Half Way Home

Had a great day on Friday after all the hassle Thursday getting to the island. The beef stew was awesome and bannock with freshly picked blackberries was pretty good too. Even if I did burn a couple of fingertips off!!

Decided on Friday evening we’d get packed up in the morning (after another decent nights sleep, we must be getting used to this hammock’ing stuff), leave everything at camp and head up to see if we could find the skegs for the journey back. We did find them to our amazement – 1.5 days later in the long grass where we thought we’d lost them! Headed back to camp, fitted the skegs, loaded the canoe and headed for the shore. Raining again as normal but all good really.

Had nice lunch in the hotel as a bit of a thank you for letting us leave our car there.

Came down to Loch Lomond thinking it was half way back, have a nice night chilling out and another night camping. Far from it – couldn’t find anywhere to camp again! Obviously all of Glasgow empties to Loch Lomond at the weekends so it was really busy everywhere. And we’ve kind of got used to being away from everything by now. Finally found somewhere reasonable to camp and lugged the kit down to it from the car. Started raining really hard this time, so we just quickly stuck up one tarp between a couple of trees and pegged the back down to create a shelter. Dragged the kit under it and sat down to let it pass. Few hikers went by probably thinking we were set for the night!! Hahaha.

Getting the fire going properly turned out to be the next nightmare, even with the bag of kindling and logs from the garage! Just wouldn’t get going. Ended up getting so fed up I went back and got a bag of charcoal which livened things up.

Big fire going and eventually getting the food cooked. Beds all setup and looking very comfortable. Hoping for another nice sleep (although shorter than previous ones!) before heading back home tomorrow.

Oich Island and a Canoe!

Half way through our first day on the island now, but getting here last night wasn’t much fun!

We were running late anyway, then it started to rain pretty heavily so we started rushing things a bit. One good thing, we managed to persuade the hotel opposite to let us park the car there for free! Got across to the island and couldn’t find anywhere to get out – all just marshy. Finally got out and unloaded the canoe to find there wasn’t anywhere to camp. So had to load up the canoe again. In the rush getting back out we ended up loosing the skegs (fin’s from the bottom) off the canoe so it now doesn’t paddle very straight. Limped down and found another place to get out but it did involve getting fairly wet!!

Got camp setup in the rain, cold and dark – and found out we’d left my underblanket in the car! So fashioned the sleeping bag I should be sleeping in under the hammock and I’m making do with the fleece liner as a sleeping bag. Both sat having hotdogs for tea at about 9:30pm wrapped in silver blankets feeling wet and cold and a bit miserable.

Got in to bed and was warm enough, just about. Only chill was early morning when we’d noticed the wind had picked up. Both felt loads better in the morning after some breakfast, a cuppa and some dryer clothes on. Got a fire going and put up a washing line to get things dried. Made a bench seat out of two tree stumps and a decent sized log so we’re not on the floor.

Had lunch and now busy cooking a stew over the fire for tea. Things starting to look better.

Heading off soon

The weekend is finally here and we're heading up tomorrow! Can't wait.. Working from Bellshill office tomorrow and driving up to Laggan in the afternoon to get all setup ready to go on Friday. Final bag pack done and checked, food sorted and ready to go - just need the weather to hold out which isn't looking hopeful. Tail end of some hurricane heading across so quite a bit of rain forecase unfortunately.

We've decided if it's really bad weather it's pointless getting soaked in the canoe and we'll just paddle to the island on Loch Oich and setup a big camp and stay there for a couple of days. Be nice either way really!

Menu for the weekend consists of a couple of ration packs (Michael grudgingly accepted), home made donner-kebab style thing, raviolli, bannock mix and probably a good bit of drink! Just to keep us warm at night obviously!! :o)

Trip 2 (take 2)

Yep.. We're planning this one again, only a few months later than expected! How dare work get in the way of such things.

Much the same as last time really; travelling up Thursday, ready to go Friday morning. Day 1: Laggan up to Oich Island (just over 4 miles). Day 2: Island to Kytra Lock (again, about 4 miles). Day 3: Up to Fort Augustus (about 2 miles). Nice easy trip really to give us plenty of time for messing about, and getting Chris eased in to paddling!!

Michael's taking his bike and kiddie-trailer for all the kit, which we'll no doubt take turns on over the weekend. So canoe should be nice n light and hopefully a bit quicker than last time. Can't wait to get cracking... 3 weeks and counting!