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.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Carsaig Arches, Mull
Not far from the great slab of Leac nam Leum, there are even greater wonders of Mull's volcanic past.
The Carsaig Arches are now high above the sea but during the last Ice Age, when water levels were higher, Atlantic swells surged through the arches.
Hexagonal basalt columns teeter on top of layers of lava.
In turn the lava layers are interspersed with layers of volcanic ash. The ash is very soft and can be picked with a fingernail. As you can see, wave action is undercutting the basalt by wearing away the ash. One day, probably quite soon in geological terms, the whole lot will come toppling down.
Might I be presumptuous and recommend that you visit the Carsaig Arches sooner rather than later?
20/07/2007
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Look before you leap.
We landed on extremely slippy green boulders at the foot of Malcolm's Point.
Mike is dwarfed by the scale as he casts a line from Leac nan Leum.
We were unprepared for the huge scale of Leac nan Leum, a great basalt slab, which stretched for hundreds of metres. This was testament to the violent volcanic past of the island of Mull during which, huge volumes of lava spilled down from the Ben More volcano. Even today, after some 50 million years of erosion, the lava fields are up to 1.8km thick.
Leac nam Leum is Gaelic for Slab of the Leap....
At its eastern end, the slab is riven by a great chasm over which one of our ancestors is reputed to have leapt while being pursued by an army of dreadful giants or some such terror.
Tony, who did not have the same constraints on his time, made a more measured judgement and, after a long look, decided not to leap.
20/07/2007
Picture problem in Blogger
Since November 30th there has been a problem with the way Blogger displays large pictures when you click on the small picture embedded in the Blog page. Blogger are aware of the issue and Blog authors can fix it by editing the html references to each picture on each page. If you have your own Blog, the explanation of how to do so is here.
I have now fixed my pages of 30/11 and 1/12 and I hope the Blogger team will have the issue resolved soon.
I have now fixed my pages of 30/11 and 1/12 and I hope the Blogger team will have the issue resolved soon.
Saturday, December 01, 2007
Howling wolf rock (not the blues).
Shortly after leaving Uisken we passed "howling wolf rock". Rocks whose shape looks like something else are called mimetoliths. This mimetolith is the only grey wolf we saw on our travels. The wolves were native to Scotland but the last was exterminated in 1743.
We gathered the most wonderful seasoned wood from the top of one of the beaches. We filled all the hatches of our kayaks and took it back to Fidden beach which had been stripped bare of firewood. It was to provide the best sea kayaking fire we have ever enjoyed but it did not need to frighten off any wolves. The farmer's dog was quite unafraid of fire and made off with half of David's tea.
20/07/2007
Friday, November 30, 2007
Uisken to Malcolm's Point
After our circumnavigation of Iona we were looking for a more restful day so we ran the kayaks by car along to Uisken on the south coast of the Ross of Mull. We were bound for Malcolm's Point a mere 11km along the coast to the east.
Making progress along the first part was somewhat difficult given that there were deserted white shell sand beaches round every corner.
When we rounded Rubha nam Braithrean the bay opened out and Malcolm's Point lay before us.
As we approached, we were dwarfed by the scale of the cliffs. Layer upon layer of volcanic ash alternating with basalt lava flow soared over 300m above us.
20/07/2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
End of a perfect day on Iona
After leaving Iona Abbey and Martyr's Bay Restaurant and Bar David and Mike headed straight back across the Sound of Iona for Fidden. Tony and I decided to do a little more paddling and found this amazing cave (complete with white sand beach) on the SE of Iona about 21:30hrs.
On finally leaving Iona, we took a last detour via Tinker's Hole. We eventually returned to Fidden at 22:30. We had covered a mere 34km but felt we deserved a rest.
19/07/2007
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