Imagine you are at the edge of the sea on a day when it is difficult to say where the land ends and the sea begins and where the sea ends and the sky begins. Sea kayaking lets you explore these and your own boundaries and broadens your horizons. Sea kayaking is the new mountaineering.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
An Iona fishergirl
Leaving Market Bay on the Ross of Mull, we paddled back towards Iona in the still of a perfect summer evening. We passed the lovely hamlet of Kintra at the mouth of the Sound of Iona but the tide had now turned and we had to fight the increasing flood current which was flowing against us through the Bull Hole. This is a narrow channel between the Ross of Mull and Eilean Nam Ban. Ahead, some basking seals ignored us, they could see we were making almost no progress. We then ferried over to the island side and on across the Sound of Iona.
We landed below the village just as the last ferry departed with its load of tourists. A little local girl, sitting with her father in a beautiful white clinker built boat, asked “Is that a sea kayak?”
“Yes it is” I replied.
“I would love to do that” she said, wistfully.
“Well you very lucky, you are in the right place for it.”
Her dad then said “Aye, she likes the sea; she’s been helping with the lobster pots today.”
19/07/2007