Bass rock, Farne Islands and Loch Morar sea kayaking

  Bass Rock lies just off North Berwick and is home to largest single colony of Gannets in the world. Around 150,000 flock to the island to breed each year and the island often appears white from a distance with the sheer number of birds (and their droppings!).
 The island is a classic sea kayak venue and with Gordon's parents living nearby, it was an obvious traget for us to explore a location further from home.
 After a long drive down a chippy and an Irn Bru saw us right and we paddled out in big seas and high winds to Bass Rock. Nearing the Island the familar stench of ammonia rich bird droppings hit our nostrils, breakers crashed against the cliffs, and the irregular Clapotis kept us on our toes whilst thousands of Gannets soared above us, sometimes diving from the cliff to splash down close to us in the water. We managed to find a rest spot in the lee on the rollers just around the North side of the island to recoup before we set off to surf down down wind, using the waves to aid our return.

 In our little eddy a group of young seals took an interest in us, gradually sneaking closer and closer, swimming just inches underneath our kayaks, visible in the clear waters. Heading off into the swell one of the pups started following us, often popping up just behind or infront, sometimes nudging our kayaks as we surfed down wind. Occasionally mid-surf, i would glance down to see him matching my speed and course, just inches below the surface.

 Eventually we made it back to North Berwick where the pup gave up the chase in the shallower waters of the beach.
 A warm home cooked meal and beer awaited us at Gordons parents house. Something i was incredibly grateful for!

Bass rock barely visible behing the rollers

The next day say us driving just across the boarder to explore the Farne Islands off the coast of Northumberland. This group of islands owned and maintained by the national trust is home to around 290 species of nesting birds throughout the summer, most of which had begun their long journeys south, to be replaced by the largest colony of Grey Seals in the UK. Around 6000 head to the island to mate each year and along several of the beaches sand could not be seen for the writhing mass of Seals and their pups.

Launching from Bamburgh

Inquisitive Seals

Longstone Lighthouse

 

 Fast flowing tides and powerful races gave exciting paddling, with large standing waves forming amongst some of the outer islands.
 Stunning scenery and incredible wildlife, combined with the challenging water definately made this one of the best locations i have paddled!
After a stop back at Gordons parents again for dinner we drove back to Aviemore so Gordon could work the following day.

 Me and Greg weren't working, so we hatched a plan to paddle from Mallaig to Tarbet bay, where a friend of Greg's, Tom, works as a gillie on the estate there. The estate, owned by Cameron Macintosh, has a small bothy/bunkhouse, complete with toilet, showever and running water. This converted church had been run by a previous gillie of the estate, Frank. When Frank retired Cameron allowed him to stay in his house and maintain the bothy for travellers to the area. A real character and a man never short of a story, Frank left an impression on Greg when he had stayed there previously, as he seemed to with all visitors to the bothy. I was eager to meet the man who had left such an imprint on my friend, however it was sadly not meant to be as Frank has passed away just under a month before. His legacy will definately live on in the memory of all who met him.

Franks Bothy

 Winds gusting in excess of force 7 made hard going and it took us around an extra two hours to make the relatively short paddle to Tarbet, however Tom was waiting and gave us gifts of sausages, made from the recently slaughtered pigs that were reared in the bay. About as organic and free range as it gets anywhere in the world!
 After a shower and some dinner we shared a beer and dram with another Tom, who had come for some work experience the month before, and arranged a lift over the hill on the quad bike to Loch Morar the next day.
 Loading the kayaks on to the quads small trailor and the lift over the steep, rough track certainly added to the sense of adventure on this trip!

 
 Loch Morar is the fifth largest loch in Scotland and the deepest body of fresh water in the British Isles. It's even got it's own monster, affectionately known as Morag! It's beautiful scenerey and collection of small islands at the east end of the loch give an excellent canoe or sea kayak expedition.
 We were hoping that the wind from the previous day would help us along as we paddled down the Loch, but unfortunately it had died off, contrary to the forcast.

  After paddling down the loch we had to portage the river that flows out of the loch and into the sea at Morar, a pretty gruelling experience with loaded sea kayaks. Putting on the other side was a pleasant experience however and the next stretch down to Arisaig provided beautiful white sandy beaches and interesting paddling amongst the skerries.

 A quick hitch hike for me to retrieve the car and once again we headed home after another real sea kayak adventure.

