Skye at night

I've long hankered after a visit to Soay, to see the remains of Tex Geddes' shark processing factory. Taking advantage of an unusually kind October forecast, I had an early start down the beautiful road from Broadford to Torrin, on a glorious morning.

 

Heading south out of Loch Slapin, the coast becomes steadily more dramatic,

until a corner is turned and the outline of the Black Cuillin appears. There is a wee preview through a hole in a cliff. A couple of otters and an eagle were enjoying the day too.

I took a turn round Soay from here. I'd thought it was uninhabited, but there are well maintained houses and some small wind turbines. The south side isn't a great landing for a solo boat with a biggish load, so I headed on round to the "Soay harbour", an inlet on the north side. Some working boats were moored here. It's in this bay that the shark processing factory stands, gradually returning back to nature.

Soay is also home to some sheep. I presume they are Soay sheep, though they are considerably heftier than the ones on St Kilda.

They share the rocks with the cormorants.

From here I headed into Loch Scavaig, to camp at Coruisk. I was pretty tired by arrival, which coincided with the departure of the last of the tourist boats. A fine day gradually turned into a fine night. The local seals were playing at being dolphins, leaping completely out of the water. I read my kindle first by moonlight, then by starlight.

Another fine morning followed,

and I headed for home, stopping only at the Spar Cave. A grotty spot in all meanings of the word.

Too calm to go paddling

Up here in Scotland November has been, so far, much finer that most of the summer.
Mrs CWW and I had arranged a short holiday to Skye. The plan was that I would be a "mock client" on a Glenmore Lodge leader assessment for a day. Mrs CWW would play golf, and the rest of the time would be spent hill walking.
It's a long way from Fife to Skye, but as we passed Loch Garry with its map of Scotland, the weather was picking up.

It was to stay wonderful. The following day we bussed from Uig to Flodigarry, and walked back via the fantastic pinnacles of the Quiraing.

From the Trotternish ridge, we had the hills of Harris to one side, and a view to the far north-west on the other. These hills are too low to attract munro bashers, but give wonderful walking.

Unfortunately, the complete lack of wind meant that the Glenmore Lodge assessment was cancelled due to excessively nice weather, a decision which didn't seem to take into account the forecast. The morning dawned to much more typical Skye November weather.
With a southerly force 5, forecast to strengthen, I made a solo start into Loch Bracadale. This wasn't the most sensible place to go, as it was fully exposed to the wind.

It was an atmospheric day of sudden sun and rainbows, but very quickly the sea was rough and getting rougher. No more pictures were taken!
I got no further than the south of end of Harlosh Island, where a big swell was reflecting off the cliffs. A short retreat and exploration of the other shore followed, but it wasn't long before I turned and ran back to shelter. It did occur to me that the nearest lifeboat station here is probably Mallaig. Even at 25 knots that's well over an hour away!
Unfortunately, news of family illness meant we had to return home early. It still feels a privilege, however, to have had such a wonderful day at this time of year.

Cold out west

I spent last weekend on a 5 star training course with Gordon Brown on Skye. Ken and Sarah, also FCAG members came along too. I don't have many pictures, as my hands were both very occupied and frozen solid. The one I've posted has the Pentax Optio blur, but demonstrates one of the difficult landing scenarios.
Skye was literally freezing with snow lying at low altitude. The temperature added to my anxieties about the course, though as usual it was just extremities which were cold.
The course mixed both navigation training and paddling. Skye has a fantastic range of venues, with something suitable in any conditions. We had a day off Armadale, landing and manoeuvring in the skerries there, followed by a big towing session at Kyleakin. The latter merged into a night paddle, with a lot of work on group management.
The last day was at Kylerhea. Our tidal calculations suggested a flow of 9.5 knots. I find it hard to judge speed from appearances, but it was certainly fast, and with wind against tide gave a roller coaster surging wave train- the highlight of the trip.
Having done the course I'm now questioning whether I really want to do the assessment. It's clearly tough, more so than I thought. The main tip for development was to "get out there in Force 8". My previous approach to trip planning was to avoid Force 8 at all costs!
There would be a marginal benefit for our club in having 5 star leaders, but I suppose the greater motive for doing this is the personal challenge. I think I like having targets to aim for. The next step is probably to go along as a guinea pig on a real assessment, before deciding whether to step up to the mark. Food for thought.
We were being filmed throughout. Simon Willis is working with Gordon on his next coaching DVD. They had spent the week on this, and the final version should have some of us trainees on it. Simon has posted a video of one of our towing sessions on his blog.. He's the only person who is on my iPod who I have ever met, and a thoroughly nice bloke.

The Misty Isle

Looking to the Red Cuillin

I'm just back from 5 days of instruction and guiding with Gordon Brown at Skyak adventures. Gordon is a great coach, probably one of the most experienced in the world. Three of us spent all week with him, with a view to obtaining our 4 star certificate. We learned a lot- new strokes, navigation and rescue skills, weather lore and kayak design, and even how to take better kayaking photographs.
The weather, true to Skye's reputation, was mostly misty. Winds varied from negligible up to just about force 5. This is a fine level to fine tune skills without involving too much terror. On exposed seas the wave height was around 3 feet. This is a level which isn't too unsettling- it was still possible to see other paddlers all the time- but was enough to leave me slightly sea sick in the evenings.
Most of our time was spent paddling on the west coast of the Sleat peninsula. This was suitably exposed to the mostly westerly wind.
Other trips took us round the Skye bridge looking for tidal eddies. The tides in this area have been significantly changed by the bridge construction, and our carefully worked out planning simply didn't work.

Under the Skye Bridge

The main journey of the week was from Elgol to Loch Coruisk, with a return via Soay. The weather was damp, but I enjoyed my first visit to the heart of the Cuillins for 20 years. Curiously there wasn't a lot of marine life to be seen on the trip, bit we did spot Soay sheep, grazing on the seaweed of the island.

Setting off for the Cuillins

Gordon runs Skayak adventures with his wife, Morag. It's a great setup. They have an office and gathering point in a bothy in the garden. There are lots of boats to try out, and any equipment needed can be borrowed. In the garden is a hot tub- a great way to end the paddling day. I'm pretty sure I'll be back for more!