On the busses

Today was spent either on busses, or waiting for busses, as we lugged our 4 large bags back to our car

We zigzagged across scotland .. from Ullapool to Inverness to Fort William, to Tarbet (a junction and hotel beside Loch Lomond) finally arriving at a tiny busstop at the entrance to the Point Sands Campsite at Taylinloan: our starting point a month ago. All in, it took nearly 12 hours. Not bad

The scottish bus network is surprisingly effective. Even tiny places seem to be connected, although it may well be by the postman's van (which sometimes also serves as a rural bus) or a "dial a bus" service which can be booked the evening before to travel on certain rural roads.

Even though the regulations said that passengers could only have one piece of luggage, we found all the staff very helpful and interested in what we'd done. Some even helped us load the bags!

For those tempted to follow in our footsteps, the Traveline Scotland website is great for route planning

Celtic Fringe is also a useful community run website with a wide range of public transport options in Westerross (the area south of Ullapool)

The busses seem busier than we're used to down south, so although its possible to by the tickets on the bus, its more relaxing if you buy them in advance (even by an hour guarentees you a seat) We were relieved we'd booked the tickets for the remainer of the journey as we passed through Inverness Bus Station.

As the sun finally set over the paps of Jura, we were sitting beside a campfire on the white sand of the beach, chatting with a a couple of other campers and finishing the contents of our wine box.

What a trip.

The disappearing kayak

After a wonderful month, we arrive in Ullapool. We check in to the lovely Arch Inn (5m from the sea, 300m from the busstop) and start the preparation for the return journey.

Most kayakers would be faced with the prospect of recovering their car,then driving it all the way back to load the kayak on the roof rack, before returning home. But this is where folding kayaks like the K2 come into their own.

We just take it apart, fold it up and load it and all our stuff into 4 (very large) bags, ready to go on the bus.

Priest Island

After 2 days in Poolewe the wind died & let us out on the sea again, rounding Greenstone Point. Conditions remained good so we crossed to Priest Island, the most remote of the Summer Islands, once occupied by hermit clerics, but now owned by RSPB - with good reason. The sea cliffs abound with nest sites for fulmars, razor bills. Artic Skuas patrol, ready to attack if you get too near their moorland nests. It was a fitting finale to our trip to be on a wild Summer isle for the shortest night, although we celebrated without my suggested midnight paddle.

Having been determed to avoid goals & challenges, we did secretly aspire to paddle from Gigha to Ullapool, and it's been a classic. This journey has a rounded completeness, with a great variety of scenery & paddling. We've been lucky with mostly clear weather, although on 7 days we stayed ashore because of strong winds. We lived it up on 9 nights in hotels or B&Bs, 3 with friends, 3 on campsites & 17 wild camping. All our wild beach meals were cooked on driftwood with our home-made "Turbo-Barbie" (details to follow in a techie-post). Hoping our fellow bus passengers, going back to the car, manage with our kippered smell!

Thanks to everyone who's supported us, made it possible and shown an interest.

Safety at Sea.. or not

For a second day, we're happily installed in Lilly's B&B in Poolewe (Riversdale B&B 01445 781227) , waiting for the Force 6/7 winds to calm down. It looks like we'll be able to get out to sea again on Saturday

On days like this one of our more unusual pieces of Kayaking safety gear comes into play: walking boots! These make it a pleasure to explore the surroundings on land when its not safe to be at sea. As a result, hopefully, our distress flares and other bits of more conventional nautical safety equipment can remain unused.

There's not much room in a kayak, so Kayakers often have nothing more than blister-inducing Wellies as footware on land, so boredom must make it tempting to set out to sea when really it would be safer not to. We get round the space problem by taking walking shoes, held tightly together with strap and kept in a waterproof 3 litre Lomo bag. (This keeps the sea water out, and the festering smell of damp socks in!) http://www.ewetsuits.com/acatalog/Dry-Boxes-dry-bags-uk.html

Rubha Reidh

Rubha Reidh (say: "Roo Ray") is a wild, rocky headland on the mainland, North of Skye, that catches any swell & tide. You wouldn't want to be kayaking there in the wrong conditions. For us it was just pleasantly exciting, with stunning scenery. We managed to get into the tiny Port An Amaill, where massive quantities of cocaine was landed after being dropped off in creels, resulting in the UK's largest drugs bust. East of the point we enjoyed threading through a playground of beautiful stacks & cliffs.
We decided to land on Camas Mor a wild, sandy beach, surrounded by cliffs - trickier than expected because the sand shown on OS maps has been washed away, exposing more rocks. Fortunately there wasn't too much surf'. There was great camping! The "ruins" above include a delightful bothy, Camas Trollvaig, from where we could see to Cape Wrath, with Suilven & the Assynt mountains beautifully arrayed. Gorgeous.

We left at high tide next afternoon, because stronger winds were forecast later, and shot round into the shelter of Loch Ewe.

Badachro Inn, Gailoch

Just arrived at this highly recommended pub, in a sheltered bay off Loch Gairloch.
Near perfect: Great food, Our kayak is tethered at their doorstep, and we're booked in for B&B! Who cares that the weather forecast for Wednesday/ Thursday suggests that our run of perfect weather may be coming to an end!

Kayak Camping

A great site for wild kayak camping has 5 things...

• Safe and easy landing, at all states of tide
  
• Great views
• Comfortable, flattish, grassy, breezy camping, not too far from the landing
• A nearby stream
• No roads or houses around

Sometimes we find all 5. Other times, as last night in Torridon, we need to compromise!

The view was great though!