Today I collected Carl from Sands Campsite, leaving his family behind, and headed north for a paddle from Melvaig. I’d had the whole family out paddling a few days earlier, but this was time for Carl to have a bit of time ‘off’. We set off to explore the coastline just north of Melvaig – it’s a great area with lots of little inlets, arches, caves, waterfalls and beaches.

We didn’t go far, we just spent our time enjoying the ruggedness and exploring as many nook and cranny as we could. It was a great way to spend the afternoon. Upon returning to Melvaig it would have been hard not to have stopped in for a pint at the Melvaig Inn – a great little place to go with the great coastline.

This morning was a busy morning on the water; Roslyn, James, Andrew, Scott, Kenneth, Chris and Donald all joined me for some kayaking. Donald and Scott actually feature on the back of my leaflets along with Kevin and Karen. I was sorry to be told that Kevin had died at the start of the year, a great shame.

We headed off to see some scenery and have some fun. It was a very frantic session, during the games everyone was very very competitive, putting in a lot of effort (mainly to ensure that everyone else got wet!).

This evening I fitted in Steven and Tracy-Ann, a couple just on their honeymoon after getting married recently. Whilst they’d paddled before, it had been a while ago. We headed out to practice some skills and then paddle along the coastline.

It was a very relaxed evening, out on the calm waters of Mellon Charles. A great way enjoy the beautiful scenery of Wester Ross.

The Hartree’s where back in the area, so of course they booked another trip out with me. This time it was just Mark, Lauryn and Finlay who came paddling – Fiona choosing to stay behind to take Sparky the dog for a good wander.

We set off in the kayaks to remind ourselves how to paddle and to explore the fantastic Mellon Charles coastline. Since it was a low tide we where able to explore a cave that isn’t normally accessible – impressive to see the huge metal buoy rammed into the roof crack of the cave.

This sunny afternoon the Davies family joined me for some canoeing. Carl, Jake, Zac, Oscar and Rohan all have plenty of experience paddling – Carl being a sea scout leader.

We headed off to search for seals, the seals where nice enough not to disappoint by popping up to watch us as we sipped hot chocolate and ate biscuits. Carl enjoyed himself so much we arranged to paddle again later on in the week.

Yet again the fisher family where back for more paddling with me, my jokes must be very boring by now…

It was great to see Erin and Letty again, and of course Rob and Louise. It was Louise’s birthday today, so for a change she decided to head off for a peacefully cycle in the stunning Wester Ross scenery. That left Rob and the Girls to jump in the boats with me to have some fun. We set off from ‘my’ little beach in Mellon Charles and after reminding ourselves quickly how to paddle we raced around the coastline to see what we could see.

We paddled into little nooks and crannies to see how our driving was, at one point Letty nearly left Rob behinfpd stood on a little rock in the middle of the sea. The sunshine was blazing again today,so instead of hot chocolate with our biscuits we settled for water to refresh us.

Louise arrived back at the beach in time to have a little fun with us playing around in the kayaks.

The afternoon continued to be great weather and the Tomassoni family joined me for a paddle. We all set off in canoes, with Kate and Alex being one team and Riccardo and Francesca being the other. We had the normal seals pop up, giving Alex a little fright initially, but we soon got used to them watching us from afar.

As I do often, we then switched to kayaks so that we got a go in both canoes and kayaks during our session. We used a range of kayaks that I have, using one of the small ‘youth friendly’ closed cockpit kayaks, an adult general purpose closed cockpit kayak and a couple of sit on top kayaks. The sit on top kayaks are becoming a bit of a favourite among many of my customers.

Lots of fun was had with piranhas flying around filling the airspace. I’m not sure anyone minded too much getting splashed in the glorious sunshine today!

The Beach family managed to get cracking weather for their session with me paddling from Gairloch harbour. It was so hot Millie even decided to ‘accidentally’ capsize soon after jumping in one of the kayaks!

Lot’s of splashing fun was had without any fear of getting cold. We started in the canoes and once we mastered them we moved onto the little kayaks.

