[Paddlewise] A tour around Skye

Three weeks ago we, my wife and I, left our home in Sweden
to go to Skye. Our plan was to paddle around it in our Klepper
Aerius II Expedition.

We have had a marvellous time, and experienced some
of the most fantastic scenery you can find anywhere,
and more wildlife I've experienced anywhere, period.

As we were new to Skye, paddlewise, we got local
aid from Gordon and Morag Brown, of Skyak Adventures,
Isleornsay, on Skye, about where to go and what
to avoid, and in numerous other ways like when to listen
to the VHF for weather reports.

Gordon, who's one of UK's very few full-time paddlers/instructors,
kindly drove us the next day to a slipway almost outside
the Tallisker Distillery, in Carbost, Loch Harport.

We unloaded our huge heap of gear and started to load the
kayak, a slow process but eventually we only had the
tent bag, the stove bag and the emergency gear bag,
on deck - oh, I forgot the toilet seat: essentially a toilet ring,
with three sturdy, but short, legs attached - a blessing
when you have come of age as me and the wife have -
shitting have always been a pain when out backpacking,
but now we had the ultimate utility :-) !

As we started our paddle towards the north a golden eagle passed
low overhead, wow,and soon we saw a heron that stood as a statue
watching us for ages till it eventually took to the air. Sheeps were on the
hills around us in this glorious landscape and we did good progress.
This started great, in every way - most Swedes have never seen a single
golden eagle, now we had had one very close, and the night before two
battled, or possibly copulated, in the sky just above Gordon's house!

Lunch was taken in Portnalong harbour, where we studied luxury cruise
passengers going to and from their tiny cruise liner (a rebuilt Skye ferry),
that waited outside the tiny harbour, and the local fishermen arriving with
the catch of prawns. A last chat with Gordon, who arrived with a friend
after a long paddle at high speed across the Loch Barcadale, with the latest
advice, and we were absolutely on our own.

We pressed on to Oronsay, across the bay, a little island that at low water
  is connected the the "mainland" Skye, where the first thing we say was a
  jogger!!! And sheep, of course! On my comment that joggers you'll see
  everywhere nowadays he commented: Ditto kayakers! On SKye that
might well be true, even if it took a while to meet our first kayakers -
most prefer the more secluded waters along Skye's eastern coastline.

Oronsay lies almost centrally in Loch Barcadale, so we had an excellent view
of the rest of the islands and fjords that make up Loch Barcadale, and for
once there were no forest platations in sight anywhere, just vertical cliffs,
grass-covered hills and the occasional white farm house. Very, very pretty!

On the way over to Oronsay we took a few waves, but nothing anything
serious. Even if we're pretty much tyros as paddlers together all worked
perfectly, even our homemade anchor (that I had manufactured in Portnalong
from three huge rusty bolts, found on the seashore) came into good use, till
we had emptied the boat enough to drag it onshore. The toilet seat was tested
and proved to be superb, and the weather was a bit windy so no midges (who
came very early this year) - always a complication when shitting.

Next day we crossed over to the south side of the inlet to Loch Barcadale,
hovering a little at the last cliff before turning the corner, so to speak.
The cliff face beside us was absolutely vertical, 4-500 ft high, so it was
a good time to take a breath and a sip of water. The waves while crossing
the sound had been pretty benign, with an occasional swell upsetting our
balance a bit (the wife hate swells - much like I hate the white rocks that
often were visible through the crystal-clear water around Skye), but
otherwise just smooth paddling, waves not being higher than 2-3 ft.

As we turned south we were in for a surprise - the wind died down to
a mere breeze, and so did the waves. So from pretty cool weather it now
got clammy and hot, but the scenery made up for all our discomfort:
Steeply sloping grass-covered hill sides (more than 60 degrees inclination)
sometimes over 600 ft high, dotted with sheep, interspersed with vertical
cliff faces, with caves and big boulders (often 2-300 tons) near the bottom,
dotted with cormorant, fulmar and kittiwake nests, plus a handful of other
birds that we didn't manage to name properly. On the water we passed ever
so often small groups of black guilimots and almost as common were the seals!

