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.

Today most of the Mays family managed to get a few hours off from running their lovely new bistro in Gairloch – The Steading Bistro.

Luckily the weather was kind to us and we had bright sunshine to splash about in Gairloch harbour. We set off in a selection of canoes, sit in kayaks and sit on top kayaks. Despite the tide being out and having a little walk down to the water it’s a great spot to paddle from, by the entrance to the harbour we even saw a seal swimming about watching us watch him.

A glorious afternoon spent having fun on the water.

I don’t normally post about other work I do, but the weather was so good I thought I’d put up a picture. Ken from Highland Adventures and myself where taking a great group of youngsters from Danshill Prep up Ben Nevis for Mountaineerin.

My watch recorded a temperature of 29°C, a touch too hot for all that hard work! Certainly not normal up there! Well done to everyone, and good luck with the next two.

The sun was shining, the water was flat, it was a typical day in north west Scotland….

Great conditions for a morning of kayaking and not a midge in sight. We meet at the old marine harvest slip way, just a couple of hundred metres from my house and right next to the groups house. Neil Griffiths had some friends up for the week Peter, Tommy and Conor. We where also joined by Danna for the morning who was staying at the Aultbea Hotel.

With a lot of competitiveness and boisterousness it was clear we’d get at least one capsize during the game. I won’t mention names of who capsized, but I think Conor was glad he was wearing a wetsuit! We had a good paddle up around the coast, nipping into lots of nooks and crannies along the coast. The pier at Mellon Charles beach proved irresistible and 3 of the group climbed to the top just to throw themselves off into the chilli water.

Jamie, Helen and youngsters Aimee and Joshua arrived excited and ready to go paddling. We set off towards Inverewe House in the canoes.

Both boats paddled well and where both competitive with the piranhas.

We chose to swap across into the kayaks half way through the afternoon, giving everyone a chance to be captain of their own boat.

Joshua and Aimee both stayed as competitive as each other during the kayak games, both being equally as good as each other.