Paul, Mimi, Lily and Ned met me for a sunny October afternoon in Gairloch. They’ve recently bought a house in the area and are keen to get out and play in the outdoors lots.

It was one of those sessions that I looked at the group early on when they were paddling around and thought – yep, Ned is likely to fall in. He didn’t disappoint!

On a sunny morning Adrian, Carol, James and Ella met me for a spot of kayaking. We had a good time getting used to the sit on top kayaks by learning some strokes, playing some games and paddling around. On our journey around the coastline we spotted seals, star fish, urchins and a few fish nipping around.

We headed out to explore the coastline in canoes, finding a beach to stop for hot chocolate and biscuits. Along the way we played games, watched seals and of course we learn’t some paddling skills.

Allison and Will joined me for another nice day of paddling. They where staying down in Wester Alligin on Upper Loch Torridon, a bit out of my normal area but since I’ve paddled a lot with them and I fancied a change of scenery I headed south to meet them.

The afternoon was spent enjoying some paddling around the harbour and coastline at Gairloch. The only unfortunate bit of the session was when Yu had his GoPro knocked off his head by a flying piranha. After a lot of searching (it was 4′-5′ deep water) we couldn’t find it. Luckily I spotted it the next day when it was low tide, so was able go get it out for Yu. After that a good session was had, seeing seals and enjoying the coastline.

I had a brief break from Wester Ross at the start of the Scottish school holidays (rubbish timing to be away – sorry to any folk who I couldn’t take out then). I went down to Mull with the Gairloch area explorer scouts. We had a great time on the island, certainly a place I’d suggest you’d go.

Some scouts from the Ross & Sutherland district are heading off to Canada later on in the summer, they’re due to be doing some canoing whilst out there (well, what else would you do in Canada?!). Most of them had done some paddling before, remembering bits and showing their skills. They all refreshed their memories of the strokes or learnt new ones in preparation for showing off to the Canadian scouts.

As always, it was a fun session with plenty of games and excitement. Most ended the session jumping of the pontoon to ensure they didn’t have any dry patches left!

Alex and Jude met me on a sunny morning in Mellon Charles at the big old military beach. We headed out to explore the varied coastline, paddling below Boom House where they are staying. For most of the morning we kept close to the shore avoiding the breeze but when we had to paddle back to the beach the wind seemed to pick up and give us some exhilarating paddling!

Guy, Greg, Laura and Matt came out for a paddle from Gairloch Harbour. We had some good weather for our trip, sunshine and calmness.  

James and Martin were travelling around the great #NC500. Keen to see the sights and experience the wonderful coastline from a different perspective they came out with me for a paddle. The crystal clear waters we have up here were very different to the murky south coast waters that James has paddled on before!

Sandra and Rüdiger met me in Mellon Charles to paddle around the coastline. They have plenty of experience paddling different types of boats but had never paddled sea kayaks before. We set off in the sea kayaks to see how they felt and get used to them. Soon they decided that they liked them and were keen to stay in them, so we headed off to see the rocky coastline.

Alistair, Maisie, Mary-Ann, Fin, Andrew and Janice joined me for the afternoon at Gairloch Harbour. We had a fun session, learning skills, playing games, having fun and enjoying the sights. Fin even found out how cold the water was when he ‘decided’ to go for a swim!

Alistair was taking a well earned break today from Isle of Ewe Smokehouse, which is just across the road from my house. Fantastic tasty fish, I certainly recommend it!

Lorna, Keri, Geoff and Chris met me at Gairloch Harbour for a paddle around the local area. We had fantastic blue skies and sunshine. Whilst paddling around the coastline we were able to see a seal, star fish, sea urchins, Sea anemones and fish.

Alex, Louise, Beth, Rhys and Siobhan met me by the Shieldaig Lodge Hotel for a paddle. It was  a little breezy, so at times we had good challenging conditions to keep us on our toes. The seals decided that we were quite interesting, so followed us around.

Grant, Roslyn, Fraser, Kate and Angus joined me in Mellon Charles for a paddle. They were up in the area seeing family – Stephen and Janis who run The Love Croft Guest House in Laide.

We had a great session with skills learnt, games played, interesting paddling and quite a bit of getting wet and having fun.

Manuela and Wolfgang joined me at Gairloch Harbour for a kayaking session in the sunshine. They were spending a few weeks travelling around Scotland, having some fantastic weather. 

Arnold booked a full day of paddling with me. He has recently bought himself a kayak and wanted to learn some skills. We spent a lot of time chatting about suitable equipment for both safety and comfort when paddling. On the water we practised different strokes and even had a practice with self rescue, even though the water felt freezing. Self rescue, the ability to get yourself back on your boat after capsizing, is an important skill to master if you’re going to go paddling by yourself.