Today I was back across at Loch Shieldaig – nestled in the south east corner of Loch Gairloch. The Simpson family – Malcolm, Susan and lads Daniel and Lewis – were with me on the water. We had a great time paddling around, seeing the seals wildlife and playing games.
Eòin, Anndra, Iain and John had paddled with me back in 2013 on a beautiful sunny day. This time the weather wasn’t quite so good, but it was certainly better than some of the weather we’ve been having this summer. Having paddled with me before they were all, of course, experts – leaving me with a very easy session to run!
Isobel, Lydia, Laurence, Julie and Graham joined me for a fun filled session on the water. We paddled from Poolewe and managed to distract lots of folk who where peacefully wandering around Inverewe Garden. The seals then came out to distract us.
Victor and Jean Michel were up in the area, spending most of their time with Paul Tattersall of Go Further Scotland. I had a couple of afternoons with them, the first canoeing on Loch Shieldaig and the second kayaking from Gairloch Harbour. Paul joined us in the canoes, along with great sunshine and plenty of seals.
The weather wasn’t quite so kind to us when we went out in kayaks, but we had plenty of seal interaction and even had an otter swimming in front of us whilst we sipped our hot chocolate.
I’ve been in kayaks a lot recently, so it was great to get out in the canoes. Katie and Andrew were in one boat and Colin and Gloria were in the other. It didn’t take long for the teams to get the boats moving well around the harbour.
Ellis, Emily, Callum, Jonathan, Derek and Jennifer came for a paddle in the sunshine. I could tell from the start that it was going to be a very wet session – I think by the end everyone had been swimming.
The sun chose to join us today, giving us a great paddling day. Calum, Duncan, Kathleen and Neil joined me at Gairloch harbour for a fun session kayaking.
A busy afternoon at Mellon Charles beach – Gillian, Louise, Max, Ben, Rosalind, Fiona, Coll and Callum all joined me for some fun on the water.
We started out in canoes, practising our paddling and team work skills. We then switched to kayaks and had some fun getting wet.
Iain and Leigh joined me for a kayak from Mellon Charles. There wasn’t quite as much sunshine as I’d have liked, but we had very nice calm conditions on the water. Kayaking was something that Iain and Leigh had been planning on doing for years with their family, they finally got around to it now that their children aren’t on holiday with them.
This afternoon I paddled from Ormiscaig, setting off just next to the Griffiths’ house. Sarah and Bryan were on a quick visit to Scotland and chose to join me for a paddle along the coast. During the morning they’d been out collecting crabs with Ian on the Dry Island’s Shellfish Safari.
Jennifer and Peter joined me this morning to go for a paddle from Mellon Charles. They owned kayaks in the past and were keen to get out on the water again.
This morning’s session was over in Badachro with the Bettles Lake family. In the group there was a mix of experience, this didn’t matter as we were able to have a session to cater for all. We set off in a range of boats – sea kayaks, sit on tops and little kayaks. Today there were fewer seals than normal in the area, but we still got to see plenty, with them following us around as normal.
The Austens were on a trip around the North Coast 500, a fantastic 500 mile route around the north of Scotland. They were keen to get out on the water, so made sure they stopped off for a paddle on Loch Ewe. We set off from Poolewe by Inverewe Garden. On our trip around we saw an otter having his lunch and a group of seals watched us as we watched them.
Apologies again that we finished the session a few minutes early, a mountain rescue call out on An Teallach meant that I had to make a swift exit.
I’ve been a bit slack at putting up blog posts this year. I’ll start doing it again soon, but here’s some pictures of a few recent trips out on the water.
We’ve been having a few good days up here lately, makes up for the storms earlier on in the week. So, when Cherry was passing my house and saw the boats in the garden she couldn’t help but come and ask to go out paddling.
She used to live in the area, but now only manages to get up to her holiday cottage when it’s not let out. Cherry has done a fair bit of paddling in the past, so had no problems manoeuvring the boat in the light wind and waves.
We had a good little paddle, around the coastline from Ormiscaig to the end of Mellon Charles – past a busy looking Aroma Cafe and Perfume Studio at the end of the Mellon Charles road. The sun kept shining and not a cloud drifted past. A great way to spend a Saturday afternoon in March!
We’ve had fantastic weather lately and since I haven’t put anything on here for a while here’s a few photos from a paddle last week. I can’t take credit for the pictures (my waterproof camera has drowned). The photos are Ian’s (Na Fir Chlis Guesthouse in Opinan), hopefully he won’t mind me using them here.
It was a good little paddle with some great scenery.
Local photographer Adrian Hollister has an exhibition in the Gairloch Heritage Museum till the end of October. This picture of me is in his book ‘Portrait of a Small Community’.
The Wester-Ross Folios are a series of fine-art monochrome images by local photographer Adrian Hollister. Each portfolio presents a highly personal view of his love for life in Wester-Ross, and of its landscapes. These are not conventional landscape photographs; in fact one of the folios is a series of portraits of members of the community.
Adrian Hollister has been photographing the landscapes of Wester-Ross and the north-west highlands for over twelve years. Since 2010 he has lived in Mellon Charles, running photography workshops from the Image Studio (part of the Perfume Studio). The Open Studio Workshops, run in the winter months, attract some of the world’s top photographers as leaders, and to date over 150 experienced photographers have travelled from all corners of the globe to participate in these unique workshops.