Quick release contact tow for sea kayaking

 Contact tow systems for sea kayaking are nothing new, and some form of contact tow is essential for situations where you may need to get a person, or boat out of trouble quickly.
 The issue with many tow systems around is that they have not been easily releasable, or at least not under load, and if you suddenly find yourself in trouble whilst attempting a rescue then you would be left with no way to release the tow.
 My friend Greg was recently shown a system by Giles Hartley, who had adapted a system shown to him by Nigel Dennis, whom he works for in North Wales. The system involved a plastic clip, whilst i believe Nigel's system incorporated a buckle similar to that used on waist mounted tows. Nigels system seems (although i haven't seen it) bulky, whilst Giles' buckle is potentially not as strong and possibly not as easy to release (again i haven't seen it in the flesh so could be wrong).
 Greg, being as bright as he is, spotted the "Sea to Summit Accessory Straps" in Ellis Brigham and decided he would try and create a releaseable system of his own.
 This involved using two sailing snap hooks, bought from a chandlery, and cutting the strap. After he made his i saw it and we chatted over the ability to release it under load and decided to drill a small hole in the buckle to add 3mm cord to make it easier to grab and pull to release.
 I then purchased my own items to make a system and this is what i came up with:



My quick-release contact tow.

My tow is very similar to Gregs, but i bought a 1m long strap, which seems a good length and is still rated to 125kg, so should be fairly solid!. I also used a thinner strap. I think this makes it just a bit subtler and slimmer on your deck. I only had to cut the strap once, about 30-35cm from the buckle. But this may vary boat to boat. I'd advise tying the first hook clip on first, then trimming it to length so the bukle sits fairly central on your deck. I decided to leave a bit more tail than Greg had, to potentially extend the tow slighlty to either fit wider hulled boats, or position the boat out of way of paddling whilst towing.

 

 

 

The snap hooks are of nose-less design and are the smallest size i could find. This keeps them slimline and prevents snagging. They are attached with a re-threaded over hand knot.

 The buckle is quite small on mine, so i had to take care when drilling, but a 3.5mm drill bit on slow revs did the job well. I then threaded a piece of 3mm cord through the hole, tied in a small loop with a simple over hand, it gives a good toggle to grab and having been tested it works well even in rough conditions and under load.

So there you have it! Like all things, it's not perfect and me and Greg have already discussed how we would improve it. I'd be tempted to make another with the tadaptations we have discussed, but for now i'll continue to use mine and perhaps make another in the future.

 If anyone's interested in having one made for them, then drop me a line.



As a side note: We have also used this to raft together. Even in quite big seas you can pull along side each other, clip under deck lines take up any slack and then you are rafted hands free and quick releasable if needs be! pretty handy for navigation and sorting kit out.

Return to the North

My return to Scotland was pretty hectic to say the least! After a long drive back to Aviemore i attended the Reel Rock Film Tour 2013 premier at the Macdonald resort. The following day saw me scouting out places to live for the winter (and luckily finding one!) having had the place i was going to move into unfortunately fall through whilst i was away in the south. The next day it was the Wilderness Scotland end of season BBQ, during which i recieved a call for a last minute days work on sunday.
A 5 30 am start Saturday morning saw me driving over to the Ben Nevis car park for a charity walk provided by Ptarmigan Events. It was a beautiful day with good temperature for a long walk and stunning views and despite it being late in the season, the summit was a busy place again.

 
The influx of visitors that the highest mountain in Britain recieves unfortunately means that a large amount of litter accumulates throughout the season. On Saturday an event was also taking place named "the real 3 peaks challenge". This event saw volunteers from casual walkers to mountain proffessionals scouring the hillside removing litter ranging from chocolate bar wrappers, to broken bottles and even clothing and boots! Whilst i'm 100% behind people going out to enjoy our british mountains, there definately needs to be a paradigm shift in education and attitude toward litter in our wild places.

Rich Pyne, litter pick organiser, picking litter!

 

After a good day on the Ben, a 3 hour drive saw me once again in Torridon. The Torridon walking festival is a relatively new event, with big potential, organised by the Torridon Hotel. Over the weekend guided walks and boat trips took place, exploring the unique and incredible area. The day provided a contrast to the previous days event and was, as always, a priviledge to lead a group in one of my favourite areas in the UK.

The Team on the Summit of Ruadh Stac Mor - the highest peak of Beinn Eighe