myself. I had 20mins of paddling wondering if the surf would be too big. After all my training in surf and buying a helmet, I was still scared and ready to paddle back to Pabbay if it was too big. Luckily it wasn’t too big but it was still dumping a wee bit. I chose the end of the beach least surf, chose the bit with the least sideways motion of water on the beach, took my deck off so I could get out quick, then went for it…all went to plan, apart from my cockpit and my left welly getting a soaking!

I worked out what I needed to do: find a place to sleep and make my ‘bed’; find firewood and heather; light a fire and start cooking dinner. However it didn’t go exactly to plan…

I made my bed - a small dugout with a sand pillow, and laid my bivvy bag and sleeping bag down - then went to look for firewood. To my dismay, I found not one, not two, but just three small bits of wood, disaster! I had some mint tea from the flask, went to go and find heather with my long life bag for taking it back, found some but the sprouts were new and full of water rather than the dead stuff which is around at the end of the summer. I couldn’t get the Kelly kettle going and because it was so late, didn’t have time to make tinder/kindling, so I had to use the emergency stove…disappointed! I guess this proves one point that living off driftwood on Mingulay is in no way sustainable! However, the nice surprise was the colony of Atlantic Grey seals on the north end of the beach, I’ve never seen so many, must have been 150 to 200ish.

It’s now 11pm. I’m in my bivvy bag on the south end of the beach on Mingulay. What a stunning place or at least it was when I could see it - it’s dark now. This has been an amazing first day, Mingulay is a beautiful place.

Today’s food: breakfast - nettle omelette with local eggs; lunch - homemade bread/jam and dried local pork; dinner - local potato and pork stew. Lots of mint tea.

Day 1 - Two hours and counting...

2008-05-04T10:50:00.006Z

Well I'm nearly away...finally...so much planning, but probably not enough, has gone into this expedition! I'm aiming to be away at around 1.30pm from Vatersay east beach, off to Mingulay. Just doing final packing of my boat now to check it all fits...still got a few other things to do so better go.

I've got the next few days food packed using all locally (Scotland) supplied food: dried pork; bramble jam; home made bread; porridge oats; broth mix; Glen Fiddich whisky; Hebridean Ale; duck eggs. So I'll see what else I can find...

Next time I write will be Wednesday (Day 3), after returning from Mingulay....

2008-05-02T21:16:00.008Z

Lots to do

The pressure has been on for the past few weeks to prepare for the expedition. I’m a bit behind where I’d like to be. A few days ago I managed to:

Fit a fibreglass keel line to my boat and also an extra layer of epoxy for abrasion resistance, thanks for the helpful advice from the UKRGB Sea forum
Wire up the solar panel/voltage regulator/battery/inverter
Fit it all in my boat, with help from RNLI beach balls which hold the equipment inside in place!

KEEL LINE BEFORE

KEEL LINE AFTER

Describe the keel line stuff.

SOLAR PANEL SET UP OUTSIDE

SOLAR PANEL SET UP ON BOAT

Today I packed my boat, and it all fits in, not including food that is, which will be some potatoes, and some locally grown meat and vegetables.

Also did a few press interviews. It’s amazing the phenomena of news spreading! It’s probably down to the John Muir Trust who sent out their press release to lots of places. I don’t think the media would have been as interested without he JMT, not to say it isn’t worthy. It was brilliant having all the positive media support, compared to initial scepticism about the idea on forums.

I’ll write again with an update on the days activities, which will include:

Reinforcing the solar panel fixing;
Confirming dates for contacting media;
Packing food in boat;
Updating website.

36 hours and counting...lots to do...

2008-05-02T21:16:00.007Z

The pressure has been on for the past few weeks to prepare for the expedition. I’m a bit behind where I’d like to be. A few days ago I managed to:

Fit a fibreglass keel line to my boat and also an extra layer of epoxy for abrasion resistance, thanks for the helpful advice from the UKRGB Sea forum
Wire up the solar panel/voltage regulator/battery/inverter
Fit it all in my boat, with help from RNLI beach balls which hold the equipment inside in place!

Here's the before and after photos...

I wanted to put a keel strip on it to increase the strength slightly, and to greatly reduce the wear on the keel line so the boat lasts longer. Putting it on wasn't too hard, but I had help from a mate who fixes car body work, who is also the mate who has helped me do the website (thanks Stiof)! It's a fibreglass strip, cut from sheet with a stanley knife, then wet on to a sanded keel line that has been marked with masking tape. Then I put another layer of epoxy on for extra resistance to wear.

The solar panel is cool, expensive, but cool. At 10.30am it was producing 500mA, which is more current than the mobile phone charger uses!!

Today I packed my boat, and it all fits in, not including food that is, which will be some potatoes, and some locally grown meat and vegetables.

Also did a few press interviews. It’s amazing the phenomena of the word spreading in news/media organisations! It’s probably down to the John Muir Trust who sent out their press release to lots of places - I have them to thank. I don’t think the media would have been as interested without he JMT, not to say it isn’t worthy. It was brilliant having all the positive media support, compared to initial scepticism about the idea on forums.