A busy day for me, 3 sessions in a day, the evening session was with the Mellon family – Ann, Paul and Robert. Just like the other two sessions today we set off firstly in canoes and later switched into kayaks.

We again had sightings of seals and otters, their becoming a little dull now! Paul managed to cope with being stuck in a canoe with me whilst Ann and son Robert paddled the other canoe. It was a nice evening spent paddling around Poolewe.

Paul and Angela joined me in the afternoon for canoeing and kayaking by Poolewe. As well as the fairly standard seal sightings that we had, we also had an otter foraging for food on the beach just in front of the canoe trailer.

After taking the canoes for a good paddle we got the kayaks out on the water. Paul and Angela both got to paddle one of the sit on top kayaks and closed cockpit kayaks, getting a good feel for the different boats.

Rachel and Ian came out paddling with me from Poolewe. We started the session in canoes, paddling them around and getting to grips with using the single bladed paddles. We headed around by Inverewe Garden and where lucky enough to see a large number of seals, all very inquisitively watching us.

After heading back to the boat trailer we switched to kayaks so that we could have a play around with single boats and double bladed paddles.

Andrew, Kirsty, Cougar and Choire joined me today for a sunny morning of canoeing and kayaking. We set off initally in the canoes, as normal, so that we could get to grips with our paddling skills. Both boats got the hang of left, right and the tricky bit of going straightish.

We where doing well and decided to switch to kayaks, in the kayaks we played around in the shallows – the main aim was to cool off in the unusual heat have been experiencing.

Today I had my first clients from the Czech Republic. It was a large group, 12 in total, so we split the afternoon into two halves and I took 6 out at a time whilst the rest sat happily in the Badachro Inn sipping a nice drink.

My Czech language skills are non existent, so luckily most of the group could understand me, and for the few who didn’t a quick translation was easily made. I’m not convinced all my jokes translated well, or maybe their just not funny anyway!

Everyone picked up the kayak skills quickly, I’m told that canoeing is a standard pastime out in their county and since most paddling strokes transfer well to kayaks it was easy.

The first group on the water where very lucky to see the seals swimming around and popping up all over the place. Sadly with the second group we didn’t see any, but that gave us the time to go for a longer paddle to see more of the amazing coastline.

Sue who runs Ceomara Cottages in Badachro had some family and friends up this week, so what better thing to do than go for a paddle. We paddled from Badachro harbour, next to the Badachro Inn, and only had to go a little way till we saw plenty of seals by the side of Isle Horrisdale.

We paddled around close to the shore so that we could explore the areas only accessible by small boats, being right down at the level of the sea and against the cliffs gives you a very different view point to normal.

Obviously we also played some fun games  – purely to improve our strokes, not really for the fun side of throwing wet ‘piranhas’ at everyone else!

I’m off to the Ardèche River in France with some of the local scouts next week, so as some preparation for it we had a few hours canoeing in Gairloch Harbour.

I’d had everyone out in boats in the past, so I knew they could all paddle but it doesn’t hurt to refresh their minds and get some practice in. Everyone was paddling nicely, it all bodes well for next week!

Ian who lives around the coast from me and runs the Na Fir Chlis guesthouse has recently bought himself a sea kayak and begun exploring the coastline. He wanted to learn some strokes to help his paddling and some rescue techniques in case he ends up in the water.

Our original plan was to paddle from Mellon Udrigle beach, just down the road from him, but due to the wind direction we chose to paddle from the Aultbea Hotel so that we could practice the strokes in calmer water. We tucked ourselves in by the shoreline and where protected from most of the wind and any rough seas.

I introduced Ian to a number of strokes that he can then head off and practice whilst he’s paddling in the future. Then it was time to get wet, it’s not possible to practice getting back into boats without firstly getting into the sea – luckily we where both wearing wetsuits. Ian got to see and use a few bits of safety kit that can really help when things go wrong and you end up swimming.

It wasn’t a warm day, so it was then time to dry off and head into the Aultbea Hotel for a good coffee to warm up and chat about paddling.