Discretion is the better part of valour on the north coast of Tiree!

From Vaul Bay on Tiree's north coast we paddled south west along the coast towards Balephetrish Bay. We had hoped to land at the "ringing stone". This is a granodiorite erratic boulder, which was carried here by the ice during the Ice Age. Its rock is geologically recent but it sits on the ancient gneiss of the Tiree foreshore. Fortunately graniodiorite is very hard, because generations of tourists have thrown other rocks at it to make it ring. 4,000 years ago the locals were made of sterner stuff and managed to carve multiple cup marks on its surface. Unfortunately the wind and swell made it impossible to land on the rocky shore.

The wind increased to force 4 and the swell also rose. We had had no sleep the previous night, as we had driven through the night to catch the 05:45 ferry so, with the wind still increasing, we decided to cut short our paddle and look for somewhere to land. Another issue for me was that the pain in my bad knee had become almost unbearable. I had sat too long... through the night in a car then in a kayak morning and afternoon... my knee had now locked up.

We found a narrow sandy inlet to the east of Balephetrish Bay. Its direction and offshore reefs meant it was almost completely sheltered from the north east wind and westerly swell. Even so, I couldn't get out my kayak without the assistance of both David and Phil.... Thanks guys!

After a third luncheon of NSAIDs, COX2 inhibitors, codeine and paracetamol I was able to get going and then we had the tents up and our wet gear out to dry.

We had found our own little piece of paradise!

From the rocks above the tents wee looked out to sea...

...and we were glad we had stopped when we did. Discretion is the better part of valour on the north coast of windy Tiree!

Away with the fairies in Vaul Bay, Tiree.

High above Gunna Sound, cirrus clouds streaming from the north confirmed that we were lying between an intense low pressure system lying over Denmark and a high pressure system lying in mid Atlantic.

It was now time to go. We hoped to cover another 20km and clear the north coast of Tiree before the wind increased in the evening.

 I had hoped to show some more photos of an idyllic Sound of Gunna, like this one 2 years ago. However, the ebb tide was running strongly  through the sound from NW to SE, so we had to eddy hop up the skerries. Once we emerged onto the north coast of Tiree, beyond Urvaig Point we had hoped to find the ebb tide running SW down Tiree before the NE wind. However, there was so much water flowing into Gunna Sound that the ebb tide was being sucked NE up the Tiree coast and into the sound.

So we had a foul tide against both us and the wind. This resulted in some glorious bouncy conditions, which Phil described as somewhat reminiscent of the Mull of Galloway. Unfortunately I couldn't take any photos in the sound but this one was taken after the water flattened off, about half a kilometer beyond the point. You can just see Phil on the right edge, I didn't compose this shot!

Once onto the north coast the wind was from the NE and we fairly shot along to Vaul Bay. Its west coast was sheltered by the extensive reefs and since...

...we hadn't slept at all the night before, we stopped for a welcome second luncheon.  Belief in the fairies was deep rooted in Tiree. There was even a word for it in Tiree Gaelic: "siobhairean" To this day the island is famous for stories about fairies. They often lived in green knolls round the coast and sometimes they would kidnap people, especially children, hence the expression "away with the fairies".

Whoever our new neighbours were, we found ourselves in a sun trap, sheltered from the wind and had a great view to Eigg and Coll.

Soon David was fast asleep and away with the fairies.

Ruffled feathers in Gunna Sound.

As we made our way round the east coast of Tiree we became more exposed to the northerly wind.

The majority of houses on Tiree face east so that the door opens on the side where the wind comes from on fewest occasions throughout the year.

These shelduck were sheltering from the wind in a gap in a reef. Despite this it was ruffling their feathers.

We now entered the Gunna Sound, which separates Coll and Tiree. The tide runs through here at 5km/hr and we could see breaking white water ahead. Phil and David were now feeling a little chilly in the wind so we decided to land to let them put on their dry suits. The water temperature was a bracing 12 degrees C.

We landed in the shelter of the reef at Rubha Dubh.

Phil had never seen water of this colour before. He stood tansfixed, gazing at the turquoise in the shallows, which turned to ultramarine in the deeper channel.

We took our luncheon on this dazzling white shell sand beach which looked out over the SE entrance of Gunna Sound to the distant blue mountains of Mull.

Unfinished business on Tiree.

At 10:26am we set off on our circumnavigation of Tiree, which is known as the "Land Beneath the Waves" because most of it is low lying. The houses are often the highest points on the landscape and from a distance appear to float above the waves.

This trip very nearly never happened because recently I have been having such severe pains in my injured knee. In fact, we had previously to cut short our circumnavigation of Coll and Tiree on the 13th of June 2009 after I had dislocated my knee on Gunna, in the Sound between Coll and Tiree.

However, my companions were David and Phil, and like all my sea kayaking friends, both have proved so willing to do much of the heavy work on a sea kayaking trip. So I decided to go and complete unfinished business!

I had originally planned a clockwise circumnavigation but the weather forecast had deteriorated since that of the previous evening. A force 3-4 northerly wind was due to increase to 5 in the afternoon both this day and the next day. I really did not fancy getting stuck on the north coast of this exposed island in that sort of wind so decided on an anticlockwise trip and aimed to get off the north coast and onto the west before the wind increased.

Where the Tiree rock is exposed, it is ancient Lewisian gneiss. At 3,000 million years old, it forms some of the oldest rocks on Earth.

Seals were basking on the offshore reefs and distant Ben More, 967m, on Mull dominated the horizon to the SE.

En route to Tiree.

We drove through the night to arrive in Oban in time to catch the 0545 ferry to Tiree. There is no car park at the Oban ferry terminal so we drove into the back of the railway station car park and dropped the kayaks there before trollying them through to the ferry terminal. I left the car in the free long stay Lochavullin car park, which is entered off Lynn Road.

Once aboard the MV Clansman ferry we made straight for the dining facilities, where we enjoyed the full trucker's breakfast before...

 ...taking a postprandial perambulation on the viewing deck...

...where we watched the Sound of Mull slip astern.

Soon we were disembarked...

...and launched our kayaks on the little white sand beach beside the ferry pier at Scarinish on Tiree. We had arrived!

We have arrived in paradise!

Mind you driving through the night for the 0545 ferry was a bit brutal.

On location

Normal service will be resumed shortly.