I’ll write again tomorrow with an update on the day's activities, which will include:

Reinforcing the solar panel fixing;
Confirming dates for contacting media;
Packing food in boat;
Updating website;
Buying food at local produce sale.

I hope that's been interesting for you to read. I'm really just excited and looking forward to setting off so I can stop worrying about planning, and get on with doing! Happy paddling or whatever else you may be doing...

Working 9 till 5 (2) vs. Expedition Planning! (1)

2008-04-25T08:05:00.003Z

Planning this expedition sounds great, learning about what I can and can't eat off the land, practicing self rescues, and lighting fires - great fun! That's what I'd like to be doing, but trying to balance planning and expedition with everyday life including a 9 till 5 job is difficult, especially when I still feel like I don't know enough about what I can eat on the shores/land.

I'll be honest - this expedition is going to be a steep learning curve! I haven't had either as much time for research/planning or as much practice of doing stuff as I wanted. But hey, I'd always say that anyway...I know I'm pretty experienced at living in the outdoors, and I'm a not bad kayaker, so it's just there'll be more learning. I'm guessing I'll have a pretty steep learning curve with:

what I can and can't eat that I will find throughout the Western Isles;
how and when to catch fish;
how difficult it is to light a fire from a spark and some tinder/kindling;
what it's like to be on my own on expedition for 3(sh) weeks;
how exposed the west coasts of Lewis/Harris are (worse/more fun than Barra?).

So back to work. Today I'll finish the big feasibility study that I've been written for Barra and Vatersay, which looks at all the renewable and alternative energy and waste reduction, reuse and recycling things that could on on the islands. A day of work, then off for a paddle...

Whatever happens, next week will be full on planning and then next Saturday (May 3rd) I'm off to Mingulay. The two things I'm most looking are: camping on and paddling round Mingulay, and paddling up the west coast of Harris and Lewis! Can't wait!

Survival thoughts

2008-04-11T06:44:00.007Z

I've just been watching sea kayaking and white water kayaking videos on Youtube. Last night I continued reading Sea Room by Adam Nicholson, the family who own the Shiant Isles just of the east cost of Harris.

I'm mixed with feelings with extreme excitement about paddling up the western isles, and in particular the west coast of Harris/Lewis. And also feeling anxiety and fear about what might happen. What if I'm paddling along the west coast of Lewis with no landing zones and a gale picks up, sure I'm happy paddling in big swell with strong winds, but what if I have to make a surf landing?

You know when you haven't done something in a while and you start to wonder whether you're still capable of it? I feel that way about sea kayak surfing just now. Admittedly I've done a fair bit of draining and been battered around, but up there I'll be on my own. What will the weather be like? I'm just about to buy a helmet, and want to get at least 2 more days surf training before expedition. Also, 1 day of self rescues out at sea, on my own.

In Sea Room, he talks about a lot of deaths at sea around the Shiant Isles, from fisherman in sailing boats in the 19th Century. And yet all Google Earth thinks of the Shiants and the sea around them is shown above. The main cause he talks of is the wind and sea picking up unexpectedly, causing wind against tide (the tide flows fast over the shallowing waters between Shiant and Harris/Lewis) and waves emerging from the depths. The Blue Men he calls them. But these are sailing boats that couldn't right themselves, and would sink. My boat won't sink, and I can right myself, so can we as competent kayakers take on the elements more so than others? I'm also a lot better prepared than them: I can get the weather forecast anytime by listening to the radio, or speaking to the Coastguard on VHF or mobile phone - I just hope it isn't as cold as it has been in the last week (see forecast light N winds below).

My main concern is safety/survival. As much as I'd like to be, I'll have to face up to the harsh reality that I'm not invincible. The sea is the boss. It's in charge, and if it lets me on my journey safely, great, and if it's looking like it's not going to let me, I won't take the risk. But where's the line? Is that what makes life exciting - using your skills and knowledge to control the risk, and avoid the hazard? Maybe. one thing's for sure - big river kayaking really scares me, and so does the sea.

I'm not sure what will happen - I guess that what makes it an adventure. I'm really looking forward to getting immersed in the elements and seeing how it feels. It's been a whole winter without guiding, so it'll be my first long camping experience of the year. I'm looking forward to putting myself up against the elements and seeing how I cope.

So what can you eat in the Western Isles? Pigs, cattle, sheep, oats, sea weed, nettles, cockles, muscles, potatoes, carrots, fish. What else?? How am I going to survive? I guess I'll see. Whatever happens, I'm sure it'll be fun.

The Learning Curve - my interpretation

2008-04-06T15:14:00.005Z

I’ve been trying to think about how and when people learn, the processes involved, and how we can improve them. My main thought is really that we don’t understand how the brain works, but we try to come up with models which seem to work and help us understand, some better than others.

One process I think that goes on is below - on the left is what I think is going on in the brain, and on the right are the tools we can use as coaches to affect the quality of the activity and learning. We do an activity, which then involves learning about something, and the end result is knowledge and/or skills.

