Marianne house sat for me last year when I had a trip to Australia, she looked after the ducks and Stan the cat well. She likes Wester Ross so came back to house sit for a friend this year. We hadn’t got a chance to go for a paddle last year, so went for a trip around the coastline from the boom beach in Mellon Charles.
The beautiful sunshine continued into the afternoon, the beach got busier (at least a handful of other folk on the beach – busy in Wester Ross terms!), and the Fisher family arrived to see me again. I’ve paddled with them for quite a few years now, but for some reason they keep coming back.
This time Rob and Letty left Erin and Louise at home but brought Bram, Madelief, Roelien and Antony along. We had a great time paddling around in kayaks, exploring around the rocky coastline and ending up on their holiday accommodation’s beach. We bumped into Louise and Erin for a brew, then headed back onto the water for more paddling and games.
It was a great day of weather after a number of winter days that had slipped into summer somehow. The water was still, the sun shone and everyone was happy. Chris, Rosie, Edgar and Audrey joined me in Mellon Charles for a pleasant paddle, initially in canoes and then kayaks. It was even the sort of day that I didn’t mind getting wet!
Clare, Carol and John Angus joined me for a paddle at Mellon Charles. We chose to use the sit on top kayaks – they’re great for learning kayak skills with and handle well in the breeze that we had. It was tough going in the wind, but they all got the hang of the boats quickly. They all grew up in the area but hadn’t paddled along the coastline before so were able to see it from a different perspective.
Clare and Carol’s parents are just retiring from their butchers shop in Aultbea, if anyone wants a great business opportunity look here.
Linda and Peter met me at my house before we made the short journey down to Mellon Charles big beach. We set off in kayaks as the tide was approaching it’s lowest point. Having the tide so low relieved lots of wildlife along the shore line, we saw huge numbers of star fish above and below the waterline along with vast quantities of sea urchins stuck all over the rocks. Some seals made an appearance right at the end too, they made up for the dead one we saw earlier.
Bill & Ruth, some old friends from uni were up in the area as part of a trip around the Scottish coastline #NC500. We went for a paddle from Mellon Charles’s ‘Boom’ beach on calm and peaceful water. We had the benefit of a high tide, giving us a small carry to get onto the water.
Abigail, Angus, Archie and Rebecca joined me again for a session. They had paddled with me a couple of years ago in Poolewe, being regulars to the area. They stay in Inverasdale, the other side of the loch, so normally do things over their – being on this side of the loch gave them the views from a different angle for a change.
Alan, Cora and Aidan met me at Mellon Charles ‘Boom’ beach. We had a good time paddling by the beach and the old pier, we also headed around the coastline for a brew and biscuits on a little beach around the corner. I don’t see seals as often here as I do in other places, but we were lucky enough to encounter one.
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.
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.
Gill and Neil live down the road in Aultbea and have been thinking of getting a boat for a while, so they came out with me to try-out a few boats and see what they think of kayaking. We met at the Boom beach in Mellon Charles and started the session by chatting about different types of boats, along with their pros ad cons.
We started out paddling around on some of my sit on top kayaks, learning the suitable strokes so that we could control the boats and get where we wanted. After a coffee break we jumped into some sea kayaks to see the difference in boat types. Gill and Neil went away with a clearer picture of what different types of kayaks can offer them, a good idea of other safety precautions that should be taken and good basic skills to control a kayak.
Les and Louise joined me in the super September sunshine for a paddle around in Kayaks. We paddled from my local little beach in Mellon Charles, heading around the coastline to the boom beach – Les had been here as a kid a number of times on summer camps, so it brought back some good memories of paddling in Loch Ewe.