Saturday, March 09, 2013

Under a blood red sky at Cul na Croise.


Ian and I paddled out of Cul na Croise  bay towards the mountains of Eigg and Rum under a sky that gradually turned...

 ...to blood red.

As Mike paddled directly back to the shuttle car at Ardtoe, Ian and I sat in our kayaks and savoured the stunning sunset until it was nearly gone.

By the time we got to Ardtoe it was nearly dark with only a few embers of the long gone sun slowly fading in the south west sky.

The north coast of Ardnamurchan, Portuairk to Ardtoe (27.5km) proved to be a stunning but committing paddle. On the narrow single track roads, the shuttle took two hours to set up and another two hours to recover the car at Portuairk two days later. I am particularly grateful to Ian and Mike for the driving as I would have been unable to drive that distance on these roads, never mind paddle afterwards!

You can read another illustrated account of this Ardnamurchan trip on Ian's blog here, here and here.

4 comments:

  1. Douglas, excellent blog, congratulations.

    A few questions

    Do you use some protection for the Eos 5?
    What lens es are the most usefull in a kayak Trip?

    Thanks in advance and Greetings from Chile, South America

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    Replies
    1. Hello Aram, it is very good to hear from you.

      I use an Ortlieb Aqua Cam bag mounted on the deck. The 5D MkIII fits in sideways with both 24-110 f4 IS L and 70-200 f4 IS L lenses. I usually use a polariser filter on the 24-110 and a skylight filter on the 70-200. The 24-110 is the lens I use most but the 70-200 produces some lovely results particularly of a distant paddler with mountains behind.

      Saludos a kayakistas Chilenos de Escocia.

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    2. Douglas, thanks for the reply.
      If you Roll the aqua cam keep the water outside?

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    3. Hello Aram, I have twice tested it, once I capsized in deep water of the Outer Hebrides. The camera was dry as a bone. The second time I left my kayak on the beach but the tide came in faster than I thought and it was rolled around in the surf. Again the bag remained completely dry.

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