Himalayan Balsam

 Much of the summer, we've been using the canoe to helping Cam Valley Forum's project to eradicate the invasive weed, Himalayan Balsam, from  the downstream section of Bourne Brook

We're making good progress, but there will undoubtedly be more to do next year
 

Ben Lawers

 We went over to Ben Lawers national park.  Stayed a night at a farm B&B near Killin, then had a lovely walk over Meall nan Tarmachan

 It was a bit challenging finding somewhere to camp, but we ended up at a lovely, tho somewhat stony spot at the north end of Loachan na Larige

 

Once again, the kayak stayed on the car.....  and remained there till we got home.

 

Mull

 Still hopeful of some more kayaking , we took the kayak over to Mull. 

 

The weather forecast was still to windy for us, so we cycled out to the "Wilderness", wild camped a couple of nights near Berg and walked along the beautiful coast path through the SSSI to  the fossilised tree.  

 

 

 

Then dried ourselves out, staying in the lovely youth hostel on the harbour front at Tobermory

We thought we'd wild camp near the lighthouse at Ardmore Point but with nowhere that looked attractive to camp, wind strength steadily rising towards a gale and increasing rain, we decided we'd prefer to be indoors!  Luckily we had some mobile coverage, so I used Booking.com to find a nearby B&B. 

 

We came back to the mainland the next day..

 

Loch Arienas

 Weather forecast still Force 4+ so we decided to go over to Loch Arienas, and paddle across and tale a couple of days to explore the ancient woodland hills and caves on the far side

This was lovely

 

 

  

Beautiful (tho windy) views from the top

and a cave

 

which was useful shelter when the showers came through

Then time to pack up the car again..

 

We didn't know it, but this would be the end of our Scottish kayaking this year...

Coll

 We'd hoped to do some kayaking round Coll, but the weather forecast was Force 4 + so we just took the bikes.

After a couple of nights in a very pleasant B&B we found a nice wild camp site on the blustery north coast, near Feall bay at the western tip

 

 

 

  

 

Walked to the western tip, looking over the channel to Tiree.   We've long hoped to kayak through here when the basking sharks are around.  But nothing visible today.

 

Travelling up to Scotland

 We set off on 28th May, with the car laden with bikes and kayak

 via a few days with our friends Karin and carl near Berwick, then visited the amazing Jupiter Landart on our way up to Oban

 

Self rescue practise

 We took the K2 on the Cam, with our full protective gear and practised capsizing and getting back in.

 

 There were a few "hazards" we wouldn't expect to encounter off the Scottish coast..

We had to reassure a flotilla of Chinese students in canoes, who were very anxious that we might need them to rescue us!  

Then a duck  brought her flock of ducklings along to have a look at what we were doing.

 

 

Getting ready

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

But this time it was even harder than usual 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)