In Search of Suilven pt III
When I woke up this morning there was a midge hatch going on under the canoe. I have a midge hood with me and I try it on. I’m not sure that it seems to be working all that well so I get up, at 6.20am, to find that it’s a glorious cloudless day. Suilven looks fantastic behind us. Bastard.
I find a rock to sit on, in the breeze, while I wait for the others to get up, then we eat and head to the end of the loch, at Elfin. I walk, John, Stella and Rowan are in the canoe. There are a few people about on the loch, from tweed jacket style fisher types to young lads disturbing the peace in a motorised boat.
At the end of the loch we decide that Stella is our best bet to hitch a ride back to the car. I walk to Elfin tea shop and pick us up some fruit cake and drinks. Amazingly Stella is back in not much more than an hour having ridden in at least three different cars to get back to hers. We then drive back to my van. It’s very hot (in the tea shop I asked them if they saw this kind of weather often, the elderly English lady serving laughed, but a Scottish lady behind the bar said, “Aye, it was the same as this last year…”).
1500 hours – I say goodbye to John, Stella, Rowan (who’s developed a strange rash on her underside), and an eclectic gathering of cows that are grazing where the van is parked. I start the drive home, trying not to use the air con too much. I have to stop to sleep on the way as I’m tired and the heat is soporific. I don’t get to the lay-by at Shap (where I’ve slept before) until 3am, where I sleep soundly.
In Search of Suilven pt II
It was cold last night, but my sleeping bag is good. At one point I could smell a kind of wet hair smell, and I was sure I could hear breathing and munching close by. I assumed it was deer and fell asleep. In the morning I noticed fresh deer dung in the area, but how fresh I couldn’t tell.
Ok, so the weather is not great. Given how it looked last night we are surprised to find low lying cloud and drizzle. We hang about until 4pm and then decide that the top of Suilven will have to wait until another day.
We fish – I have a go – John uses barbless flies and puts everything back. Besides, I’m pretty sure that I’ll catch nothing. I give up after I’ve lost three flies.
Then we move on, this time with John and Stella paddling while I walk. I walk fast and, after some initial shallows, where John had to pull the canoe along using a rope tied to each end, in the style of some old explorer from the early American occupation (or so he tells me), the paddling is easy going on a long picturesque loch. So we make it to a nice wooded spot, alongside Loch Vayatie, in good time. John gets a fire going and we eat the last of our big food. We have to make it out tomorrow.
In search of Suilven
As we are eating breakfast John gets friendly with a BMW driving, tweed jacket fisherman who’s pulled up next to the camper. Tweed Jacket has paid a sum of money to some anonymous land owner to fish in his lochs – extra for the use of a boat, one of which is tied up next to where we’ve spent the night. While we are getting ready a Mercedes pulls up and deposits another elderly gentlemen, who tackles up before his *two* lady friends drive off.
We head to Lochinver to check the weather again (wind is not good canoeing weather) and eat more. The weather is to be mixed, but we head to loch Sionascaig and hop into the canoe, and set off towards Suilven. Stella very kindly agrees to walk the first leg of the trip, with Rowan, John’s dog (think of Santa’s Little Helper from the Simpsons).
Myself and John paddle about, trying to stay out of the wind. It’s good to be back in an open canoe. I get myself re-acquainted with J strokes, drawing, reverse draws, etc. It’s a great day, even when we have to pull the canoe across grass between lochs.
Tonight John has been fly fishing in the loch at the foot of the Southern slopes of Suilven, catching a few Brown Trout, while I mucked about in the canoe. The wind has died almost completely and the sky is moslty clear with some red to the West. Suilven looms over us like a huge upturned ship hulk. I have no tent so we’ve set up a cover of canoe and tarp, where I’ll sleep in my bivi bag.
North of Ullapool
We wake up to a beautiful morning. On the way over to Ullapool it rains hard, but then turns nice again. We check out the weather forecast in Ullapool and make a decision to canoe/portage to Suilven tomorrow. Then we get some tea and cake in Ullapool.
It’s windy, but we manage to climb Stac Pollaidh before tea camped by a loch. John cooks up a curry while Stella struggles with the tent, holding it down with large rocks, as the ground is too hard to get tent pegs in. Oh, and I did a ‘chimney’ on Stac Poll – v scary in places, made my legs go to jelly.
Text Han at 1am to wish her a Happy Birthday – she is still up, Willow’s snoring apparently…
Boat of Garton
I drive Katharine from Edinburgh to Dunblane, then, after dropping here off, I drive to Aviemore. I pick up some food in Tesco (it was the only place I could find that was open, so I had to shop there even though I usually avoid Tesco if at all possible, for reasons that I’ll maybe talk about elsewhere) and then drive on to Boat of Garton.
I know John and Stella aren’t too far away by this time, so I hang about on the edge of town, where I can get reception, and sure enough John calls to say that they’ve arrived at the pub. We have a pint and then head of in a two car convoy to John’s secret wild camp site.
It’s misty and now raining quite a bit. But the meal we (well mostly, John and Stella) put together was good and I have my bed to myself, as those guys are out in their tent.
Dundreggan – 2nd Focaliser Week, 16th to 23rd May
I spent two volunteer weeks with Deborah in spring last year, and now it is great to have her as a co-focaliser for the week. Our group is an interesting mix of three experienced guys and four female newcomers. It’s great to spend time at Dundreggan again, my first time back since the training in March. And getting to know Steve and Allan a little better. We also have the pleasure of meeting local wildlife photographer Jane Bowman, who gives us an enthusiastic presentation of her (amazing) pictures.
Unfortunately, I’ve only a limited number of pictures as I somehow contrived to leave my phone charger in my van at Findhorn. But they are here…
My first Focaliser week – Plodda and Glen Cougie, 2nd to 9th May
My first week as a Trees for Life Focaliser, working alongside the Moth Daddy (Russell) and with the support of Manoj and Kath, nothing could possibly go wrong…
Life since the office 
Major endorsements