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

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!