In Tallisker Bay (about opposite to the Tallisker Brewery, on the other side
of the peninsula), one of the few sandy beaches on Skye, we had our lunch,
and fresh water from the Piper's well (at the right end of the beach), which
was OK, but not void of various minute examples from the local fauna and
flora! The sand is either black or white, varies from time to time, according
to the locals. On the beach beside our little camp there was a dead gannet,
the only one we saw, otherwise just perfect. Except the assurance from a
local lady that the tide will soon be in, thus we would soon be afloat again.

That lady was wrong, and after whe and her friend had left we had to engage
a family to lift our boat close to the water, which they did very willingly.
Our Klepper was far heavier than we otherwise could budge, and as the
tide now came we were soon off.

The coastline was pretty similar to that we had seen before, but our behinds
had started to hurt and the day had grown much too long, so when we had
crossed Loch Eynort the sun was settling. Finding a good landing place became
a difficult task, but eventually we found a space between a rock and a hard
place, wide enough to accept the kayak, just barely. The tide was still
rising a little so we used our last inches of strength to pull it up as long
as we could and onload the essentials. We eventually managed to pitch the
tent on a rock shelf on one of this 60 degree slopes with rocks that had
crashed down the side at one time, or other. There was also a lot of debris
from the Atlantic in "our" cliff crevice, some ten meter above high tide, so
this is at times a very stormy coast. As we took a last glance on the kayak
we found it far above the sea level, and we had bats circling overhead!

Awoke refreshed and continued southward. First bird we saw was a gyrfalcon -
wow! The coastline was about as dramatic as before, but our sore behinds,
the sun and an ever increasing tail wind made us stop for the day in Loch
Brittle, another huge, sandy beach, but here there was also a camping site,
free showers and a little shop. We camped close to our kayak that we had
dragged up the little creek coming out at Glenbrittle , not seeing the sign
up at the road that while parking was free camping had to be done on the camp
site proper, at 4.50 pounds a head!

Next day the winds had increased so we were stranded, while the windsurfers
and kiters loved it. The morning after that we were notified that either we
move out or we had to move into the camp proper. The sun had given us a
beating so we first planned to leave most of our gear in care of the local
farmer Hugh, but after having carried the boat and most of our gear we
eventually managed to got hold of a taxi, a minibus with a trailer, that
transported us across Skye to Sconser Lodge Hotel, where we were
treated royally, and ate likewise, with Gilliam's Tia Maria Cheesecake
  quickly becoming my wife's favourite.

First night we spent at the neighbouring B&B (in this case Bed & bath),
but we wined and dined at the Lodge. In the evening an otter clambered up
the slipway outside the hotel's pub - a perfect end to the evening indeed!

The lodge's rooms were great, if a little pricey, but the shower about as bad
(due to low pressure) as that at the Duncaan's B&B next door (the latter gave
excellent value for your money otherwise, with a very homey feeling and
self-catering facilities). Both the owner of the Duncaan's and the lodge were
selling, so things might change soon!

Iain Campbell (bartender by profession) of the Duncaan's and Mark (architect)
of the Sconser Lodge were absolutely capital hosts! After we had our night in
luxury at the lodge we paddled for a day down to Scalpay, met a few kayakers
and saw an otter were close by - a paddle-length from us it realised that we
were there - caught our scent maybe - and disappeared in a splash! Evening
was spent in the Lodge's pub, partly garbed in kayak gear! Just great!