As coaches, we can affect every part of this process, and good coaches can yield a higher quality of each, which is what I’m aspiring to. It then got me thinking:

What is experience? Is it when we have lots of knowledge, or lots of ability, or is it when we have spent time doing something?

And what happens when you haven’t been doing something for a while?

What about if you’re learning more intensely, does that increase your experience?

That’s a steeper learning curve. On the learning curve, it’s on graph, what are the axes on that graph, i.e. how do you measure learning?

I’ve tried to come up with a model for experience/learning.

So how do those two models tie together? I think that in gaining experience, there is lots of skills and knowledge acquisition, and the cycle in the first model is repeated over and over again for different skills and knowledge, and different cycles are going on continuously in parallel. I also think that memory is an issue, and memory of something is improved simply by more processing of it, i.e. the more you process something, the longer you will remember it.

You could go in to a huge if not infinite amount of detail about teaching / learning. I’ve just been thinking about how we learn because I wanted to identify some kind of process that I can work with and have some way of understanding it in my head. I have not authority on teaching or than that fact that I’m BCU/SCA coach, and am interested, so these are just wee ideas. I hope if you have read this far, you’ve found it interesting in some way.

Oh swell...

2008-04-06T13:41:00.005Z

A few days ago I paddled home round the west coast of Barra from Halaman Bay to Cleat bay. It was a personal challenge that I'd been wanting to take on for a while. The swell was probably about 5 to 6m, and I know the you often see that forecast and it's not that big when it hits the beaches, but I guess the forecast (from Windfinder.com) is for out at sea.

I packed my boat, did a final pee, and set off through the surf. Watching the houses and people shrink, I headed north, side on to the swell and wind. So I was off the west coast, coming past Borve, where there is a reef quite far out. You can see massive waves breaking over it when the swell is big. I've kind of got a phobia about big waves - phobia or healthy respect, I don't know, bit of both - so I wanted to go out and see them. So, after the session with the kids, I headed off. It was difficult to get a photo that conveyed that intimidating nature of the sea I was in, but below is my effort.

I was surprised, as I usually am, at how quickly when you are put in a new situation, you can get used to it. After I had past this reef, I was quite happy, no, more than happy, in the big swell. I was on my own. The feeling of solitude and relying purely on your own ability and judgement is awesome! I was glad to get round the corner, when I could then paddle with the wind. At one point I surfed the reflecting waves back out to sea to get away from the rocks! Trying to take a video was a wee bit awkward at the headland as I was being thrown around like a puppet by the clapotis, recovery strokes galore! I was glad to see the following at the end of the paddle...

After a wee surf in, and collecting the things from the water that weren't tied on to my deck, it was home for nice hot bath.

I'm really looking forward to the Sustainable Expeditions expedition up the Western Isles next month. Like it says on the website, I've kind of divided up training into on, and off, the water skills. So I'm not just doing these crazy paddles for the fun of it, though that is the main reason, it's also to gradually increase my comfort and ability zone so that I can handle the expedition confidently. Train hard, play easy!

Learning experiences :
1) Using charts and in particular depths, you can get a really good idea if how the waves will behave, i.e. points of shallow/reefs will break, steep sea cliffs will not have breaking waves, but will just have up/down movement. This is common sense I know, having to avoid a reef with 6m breaking swell was a very graphic illustration.
2) Everything that's on the deck needs to be tied or fixed on, or expect to loose it!
3) Sometimes videos seem to tell the story of a situation better than pictures, at least when you get the videoing right.

Anyway, enough. I'm off to read others' blogs...

Going with the flow!

2008-03-23T21:31:00.003Z

Yesterday I was happily reminded how much fun sea kayaking can be. Spring tides, paddling around in the bay (Castlebay), working with Ian on rolling , and edging, we thought we'd go and have a wee look the sea loch (Bagh Beag) just outside Castlebay. The tide was on the start of the flood, so we didn't think it'd be worth floating in casually, only to be imprisoned when the rate picked up. How wrong we were!

After floating in on a trickle, we played with edging , eddy hopping, and ferry gliding, we were engulfed (sometimes) in a raging torrent! So much fun! Oh the satisfaction from sitting on a standing wave! The photo's not great quality because it's a still from soem video. In 2 weeks time (next spring tide) I'll definitely be heading back for a play there - so much fun! Hopefully with a bit more wind and so some bigger standing waves.

It got me thinking about how we learn, and the processes involved, so I started writing in my notepad and have come up with a few ideas. I'll put them in my next blog entry in a few days...

Learning experiences: 1) reverse sweeps have a much bigger effect than forward sweeps when pointing upstream, due to the speed of the boat relative to the water 2) ferry gliding can be explained by resolving the forces into downstream and across stream...so you have your boat keel line at an angle to the flow, paddle forward, and the resultant force counteracts the downstream force, and pushes you sideways - the angle allows you to control down/across stream motion 3) where we were was really useful for coaching because it built up slowly enough to develop the skills as it did so.

