Getting ready

 As usual, before trips to scotland with the Feathercraft K2, we assembled it at home to check it out, and practise our self rescue techniques.

But  it was very hard to assemble.. .the skin seemed to have shrunk!

A bit of googling confirmed our suspicion... its 20yrs old, and we haven't used it since 2024, so the urethane hull and deck may well have stiffened and shrunk.. The recommended solution is to soak the skin in water overnight (some would say for 24hrs)

We got the hosepipe out, wet the skin from the inside, and left it overnight.  Thankfully, this worked. 

But, to avoid a similar struggle when we arrive in scotland, we think we'll keep the kayak assembled, and car-top it to Scotland.

Once it was assembled we had a very pleasant paddle up the River Cam from our local nature reserve.

River Waveney

 We spent a very pleasant couple of days canoeing down the River Waveney .

We started in the delightful village of Homersfield, where there is easy access to the river.

Camped a few hours later beside the river near Flixton.

Had a few fallen trees to negotiate on the way down the river!

Fortified by cake at Bungay, we finished at the lovely community owned pub "The Locks Inn" at Gedeston.  This is immediately beside the river, so a great place for kayakers to visit.

We then paddled on and camped at the nice three rivers campsite a few km further down the river. 

The next day, Tom took the bus back to Homersfield to collect the car, from the remarkably well stocked bus shelter in Gedeston.

Berwick

The weather was still windy, wet and cold (with snow half way down Ben Nevis) As there seemed no prospects of an improvement we decided to call it a day and head to home, via a few days at Berwick upon Tweed (which seemed to have a slightly better weather forecast)

This was lovely .. we had a a blustery walk round St Abb's head...

then the next day cycled over the causeway to Holy Island (paying very careful attention to the tides,  because the causeway is flooded for much of the day...) 

Lindesfarne is lovely

Singing Sands

 We drove over to Arivegaig (nearest village is Acharacle) and cycled through the forest to the Singing Sands and Cul na Croise beaches. This was the base of the "Eden" TV reality show broadcast on Channel 4 during 2017, and was somewhere we'd long been interested to visit ... 

We set up camp on a blustery promentory...

with magical woodland behind us..

..overlooking a row of glorious, deserted sandy beaches

But cycling was hard!

Loch Morar

 Portaging up to Loch Morar, was MUCH harder than we remembered... We realised we last did it 10 years ago.... but things have changed!!.... 

We no longer fancy doing that portage again!

But once on Loch Morar, we paddled up the loch and set up camp at a nice spot on the south shore.  The next day, on schedule, the sun came out the wind dropped and it was lovely.   

Spent a nice day exploring

On the way back we stopped to explore one of the wooded islands...

The weather forecast still wasn't good, and we couldn't car-top the kayak without a roof rack, (and our van was still at Arisaig campsite), so we decided to leave the kayak locked up on Loch Morar, take the train to Mallaig, then take the ferry over to Eigg to spend a few days there, hoping that the winds would ultimately drop...

However after a few pleasant (tho wet and windy) days camped on Eigg, the force 4-6 winds were predicted to continue.  As we couldn't car-top the assembled kayak to calmer waters, we somewhat reluctantly we decided that we should retrieve the van, come back to Loch Morar, pack up the kayak, and call it a day (at least for kayaking) 

Back of Keppoch, Arisaig

 We arrived at our favourite  campsite near Arisaig, (Tigh-na-mara campsite, Back of Keppoch)  and assembled the Kayak ....

The weather forecast not looking good, with Force 4 winds,  so after a brief "warm-up paddle" we decided that tomorrow we'd paddle over to Morar, and portage up the road to Loch Morar, where it should be calmer.

A bad start...

 Our trip to Scotland started badly, when a week before we were due to leave, our car's engine blew up.

We hastily hired a van from Enterprise. 

This took all our stuff, but as there was no roof rack, we knew we'd be unable to transport the assembled kayak. This became a problem later..