Loch Hourm ~ Knoydart

Jon & myself left Llangollen on Wend @ 6.30 and arrived @ 3.30 am at Loch Hourn in the Knoydart Scotland

The last 27 miles where down a single lane track through some horrendous weather, as Jon put it “it was like Film rain”
Although driving along the track that late at night had its upside their was loads of Deer on the road we lost count after 24 plus we saw three Barn owls by the road side looking very majestic, we finished the night in the farmers car park where we bedded down

Thurs was a late start both in getting up and with packing the boats we started of at about midday the weather was till very poor the winds where very strong and I must admit as we where trying to get through the narrow at the start I did think about just returning to the Van, However retreat isn”t in Jons vocabulary so forward we went, we where rewarded straight away by having a seal follow us and shortly followed by a Otter

I hadn”t really got my boat to well trimmed so the first leg we done wasn”t the easiest, however after a quick lunch stop I managed to get it trimmed better plus the winds had stated to die a little bit

The first days paddling finished at the spit of land that creates a bottle neck and Narrows on the Loch at Caolas Mor, A great camp site a bit exposed but the views where worth it plus the wind kept the Migies away, we set up the tents and got the Tarp up and went looking for wood, The wood turned out to all be quite damp and although we got a fire going well we where like smoked Kippers by the end of the night

The Friday we where greeted by a lovely day, The sun was out and the views where stunning,

Tides where not really in our favor all day so we didn”t think we would cover much distance so we set a target of the Village of Corran but we where surprised that we reached Corran bay in about an hour so we repotted and kept heading up the Loch but before we headed off again we where treated to a Pod of porpoise about 6-8 of them fishing around us we watched for a good half an hour before we finial headed off again just as a Dolphin made a splash in front of use,

We really started to get into our stride on the paddle and although it was tough going at times we where covering good Km every time we started to think about stopping we would push on a bit more and where rewarded with a new view or wildlife like the beach we found with a stag on the shore line

We pushed on till we got to the set of Islands at Eilean Rarsaidh which we planed to camp on but after paddling around them couldn”t find anywhere suitable to pitch so we had a look at the 2 dozen plus seals that where laid out on one of the rocks of the Island before heading of to the main land and finding a camp site It was late in the day and so we hade to take what we could find witch turned out to be a mige hell hole but with our new Smokey fire this kept them a bay to a point

Saturday we where on the return journey so we decided to raft the boats up and with a sail up we headed off past the Seal island they all came out to see us off and followed us for several Km,

The boat was perfectly trimmed we she held her course which was to the far shore aiming for Rubha Ruadh and by just moving our weight forward of back we where able to alter the boats direction which saved a lot of ruddering,

Along the way we had a brew which was nice then moved on to lunch and more brews, the wind was very claim so we where moving but not that fast but all the same it meant we could relax and just enjoy the views around us and as the hours passed we slowly made our way back to the first nights camp site at Caolas Mor where we made land fall for the first time all day over 5 hours sailing

we set up camp and decided to have the Tarp facing the other way for new view I gave Jon the “Nigee two thumbs up ” as to my guarantee of where and when the tide would stop that night, however after digging a nice fire pit and a few failed attempts of starting a fire it slowly dawned on us that the tide was still rising and that perhaps a re locate may be in order