Barra Sea Trials!

2008-02-26T09:38:00.003Z

So it was time to test out the boat, and the recent fixing that I had made! Took it to a West beach on Barra (Halaman Bay - one of the more sheltered).

Nice fast(ish) boat! After only surf kayaking for a while, I was reminded about the size of surf you can get through in a sea kayak.

Nice boat for rolling. High cockpit volume, allowing wide knees, make it pretty easy to bring back up.

Getting out past one of the bigger ones. The photo doesn't really do it justice. Again, I was surprised by what I could get through. The boat's 5.5m (18ft) long, and huge volume, so it feels like it will make it through anything! The waves weren't perfect though, not many rollers, so I didn't get the chance to try any popouts - or maybe I just didn't want to venture out to where these waves were actually breaking!

Heading out to see. The forecast was 6m, but that dies down quite a lot as it comes in. The beach isn't actually that brilliant for surfing, but it's not bad. I was there in the middle of the ebb, and towards the end of the session the waves started dumping, which was a bit more fun!

All in all, I really like the boat- now I just have to kit it out how I want it. Thanks Mark McKerral for the boat - looking forward to hearing about your Capella adventures!

New (second hand) boat, and fibreglass reinforcing...

2008-02-26T09:33:00.003Z

Well, I picked up my new (old) boat from Fort William last weekend. An Island Kayaks Expedition. Took it for my maiden voyage in it in FW - great boat, high volume, nice for turning on an edge. It's had a knock here and there, so when I got home I did my first fibre glass fixing...

INSERT PIC 1 - BEFORE
INSERT PIC 2 - AFTER

I had thought making a fibre glass fixing was going to be hard, but it wasn't really. I think the most important thing was just taking time over it.

Coaching Toolbox

2008-02-08T20:50:00.000Z

I just made this up (see below) because I wanted one bit of paper which illustrated pretty much all the coaching tools/techniques that I use. It's useful as a reminder, and everything on it allows me to psychologically deal with pretty much any situation.

Off surf kayaking tomorrow, and just bought my first ever camera, which happens to be waterproof - finally, I can take pictureson the water and not have to worry about killing my camera!

Plannning and Risk Assessment

2008-01-26T16:55:00.000Z

Planning and Risk Assessment

I’ve been thinking about decision making in relation to kayaking. Trying to figure out, if I have a group, what questions I should ask myself about the situation, and what order I should do things in. I like having rules for approaching things because it makes that approach simpler. I was also thinking about the minimum things that I would want to know about a group and a trip that we were going to do, and then other things beyond the minimum that I’d like to know. What I’ve come up with is this:

For any kayaking session, the first thing I want to know is my group’s experience. From that, the second thing that we will do is come up with a plan for what we’re going to do, i.e. goals. The third thing that follows on is a risk assessment for that plan or those goals. These three things are all already defined for things that are completely standard, however for other things (for example expeditions), they change here and there, so we have to adapt and be flexible. I like to categorise them in to generic (things that could happen anywhere) and specific (which are the varying components of the risk assessment).

I then thought that pretty much all our activity, whether it’s kayaking, or sitting at a computer, has goals that we want to achieve, whether that’s typing a letter, or watching the sun go down. And a risk assessment can be done for any of those goals. In my formal risk assessment, I write preventative and reactive action, in relation to a risk.

So, to cut a long story short, after formalising the process in my head, I now feel like I can approach any situation, automatically carrying out a risk assessment, and dynamically assessing the risk as the situation flows.

Looking forward to a bit of surf kayaking this weekend, as the F9 gale blowing outside whips up some swell…

Sun, Surf, and Solitude (and fire lighting)

2008-01-22T09:34:00.000Z

I needed to get away for a camping trip to keep my skills up to date, and find out if I was capable of paddling around happily on my own for the expedition in May. A quick bit of packing, check of the pilot for tidal stream times, check of HW times, and weather forecasts, and the planning was complete. F6-7, gusting 8 - great! It had been blowing Westerly for a few days, so no doubt, a bit of swell. Off I went from Castlebay, not exactly sure where I would go, maybe Mingulay, maybe Pabbay, maybe Sandray, it was getting late - and I still had to find firewood and get a fire lit to cook dinner - so probably just Sandray!

After a few hours paddling, I rounded the headland and was confronted with a beach with a wee bit of foam, and a bit of surf landing was required. I counted the sets, and the period, found my moment, and went for it! It was all going well, until I felt/saw something rearing up behind me, luckily it wasn’t huge, so I ended up side surfing in the right way up. Having not approached many beaches recently that I did not set out from, I was reminded how difficult it is to judge the size of waves from the sea side rather than the beach. When I got ashore, I was a little disappointed at what I had pumped so much adrenalin around my body for!

