No hippopotomi but plenty tight places on the Solway.

I had not been able to paddle much due to running into some painful problems with my knees and hips, so it was with real pleasure that I joined the others as we set off from Barlocco Isle along the Solway coast in an easterly direction.

Phil thought he spotted a hippopotamus, a little way off shore. We don't get so many hippopotomi in these parts (though we did have a flamingo a few years ago)...

 ...and investigation proved it was an old log.

 Jennifer was enjoying the P&H Delphin...

...which proved ideal for exploring...

 ...caves and the other...

 ...tight places that can be found on...

...this part of the magnificent Solway coast.

The Cannibal's Cave and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo!

From Whilk Isle, we paddled towards the cliffs of Balcreuchan Head. Almost immediately we came across this blow hole. Unfortunately the swell wasn't quite big enough for real explosions but it still made a satisfying "boom, whoosh!"

We now cut inshore of Balcreuchan Stack...

...on our way towards Sawney Bean's Cave in Balcreuchan Port when, all of a sudden, Phil gave a great shout. Half expecting to see the Great Cannibal himself, we looked up as Phil pointed high on the hill...

..."Look, it's a real, red kangaroo....why it's, it's... I think it's Skippy!". We all nearly fell out our kayaks with laughter, Phil had seen a roe deer leaping up the side of the hill on its rear legs. It seemed to have hurt one of its front legs, which it held close to its chest, while leaping away on the other three.  At first glance it might have looked, a....bit..., like a kangarooo. But...

Clearly Phil has been spending too much time watching "Skippy, the complete collection (vol 1)" DVD, which David had given him for Christmas.

As a somewhat red faced Phil paddled on, a chorus of "Skippy, Skippy,....Skippy the Bush Kangaroo" gently wafted after him. Clearly we were going to have a good day out and we had hardly started!

By the way, the entrance to the Bean's cave is in the middle of the above photo with Skippy. It is entered by traversing the horizontal groove above the sea, lower right, then climbing the slanting curved gully up to the cave.

End of the day at Traigh Mhor, Islay.

 Beyond Soldier's Rock, the coastline of the Oa peninsula is riven by a series of basalt dykes in various states of erosion. Some like this one are still in place.

Others like this one, through a stack off Rubha Mor, have eroded away leaving channels just wide enough for a kayak to sip through.

When we rounded Rubha Mor we saw the great sweep of Traigh Mhor backed by the distant Paps of Jura. It is one of the biggest beaches in the Hebrides.

Our two day trip round the south coast and the Oa peninsula of Islay came to an end at the commercial camp site at Kintra. While I pitched the tents and unpacked the gear, Tony cycled the 21km and 360m of height to recover the car at Claggain Bay. If you arrive by sea kayak, check in at the farm before you pitch your tent as there are a limited number of pitches by the sea and you might need to carry your gear about 100m inland.

That night we enjoyed an excellent curry in the unprepossessing Maharani Restaurant in Port Ellen all washed down with lashings of ginger beer (it is not licensed). We both agreed that the west coast of the Mull of Oa is one of the best paddles that we have ever done.

S-oa-ldier's Rock.

 Our voyage along the west coast of the Mull of Oa continued with undiminished interest. Just before we turned east along the north coast...

 ...we came to the great sea stack...

 ...called Soldier's Rock.

In an alcove beyond the stack we came to...

...a huge cave with several windows in its roof.

It even had a cave within a cave and...

 ...a waterfall tumbling down through a skylight!

The door of the cave was the perfect frame for Soldier's Rock.

There's a kind of hush, all over the Oa tonight.

We set of from Lower Killeyan Bay and were soon weaving through a series of offshore stacks and...

...channels through the skerries. To the north of the bay, the tidal eddy was running against us even more strongly than it had before.

We took a last look back at the Mull of Oa from Sgeirean Buidhe Ghil before we took a...

...well earned rest in the shelter round the headland.

From high on the next headland our progress was watched over by...

 ...rocky gargoyles until we were hushed...

...into silence by Shhhhh rock!

Taking a break at Lower Killeayan on the Oa peninsula.

The west coast of the Mull of Oa is characterised by many offshore skerries and stacks. The Mull forms the SE boundary of Loch Indaal. Despite the flood tide, a strong counter eddy was flowing south, out of Loch Indaal, and joining the west going Mull of Oa tide race. At several pinch points we found ourselves paddling "uphill"!

 We took a break at the lovely Lower Killeyan beach. Visitors are advised not to swim here due to the strength of the tide.

Tony went off exploring while I sat on the rocks looking over the mouth of Loch Indaal to Orsay and its lighthouse some 14km away. It was near there, at Portnahaven, that we had launched to paddle the west coast of the Rinns of Islay just a few days before.

The way ahead looked even more interesting than where we had just come from so...

...after a leisurely luncheon we returned to the kayaks. It was a good feeling knowing we had passed the tidal crux of the journey and could now relax and enjoy paddling the incredible coast to come...

Catching the 0930 in the Sound of Islay.

We awoke at a decent time and had plenty of time to have a big breakfast in the morning. There was not a great distance to Port Askaig and the south going tide was building nicely to help us on our way. As we packed, the swans entertained us by teaching their cygnets to break into and out of the current in the Sound.
 

We did best to imitate their style and after catching the 0930 southbound, we were soon travelling at up to 14km/hour.

 The SW coast of Jura is an interesting place.

 The tide was carrying us south so quickly that we...

...repeatedly broke out of the current to investigate the many dykes, stacks, caves and raised beaches.

Archeology and the passage of time on the north shore of Islay.

 The coast of Islay that lay ahead looked so fascinating that we decided to move in...

 ...for a closer look and we were certainly not disappointed. We came across a number of stacks and caves then...

 ...some amazing arches.

 We tried to get through this one but it was low tide and dry beyond.

 The water was crystal clear  and we seemed to be suspended in both space and time as we drifted above the equally interesting rocks and weeds below the surface.

We lost count of the arches and of the passage of time in our new hobby of archeology!

You can read more about this fascinating part of Islay's coast in sections 18 of this pdf review of the coast of Islay from the Scape Trust.

Sea lions and elephants on Islay's north coast...it's like Jura on steroids!

 Leaving Port an t-Sruthain we continued our exploration...

...of Islay's north coast in mirror calm conditions.

We were paddling within the shelter of the extensive reef system at the base of Rubha Bholsa. In the distance beyond the reefs, lay low lying Oronsay and Colonsay. Something wasn't quite right though. This was when the first niggle of doubt entered my head. Even at 10km away, the extensive reefs, to the SW of Oronsay, were visibly white with breaking swell. Yet at our feet, round the northern rocks of Islay, all was still calm. Despite the forecast, a swell from the south of west had got up....

Leaving the shelter of the reefs we rounded Rubha Bholsa to see the most amazing scene. Huge headlands of rock rose up from the sea, with their precipitous sides facing inland. In profile they looked like the heads of great rocky sea lions trying to climb onto the land. One after the other they disappeared into the distance. Between each headland there were more raised beaches, caves and arches. We were lost for words and appreciated the scale of the seascape in silence.

We now paddled south towards the distinctive peak of Mala Bholsa.

The raised beach below the hill has one of the finest collections of sea arches I have ever seen.

They looked like stone elephants, with their trunks extending down to the sea. All in all the north coast of Islay is like the outstanding west coast of Jura on steroids!