Next day, while packing, we saw through our Duncaan B&B window three
kayakers come by. We would leave our gear to fetch our car in the other end
  of Skye, and soon walked to the bus stop near the Raasay ferry terminal.
  Sh*t! We had just missed it - the next not due for hours. But the three
  kayakers we've seen before were packing their gear behind the bus stop, and
  kindly offered us a lift, when we told them about our predicament. Great
  people, whose names I still don't know, but as they left us nearly halfway
  to our goal, we were soon picked up by a Ossie, an East German, who was
  delighted in meeting someone who spoke German - in his day they had the
  choice of either English or Russian at school, and not seeing any future in
  the West he opted for Russian, now an almost wholly useless language for
  him! This kind young lad drove us all the way to Gordon and Morag, so, after
  staying the night there, we could take the car and and collect the assembled
  Klepper and our heap of gear and start our journey homeward.

We did indeed have a lot of gear with us, including two sets of Reed
  Aquatherm gear (both for fine weather and cold), two sets of fleece (one
  Reed) - all were eventually used.

We had two types of wading gear, Lundhags' wading trouser legs and Reed's
wading socks - neither were water-proof after use, but helped a bit.

My wife used neoprene gloves and I used motorbiker's winter leather gloves
with a Goretex lining - both worked OK - I tried my neoprene but they were
too warm and clammy for me, while my leather gloves got a little soggy, but
dried fast, once you put them on. The shit seat (see above) was a blessing,
the Hilleberg tent (Namatj GT) and the Thermarest matresses absolutely
perfect, the superlight Haglvf sleeping bags a little too cold, but OK, while
the newly accquired MSR Whisperlite stove, didn't really work as well with
kerosene as the old MSR XKG (sp?) stove, but as we had both we had no
worries, just sooty cutlery!

The Icom VHF was useful, the flares, rocket, electric bilge pump, et cetera,
weren't needed (thank God!), the plastic tarpaulin we put under our outer
tent a blessing at night on sandy beaches and soggy ground, as none of the
debris on our shoes followed us into our inner tent, the Aquaground paddles
were excellent, and the Platupus water bags superb to check if the water was
pure or not!

What really made us drop four days of paddling were problems with the sun,
even though we used sunblockers graded 25 - my hands swelled up while
on shore in Glenbrittle, while my wife's face had got too much sun on the way
to Loch Brittle, so we both were incapacitated for a day or two, wind, or no
wind. So wider brims on our hats next time, also while on shore!

The last day on Skye we had planned to paddle from Elgol to Loch Coruisk in
the middle of the Cuillin Hills, a flabbergastingly beatiful place with the
over 3,000 ft high hills surrounding you on all sides. But the waves were
high at Elgol and my wife didn't feel up to it, so we skipped it. That night
we had hard winds and lots of rain, and my wife had a cold, that a day later
had her bed-ridden, so her gut reaction was just right!

The only thing we could have had use for was a proper anchor, and the only
real disappointment was the Leatherman Juice XE 6 rusted, even when being
kept in our repair bag inside a water-tight SealLine bag! Weird! Our smaller
Leathermen, Squirt 54s, that we kept in our life jackets, or windcheaters,
which were exposed to a lot of saltwater, did not rust!!! Explain that if you
can! My old Victorinox in my wife's PFD survived with no problems at all
while the big Leatherman had severe rust here and there! So expensive and not
saltwater-proof enough to stay in a dry bag?! Really a disgrace!

We did have a little too many knives with us, and the dry milk was never
  used, but I prefer having too many knives than none in an emergency! We did
  bring a lot of extra lines, which came handy as anchor line, and to secure
  all bags to the boat with. We didn't like to lose any, at any time. My
  paddle was secured to my life jacket, my wife's to the boat, and the
  emergency bag was also clipped to the boat with a cheap carabiner. These we
  used everywhere and they cost us less than 10 dollars for ten! The rudder
  line has one each end, one for clipping the rudder to the line and one to
  secure the rudder in its up position! When we take off the rudder the line
  stays in place, much easier than the Klepper original arrangement!


For our blige pump, rudder pedal arrangement and enlarged rudder, see
www.foldingkayaks.org and the mods page!

A long letter, hope you've enjoyed it,

Tord
tord_at_tord.nu 
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