So after my heart had calmed down, I got on to collecting and chopping firewood, finding a campsite. The axe and machete (brought the latter because I lost my knife surfing a few weeks ago) were invaluable in making tinder, kindling, and graded fuel for the fire. I had taken some of my own drier wood, and some tinder that had been dried on a metal plate on the stove at home. To cut a long story short, I couldn’t get it lit just using toilet roll and my tinder, so I had to result to petrol from my stove! Mental note: practice fire lighting! But hey, in the end I got it going, and practiced using different structures for fires. I now like the one below, using a wedge shape of thick wood which doesn’t burn too quickly, to give a structure that you can either put a pot on top of, or a wooden matrix to dry it out, the latter of which gives you simmer control for cooking - fantastic. 30mins later I was munching on pasta with pesto sauce, with fried onion and tomato.

After dinner, the solitude got to me a bit. Being alone on another island was a bit lonely at first. Eventually I resorted to talking to myself, which was surprisingly comforting, and as the evening went on, I listened to the MP3s on my phone. I had forgotten that I didn’t have credit on my sim card, so had to wait up on the hill (where I had a signal) for 2 hours for the phone call at 9pm from my folks, which I said I would make at 8pm. I was glad they phoned, because I wouldn’t have been able to sleep if I was half expecting the lifeboat to come round the corner in the middle of the night. It was a long night.

I woke up cold, thinking the waves sounded really big. Thankfully, when I got up, they were much smaller than they sounded! I had my porridge/raisin mix that been left soaking the night before, packed up, and to my horror, watched the waves getting bigger! The tide was nearing low water, and it was starting to dump. To cut a long story short, it took me 20mins to get out, after rescuing a lunch box and set of splits! But finally I made it, “woo hoo!”

I knew the swell round the west coast of Sandray was going to be awesome - I had to do it! I couldn’t resist seeing what the sea was like. The swell was indeed awesome! Scary at first, the power of it and what it could to do someone if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time felt surreal, so I kept my distance from the rocks. No photos as all I had was my phone for pictures. Progress was slow into the wind, and bouncing around in the clapotis. Out of the clapotis, it wasn’t too bad. The long rolling swell passed underneath me. Sometimes in the trough, I’m sure the swell must have been 12-15ft at times. Intimidating at first, but it was surprising how I got used to it.

So that was the exciting part. I decided against going up the W coast of Barra to get home to Northbay, into the wind and swell, and went back to Castlebay, using the east going stream. 3 hours paddling - I can’t wait till I get my own boat, so I can kit it out so that it’s comfy!

Learning experiences:
1) Always remember the IKEA bag!
2) Always make sure you’ve got credit and more than one sim card;
3) Big swell isn’t that bad when there’s nothing in its way!
4) I need to practice fire lighting with tinder;
5) When I get my own boat, I'm going to pad it out how I'd like it as soon as possible!
6) Contact tow also works well as an emergency contact between you and boat in case you come out when alone;
7) I’m going to make a general comprehensive kit list and just print it out for each trip, whether it’s a 1 night camping trip, or a 3 week expedition;

8) Daily activities like fishing, fire lighting, finding food, chopping firewood, visiting local food suppliers and internet places are going to take a lot of time out of the day! I'll probably have paddling days, and food days.

Happy paddling! I look forward to, and am off to read about others' stories…

Surf's Up - Wow, So Much Fun!

2008-01-04T14:22:00.001Z

Ok, so the SusExp (www.sustainableexpedtions.org)

training continues - preparing for big surf landings! I won't be doing it it a surf boat, but it's so addictive. I love surf boats, so fast, so motile, so...hard to roll (outside of the wave)! Surfing yesterday in a 5-6ish ft swell, F6/7 offshore wind, just off the west coast of Barra (Halaman Bay).

The first wave pocket caught up with me. I think I manage to surf out of it, but can't remember exactly what happened because there was so much going on.

Last wave of the day...I was starting to get tired, windswept, and was losing the heat from my body faster than you can say drinking chocolate! The funny thing was that the wind was so strong, the spray after the wave was almost worse having a swim!

Enough...time to go home. All in all a great day. Ended up breaking a fin, but it was worth it. When I can resist the temptation of a surf boat, I'll be find the biggest surf and taking a sea kayak into it. Watch this space. I'm off to look at other kayakers blogs for inspiration. Happy Paddling...

P.S. Sorry about the seemingly jumbled up layout of this - I'm not exactly sure how blogger.com works, but hopefully it'll get better.

Sustainable Expeditions training

2008-01-02T19:11:00.001Z

The first real part of training for the expedition in May started a few days ago. I got a new magnesium striker for Christmas, so decided to start trying to light fires with various forms of tinder, including wood shavings, cotton wool, and toilet roll - all of which worked to varying degrees. I wanted to build up the difficulty slowly, so first attempts where in a big shed, then I moved outside - the result of which is below...

It was greatly satisfying getting a fire going using the magnesium striker, but did take a few attemps - hopefully things'll get better! The structure for the fire was learned from a mate who went on a survival course. The triangular wedge structure allows fuel to be stacked into the centre of the fire, and the clear access to the centre of the fire allows convection caused by the heat to suck fresh air right into the centre of the fire.

