Paradise, twice in one day

We found no shelter in the sea loch so we turned towards the open sea again.

Beautiful bays passed by and finally...

...we pulled in the lee of this beautiful spot.

Our kayaks glided over the turquoise sea...

...before coming to rest below steep sand dunes.

We had found ourselves in Paradise, twice in the one day.

Gardskagi, Do not roll!

 The wind continued to increase...

 ...so we nosed into a sea loch for a bit of shelter.

We were not the first to seek shelter here...

...Ian noticed a strange object on shore.

It was Gardskagi: 64⁰02,57N 22⁰55,93V I thought it was a Dutch weather buoy, given the manufacturer's stamp, "Datawell Netherlands", but JotM has identified the language of the coordinates as Danish..

It was over 1200km out of position. Its normal station is off the SW tip of Iceland.

It had some good advice on the top. Do not roll - trail only. We pondered these words of wisdom.

A winter paradise.

 We rock-hopped along the remote...

...coastline until we came to...

...the point round which some big swell stopped play.

 The wind increased so we...

...decided to take a break...

...on a lovely white shell sand beach.

We had transported ourselves to a winter paradise.

In the lee of snow capped mountains.

 The temperature under the clear sky at dawn was freezing and felt even colder in the wind...

...which whistled down from the mountains that were deep in winter's grip.

We made steady progress but it was a long cold crossing...

...to a distant coast.

It was a relief when we got to the other side and into the lee of the snow capped mountains.

The weather channel.

After a cold night, the morning dawned clear. The widescreen TV turned on automatically gently wakening us after a good sleep. There was only one channel and it was the weather channel. The forecast was for sunny skies and the wind was to be SE to S Force 4 to 5 increasing 6 during the night.

 We wasted no time and were on the water at dawn. The sun had not yet hit our overnight accommodation and there was a real chill in the air...

...as we set off on a crossing back to the mainland.

Roughing it, in the Scottish Winter.

Ian and I met to explore some of the Highlands and Islands on a three day trip. The area was sandwiched between an Atlantic low and a Scandinavian high. We expected cold SE winds and hoped for some sunshine. We set off on a crossing...

 ..to our chosen lodgings for the night. You won't find this in TripAdvisor. It is a private bothy and the owner asks visitors not to publicise its location.

 It was a stiff climb up to the bothy which involved a moderate rock climb.

 It was perched high above the beach. Ian kindly carried my bags all the way up and gave me a hand on the "Bad Step". Thank you Ian!

As darkness fell and the temperature plummeted, we got the fire on. We had brought, barbecue charcoal, logs and coal.

Then we prepared our evening meal, my starter was some NSAIDs followed by home made leek and potato soup, home made bread, home made venison stew and new potatoes done in the trusty pressure cooker. All washed down with a bottle of red.

To finish off we enjoyed oat cakes, mature cheese and a fine vintage port. You have to be prepared to rough it if you want to do multi-day sea kayaking trips in the Scottish winter.

Swanning about on the way to Seafield.

Some swans had also been making their way from Maidens to Seafield that day. As we refuelled in the Dunure Inn, they cruised the harbour gobbling the remains of sandwiches thrown by a few tourists, who had braved chill of the winter day.

 We left Dunure before the swans but...

...but they soon passed us. Flying swans are considerably faster than...
 

 ,,,paddling and sailing kayakers.

 We drifted through the skerries as a cap of cloud drifted over Ailsa Craig.

By the time we got to the Heads of Ayr, the swans had disappeared in the direction of Seafield.