Wednesday, February 25, 2009

The wild west coast of Lewis.


On the morning of the 5th of June 2008, the MV Cuma steamed out of the shelter of Loch Roag for the last time on our trip.


We passed inside of beautiful Eilean Mhealasta...


...and below the dark rocks of Aird Mor Mangurstadh.


We were glad we were not rounding Gallan Head in kayaks, given these conditions.


MV Cuma then nosed into Loch Roag and passed the great arch of Eala Sheadha...


...before Murdani dropped her anchor, a little distance off Bhaltos pier.


Cuma had covered 39km of some of the finest paddling coastline anywhere. I would love to return and paddle it but such an expedition would require much calmer conditions than those we had just encountered.

05/06/2009

4 comments:

  1. I've always wanted to camp on Mhealasta, a hangover from summer holidays on the beaches south of Breanish. Never quite made it yet though!

    Cheers,

    Tom.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Tom, we set off a few years ago to launch from Huisinish and explore Scarp, Mhealasta and Loch Resort but there was a huge NW swell and force 5. We retreated to Taransay instead. The next year we came back to do the same but an even bigger swell and force 6 saw us drive on to Loch Roag. Like you, one day!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Every time I visit your blog I get a charge out of the place names! I passed on your blog to a Scottish neighbour of mine Douglas. He enjoys it a great deal. And, can pronounce the names too!

    Tony :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Tony, my wife's great aunt wjho lives on South Uist is the last native Gaelic speaker in our family. She didn't learn to speak English until she was in her 30's.

    ReplyDelete