There are so many more things to learn and try out, like:

What other things I can use to light the fire;
Cooking with a grill;
How to make and oven;
Sea kayak fishing;
and many more.

I'm looking forward to trying them all out and writing about what I find out. All comments appreciated!

Changing weather...

2007-08-13T13:23:00.000Z

Just a quick note...

I was on my way home from work the other night, and there was a beautiful sunset looking out on the Atlantic, so I took a photo...

A couple of days later, a storm blew up (the weather forecast said there was a 6m swell!), so I took another photo of the same place...

I was reminded about the changing nature of the sea, and how much respect we need to pay to the sea (as a sea kayaker). I like the contrast in the photos, and wanted to show people the west coast of Barra in 2 different sea states.

On another note, Sustainable Expeditions (http://www.sustainableexpeditions.org/) is coming along nicely - please go and have a look at the website if you're interested. Lots of planning stuff going on - very exciting!

Sustainable Expeditions

2007-06-22T13:18:00.001Z

Hello there. I haven't written for a while, but if I can find the inspiration and have anything that people might find interesting to read, then I'll try and write more often.

I've just recently found the inspiration to start an organisation called Sustainable Expeditions. It started a few days ago when I was writing up a kit list for a sea kayaking expedition. I've wanted to paddle up the Western Isles from Berneray to Lewis for a while now, and since I think I'm the only person mad enough to do it at the end of October, which is the only time I can do it, I'm going to have to do it solo, which will create it's own challenges. So, I was wondering about a few outdoor shops in Edinburgh to try and think if there was anything that I'd forgotten from my kit list, when I saw Peter Storm's One Earth range of clothing which is made with recycled plastic using sustainable methods. Having environmental concerns myself, I decided that it would be a great idea to take a sustainable perspective on the trip, and use it to promote sustainable lifestyles by using sustainable equipment and fuels. For example, I will hopefully be sponsored by companies which have good environmental polices, and be wearing clothes and using equipment that they've given me. I will also be buying food from local suppliers, and cooking using driftwood, cow/sheep dung, and heather.

There is website (www.sustainableexpeditions.org) currently in the making which will have trip plans, photos, video, risk assessments, kit lists, and a blog amongst other things. The idea will be to use website to not only document this trip, but to encourage and document trips in the future. The blog link will go to this site, where I will try to update the it as regularly as possible while on trips.

Enough for now. I'll keep you posted. Please get in touch if you want to ask or tell me anything! Cheers, Tom

Final decision on patents...

2007-03-12T09:50:00.000Z

I have come to a final decision about patents, and have decided that I am not going to try and get a patent for my paddle blade design - the main reason being that I have too many other things to do just now!

I would like to get back to my original idea of making the design completely accessible to the paddling public. If it is pursued commercially by a company, then it is my financial loss. However, I'm sure that most of the UK sea paddling community knows about it now, so I take credit for the initial work done on the idea.

Therefore, if you would like me to send you a copy of the report (2MBish) then I am happy to. The report contains extensive information on everything I did, including the method for locating the holes, and also photos of the blades. Hopefully there is an image of the 4 blades below which shows 3D CAD models and photos...

If you have any questions, or would like to have a go at making them, then please get in touch.

MEng project: paddle blades with holes

2006-12-25T14:43:00.000Z

Hello there,

Firstly, Merry Christmas to everyone - I hope you are all having an enjoyable one.

Secondly, for those of you who are interested, I thought I would put up a wee update on my paddle project. For those of you who don't know what it's about, a quick explanation. My idea is to put holes in paddle blades to encourage flow through the blade, to dissipate the horse shoe shaped vortex (the whirlpools you see when paddling are either end of this), because there is a lot of energy involved in creating this vortex. In short, my idea is to reduce the size of the vortex, therefore reducing the energy that has been consumed in creating that vortex. So although the force will be reduced from reducing the blade area, hopefully more will be gained from putting less energy into the water, so hopefully, the net effect will be a more efficient paddle. If it works, because of the effects on the strength, it think it is likely that the paddle will be most suitable for long distance touring.

Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis I can measure the turbulent kinetic energy in the water - a visual representation of my CFD analysis so far is shown below, illustrating turbulent viscosity for a paddle blade with no holes and 25mm holes respectively, in the vertical position.

As can be seen from the images, there is less turbulent viscosity occuring in the paddle blade with 25mm holes, therefore it can be concluded that less energy has been put into the water. Turbulent viscosity plots are likely to be good indication of turbulent kinetic energy. The turbulent kinetic energy is related to the amount of energy that has been put into the water.

A few thoughts:
- please understand that my project is not finished, and these are only preliminary results and I have not fully investigated the effects yet
- the CFD analysis only considers the blade in vertical position
- there are a number of other significant simplifications made for practical and time constraints
- holes may have significant effects on the entry and exit motion of the blade
- more in depth CFD analysis would give a better idea of the effects
- more work could be carried out on optimal hole size and configuration
- I am looking into patents, and will hopefully have it sorted early in the new year
- in the end, if this design works, I would like it to be accessible to everyone, so that they could take their cordless drill and modify their paddle to make it more efficient, however, regarding business, if anyone is going to make any money from it, I would like it to be me, hence why I am sorting out a patent

I would greatly appreciate your thoughts and advice on anything you think you can help with.

