More views from the Cape

The wonderful looking Kervaig Bay and the sea stack which looks like it’s giving you the ‘victory V’ sign…

A small lizard which I spotted scuttling around in the grass close to the lighthouse.

The slipway at Keoldale (sp?) on the Cape side of the Kyle of Durness where the small ferry (15ft open boat) lands.

Looking back along the North Coast towards Durness and Garvie Island.

Garvie Island which is literally being blown up slowly but surely by the navy’s guns and the airforce’s bombers. It is the only place in Europe supposedly that the military can train with live 1000 pound (weight)bombs.

Cape Wrath is a special place and somewhere I can’t wait to paddle around this summer as part of doing trips for the guidebook I’m writing.

 

Look out

Next stop, Iceland or Greenland or Canada.

It’s one of only two Cape’s in the UK.

We visited the most NW corner of the British mainland today under a blazing sun. It’s set in a wilderness area which is also used as a bombing range. More about the ‘Cape’ tomorrow.

Dunnet Head

It wasn’t a certainty that we would get around. Wind against tide conditions under the lighthouse and gusts of force five along the majority of the route which was a no landing zone (100 metre sandstone cliffs for the most part).

We did manage to get around Dunnet Head. It wasn’t a day for idling around and snapping photos but a day to employ many tactics in order to pick our route carefully to avoid the reefs, overfalls and down-drafts.

I do love sea kayaking and all the challenges the sea throws down. It simply is the best ‘game’ to play in my opinion. PS - the photos show calm water not force five conditions - the camera was tucked away when the wind was howling and we were negotiating the overfall under the lighthouse…

Argonauts of the Western Isles

The 2nd edition of this classic Scottish sea kayaking book is due to be published by Whittles Publishing in May. I can remember reading the 1st edition when I just started sea kayaking and the stories enthralled me. The book has the ability to fire up any paddler’s enthusiasm for exploring the West Coast of Scotland.

Blurb:

An updated edition of a classic kayaking book

Five new chapters covering Iona, Gigha, Skye, Orkney, the Shetlands and night paddling

Enhanced with new colour photographs and illustrations

Vivid descriptions by an award-winning author

The west coast of Scotland casts a spell on anyone with a taste for adventure, a feeling for the past or a love of the wild, uninhabited places. With tidal currents of awesome power running between fascinating patterns of islands, it is a challenging place for any type of small craft.

Robin Lloyd-Jones has been exploring here in his sea kayak for more than forty years. In this enhanced new edition of Argonauts of the Western Isles he takes us on many a memorable expedition to wild and beautiful shores. Amongst magnificent scenery and ever-changing seas, we are transported to Jura, Scarba, the Garvellach Isles, Mull, Staffa, the Treshnish Isles, the Monach Isles, Iona, Lewis and the Uists, Skye, the Orkneys, the Shetland Isles to places with music in their names, like Tir Nan Og the land of the ever-young, places which, once visited, become part of you.

The book is available direct from the publishers priced £16.99.

SW C-Kayaking

 The latest addition to the Pesda Press stable of British paddlesport guidebooks arrived on my doorstep a couple of days ago.

It’s certainly meets the high benchmark of a Pesda Press guidebook. Mark Rainsley’s dry sense of humour appears liberally throughout the book which will bring many wry smiles to the reader.

In terms of photographs there is a good mixture of human, coastline and interesting/different photos. Radically a photo of a sit on top kayak even makes its way into the guidebook (well done Mark!). The balance of photographs is perhaps slightly skewed too heavily towards coastline shots than I personally would like to see but it is a guidebook to the coastline…

The Southwest is a region which I’ve always had a hankering to visit for a holiday, mainly for the lovely warm summer temperatures in comparison to the cool (!) temps of the far North of Scotland. The surf beaches and interesting coastal environment also appeal and this guidebook certainly has got me thinking about how I could do the nightmare-ish drive from the North Coast of Scotland to the opposite end of the country. Maybe Flybe is the way forward?

 A wee look inside the book and one of few shots of the author himself.

A little voice in the back of head was nagging me whilst I flicked through this guidebook: ‘your guidebook had better be as good as this one, so crack on with finishing it to a high standard’.

Buy the guidebook here.

In the swim

 

So I set myself a little challenge earlier this year to swim at least one nautical mile a week in order to maintain my level of fitness. Have I managed to keep on swimming? The answer is a resounding yes and most weeks now I’m trotting out at least two nautical miles a week.