How high is yours?

2006-10-02T14:30:00.000Z

I said I would put this in. Just a quick spreadsheet graph so you know how high a cliff is when you throw something off it and count how long it takes to get to the bottom. The formula used is: s = ut + 0.5at^2, where s height, u = initial velocity, a = acceleration = gravity = 9.8m/s^2, t = time.

NB This formula doesn't take account of friction which means that for all our purposes, the height maybe negligibly less than the graph shows.

29/30 Sept, 1 Oct 06

2006-10-02T08:36:00.000Z

So here I am at the end of my adventure. On the train, that left at 4.10pm from Mallaig, that I thought left at 10.30am! (Mental note: pay more attention to the wee print in timetables.) We've just arrived in Fort William. I'll tell the last few days story in revers chronological order, as I think it's funnier that way for some reason.

Sunday morning, I arrived in Mallaig about 10am on the ferry from Aramadale. As you know, I arrived at the train station thinking my train was at 10.30am. To my dismay, after chatting to others who had made the same mistake, we realised the 10.30 train had stopped last week, and the next one was at 4.10pm. "So what do I do now?" I asked myself. I contemplated cycling to Arisaig to pass the time, but was tired already so I decided that sleeping was better than cycling. I bought a paper, set my tent up next to the car park, next to the train station, set alarm on my phone, (then the battery went flat!), then fell asleep. I was dozing, looked at watch around 3.30pm, got up and got on the train. I timed how long it took to unset my tent (North Face Tadpole 23): 5 minutes exactly - with this time, I was happy.

When I woke up on Sunday morning, I was comfortingly warm, and it was getting light. It was already lighter than it was when I set up camp, and I was looking forward to getting some better photos of my campsite, which I was very proud of. It was 7.30ish. I wanted to wait as long as I could before unsetting my tent so I had as much light as possible for the photos. So I packed up everything else that I could, and went for a walk along the shore. I found some nice pumis stones and shells, and worked on my stone skimming skills.

After unsetting my tent, I left the legacy of a carved stick with shavings at my campsite for the sake of something to do. Then I just sat with my warm tea (put in the flask and Gordons' last night), and took in the view. The natural beauty of the place was breath taking, and I was lost for thought as I sat in awe. Then the ferry arrived and I got on it - thankfully!

So last night, after passing my 4* sea kayak assessment, I was searching for a campsite. I wanted something on the Armadale side of the hill just outside Isleornsay, but wasn't finding much. I ended up cycling all the way to Armadale (or just before) , passing lots of places that would have been great campsites, if it wasn't for the houses built on them. On the opposite side of Armadale Castle (Clan Donald) there was a stone path leading down to the shore - I was sure that there was a campsite down there. And sure enough, after I skidded down the wee track, and walk along a bit, and up some stoney steps, I found a beautiful wee campsite, only big enough for a small tent. So I set up camp, and had what food I left for my dinner. I was surprised that I hadn't got food poisoning by this point, as I was still using the same food bag as the start of the trip, which included broken eggs. I only had one egg left, and was not prepared to boil water for one egg, so I took job in throwing it against the rocks. I actually dropped it off the cliff that my camp site was on, counted how long it took to drop (1.5 secs) and wondered how high it was. See my next blog - I have done a quick graph of time v. distance so you can work out how high cliffs are by counting when you drop something. It was 8pm, and I had just passed my 4* so was keen for a pint. I donned my jeans, and white trainers, picked up my head torch, had a quick squirt of Lynx, brushed my teeth, and set off in search of a pub. I didn't know if there was one, so I phoned a few people, to no avail. Armadale - nothing, apart from a house with Indian dance music playing outside, and someone dancing with a stick flaming at both ends in their hands (I think). I walked past quickly, half expecting to see an axe being hurled at me or something. However, I heard womens' voices, so I was also tempted to go and say hello. I saw more lights, half a mile down the road, so was more hopeful of a pub.

Right enough, I came to a place with people standing outside smoking - sure sign of a pub post-the new law banning smoking in pubs in Scotland. I asked the guy outside if this was pub, and he said "Aye" and took me along to the public bar (I would have walked into the lounge bar which would surely have had a higher percentage of non-locals!). To my surprise, I recognised the man. "Neil?" I said. "Aye" he said. "It's Tom." "Oh aye, John, how are ye?" "No, Tom, Dannys wee brother" It was Neil McPhee, from Tarscavaig, who worked with my big brother on fish farms, and was the piper at Dannys wedding. So, I got a warm welcome, and started drinking and chatting with him, his wife Jackie, his daughter Emma, and her boyfriend John-Murdo. The rest of the night was a mixture of laughs, lager, whisky, pool, and is another story in itself. But it ended with a lift home, so I was happy.

So that's Saturdays campsite, and Thursdays campsite I have already written about in my previous blog, but what about Friday I hear you ask - well maybe not, but if you'd like to hear about it please read on. It was a mile North or so of Camascross. I found a wee track going down to a clearing on the shore. The main disaster this evening was a cog coming off the derailleur of my bike when I was cycling. I carried on rolling, pushing my bike along by foot, but my bike was not longer cycleable, so I was going to have to walk back later to find the cog and fix my bike, so I did. My main inspirational moment was eating a can of beans, cleaning the can, then using the can to cook pasta. My main uninspirational moment was the fact that my campsite was covered in sheep shit. Anyway, I went to bed, had a broken sleep because it was cold and my sleeping is feeling its old age, and woke up to one of the prettiest sunrises I have ever seen, and don't have any photos because I had lost my phone. It was found and handed in at the hotel in Isleornsay, thanks to the honesty of the people of Skye, and I collected at the end of the day.

The rest of the trips activities were of a sea kayaking nature, and are a more technical story which I will not go into. The only other thing I found enjoyable before getting home was chatting to a friendly guy called Bobby "Corson" - we chatted about various things including the surrounding highlands that we were travelling through. I am very pasionate about the Highlands, and would like to spend a lot more time in them.

OK, enough. Thank you for reading up to this point. If you have, then I'll take it as a complement in that I have manged to hold your attention for this long. I'm new to the blog thing, and have only found one way to justify writing one, and to persuage myself that it is not a complete waste of time. This is thatI will blogs as a journal of my adventures in life. It is like telling stories, and as I enjoy reading other peoples stories, I would like to try and write something that other people may be interested in.

My next adventure will be attempting to paddle round Anglesey with a group of friends next weekend. I'll let you know how it goes, and I look forward to reading your stories of adventure. Please feel free to send me an e-mail for any reason.

28/29 September 06: (The train to) Mallaig

2006-10-02T08:12:00.000Z

I am camping in Mallaig, on the shore next to the car park, next to the train station. Today has been a long day. 9am I realised my train (from Edinburgh to Glasgow) was at 11.30am, and I still had a days worth of stuff to do. 11.30am, I manage to just get everything done in time, but miss the 11.30am train, so have to get the 11.45. I think all is well, so start repacking all my stuff more sensibly and securely (I am using Simons' (my sister Rachels' other half) bike trailer). A fantastic idea: I use my belt to secure the bouncing bags. After a chat with my seated neighour about our different walks of life, I step off the train, dragging my stuff behind me. I walked over to the display to check the train time, as I watched a train drive off. Shock horror...it was my train to Mallaig! Despair.

To cut a long story short, after 6 hours I was still in Glasgow waiting for the next train at 6.20pm, which I boarded in happiness. I was tired at first because I knew I hadn't had enough sleep. But I soon found stimulation in trying to catch the eye of the prettiest girl on the train (tall, slim, brunette, pretty, cute, etc...) who was facing me, a few seats down. Together with reading the paper, this entertained me for the whole journey. Shame it was dark - the scenery would have been fantastic. By the end of the journey (or at least her part), we were making eye contact more and more, practically starting into each others eyes. It had been a while since I done this with a girl. The tension was rising - I wanted to go and speak to her, but I couldn't find the guts - I was too afraid! In the end, she got off the train without us exchanging number/words, and I will probably never see her again. Maybe next time I will speak to that girl sitting opposite me on the train.

Which brings me closer to the present. I got off at Mallaig, asked the driver if he knew any campsites. So here I am, behind the wall, next to the car park, next to the train station, in my sleeping bag, on my Thermarest. I just cooked some beans (see photo) and am tired.

The reason I am here is to do my 4 star sea kayak training and assessment with Gordon Brown who owns and runs Skyak Adventures with his wife Morag in Isleornsay, Sleat Point, South Skye. I need to sleep as I am up early.

Night...

My first 'blog'

2006-10-02T00:41:00.000Z

Hello

Well, what do I say? I'm 23, going into 5th year at Edinburgh Uni, doing mechancial engineering. Originally from the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides. I think I'm generally an easy going person with liberal democratic political views. Quite open minded. Work as a sea kayak guide based in Barra in the summer. Want to leave Edinburgh and go somewhere else after I graduate - fancy living in Glasgow, or back on the West Coast, or maybe somewhere sunny!

So why am I starting a blog? Why does anyone start a blog? Look at my 3rd blog and I will write a quick paragraph. Before that, I have to write my second blog. Hmmm...you're confused!! Well, my reason is that I went on an adventure this weekend, and kept a journal with the aim of putting it in a blog, and in the second one, I wrote a paragraph on 'blogging' - enough said.

I am interested in what people get out of blogging, and why people do it. If you have ended up reading my blog this far, then firstly thank you, and secondly, why? I think that blogging can encourage very introverted activity, which could be a bad thing, but then it's useful for lots of other things as well. Le tme know what you think.

Kind regards,

Tom