I would say I’m happier in the water as a result which can’t be a bad thing should I go for a ’swim’ whilst kayaking. However the proof is ‘in the eating of the pudding’ as the saying going and therefore a wee open water swim is still on the cards this summer. It seems ‘wild’ swimming is gaining popularity?

 

The King

He’s not made appearance on this blog for a while - Clisham the Cat. Looking truly like a king in this shot taken recently. Animals never fail to amaze me like Bertie’s encounter with a seal recently.

In between changing nappies and working, I’ve been planning ahead and have managed extracte even more dates out of my diary for paddling trips (guidebook related) in the coming months. Balancing my priorities this summer is going to be like slack lining.

Cat out of the bag

Simon and Liz have announced their plans for the summer season!

PRESS RELEASE

The west coast of Scotlandis a dream destination for sea kayakers with some of the world’s best paddling.  Now it will be the location of the UK’s first long distance ‘trail’ for sea kayakers.  A guide-book to the 300 mile Scottish Kayak Trail will published by kayaking specialists Pesda Press.

 

The route has been devised by Liz and Simon Willis, who live and kayak on Scotland’s west coast, and whose preliminary research is based on day-trip experience.  This summer they’ll paddle the whole route, emphasising minimum impact camping.  Follow their progress from June at ScottishKayakTrail.com  

 

“It’s really a virtual trail”, says Simon. “There’ll be no sign posts, and we’ll certainly not be telling people where to camp.  We don’t want to concentrate kayakers on a few beaches.  We hope this trail will spread the impact of sea kayaking along the entire coast”. 

 

The Scottish Kayak Trail route will run from the Isle of Gigha, off the Kintyre peninsular in the south, to the Summer Isles near Ullapool.  “It will be divided into four sections”, Liz Willis explains, “so visitors can either spend a month or more paddling the entire trail, or pick out the best sections for a two week trip”.

 

The heart of the book is accurate pilot information relevant to sea kayakers.  The emphasis is on practical advice; the best state of tide to tackle tricky sections; places to visit; the availability of food re-supply in local shops; where kayaks can safely be left unattended; how to shuttle a vehicle around the trail; public transport.  A more complex, historical thread is woven through the text as the author uses place names and sights, such as ruined castles, to tell ‘Scotland’s Story’.

 

Incorporating advice from Scottish Canoe Association and Mountaineering Council of Scotland, the book emphasises minimum-impact wild camping within the terms of the Scottish Access Code and Land Reform (Scotland) Act.

 

For more information please contact Simon Willis at Simon@ScottishKayakTrail.com

 

Photographs at ScottishKayakTrail.com

 

 

Blowing away the cobwebs

Roll out of bed, throw on some thermals, grab my drysuit and sling my kayak on my van roof. Forty five minutes later my face is stinging, my lungs are working hard and I’m digging in hard with my paddle to regain the gound I’ve just lost as a 3 foot wall of water had broken on top of me. 

Sea kayak surfing is ideal training to get in shape for long trips and to sharpen up your reactions. Well that’s what I tell myself. The swell was anything but consistent but there was some great three foot spilling waves to ride. It was also possible to link your ride with a lovely little reform. A good way to spend a Sunday morning.

No action shots as my current camera ain’t waterproof!

Winds of change?

There is an interesting thread developing on the UK Sea Kayaking Guidebook about Ocean Paddler Magazine. It seems the initial euphoria about the magazine has died away and people are now commenting on the ‘high brow’ tone of the magazine and questioning the narrow range of contributors to the magazine and whether or not the content can be sustained.

The editors, Mr Beckram and Parkin are shrewd folks and I’m sure they have been thinking about the issues raised in the thread already. Indeed the ‘bubble’ has burst and the challenge now is to engage potential readers whilst keeping existing readers content. No mean feat but I think a broadening of the magazine to enthuse and stimulate more readers is going to be required.

Finally many people make comment on the quality of the writing and others identify the need to encourage more people and different people to write for the magazine. Perhaps OP should give some thought to running a potential contributors workshop at some of the sea kayaking symposiums and gatherings and / or get the likes of Brian Wilson a.ka. Stern Words to run it?

Finally the one thing that gets my ‘goat’ going is the straight lift of press releases from the Marine Conservation Society every month, a couple of pages worth. It’s nice to read them and keep abreast of marine issues but hey isn’t there other relevant news happening out there? Or are paddlers stastifying their need for news via forums, websites and blogs these days?