Around 10.30 on the Friday Clare Eadie, Gordon McGeorge, Dave Bertram, Angus Crozier and David Grieve packed boats for a paddle to the camping spot by the long route taking in Castle Stalker, lunch at the north end of Shuna and a circumnavigation back to Eilean nan Caorach to set up camp and take in the stunning landscapes in glorious sunny weather.
Gordon returned to the mainland to make use of his new camper van for the night. Catherine Idle and Graham Bailey arrived mid afternoon with Sarah Stark and Julie Bills arriving early evening following VHF communications across the sound. Chris Gordon followed late evening and Ian drove up on Saturday morning.
Gordon, David, Chris and Ian paddled across the 2kn ebb in the Lynn of Lorn to the jetty at the northern tip of Lismore to rezendevous with the rest of the party; we set off widdershins round the island for a change! Little wind but some light drizzle accompanied us down the coast to Castle Coeffin, where we had a very brief stop – the fish trap was highly visible but draining fast – so after establishing Chris’ dislike of Irn-Bru jelly babies (the disbelief in the rest of the party was expressed by sympathetic cries of “Can I have hers?”) – we continued down the coast to Salen, the disused limekilns and jetty, and the bothy which we did not visit due to the low spring tide. Lunch was taken at Achadun Bay, below the remains of the castle. Low tide meant we had to round Bernera Island instead of cutting through the (dried-out) gap and here we met more challenging conditions. A southerly F3 gusting F4 with a good degree of chop and gradually increasing swell gave 3 km of consistently stiff paddling, resulting in wider group separation than previously. A pair of sea eagles appeared as we passed Tom na Faire. All having coped well with the conditions, we regrouped at Rubha Fiart and faced a further test. The flood tide was now running against us through the narrow gaps between the skerries guarding our approach to the proposed campsite, and river skills were called for. Most made it successfully up the eddy and punched through the line, though they had to keep paddling hard, such was the force of the tidal current. The rest of the party pulled boats up to the further edge of the skerry and relaunched under the watchful eyes of those busy back-paddling to maintain their position. A VHF call from the advance party confirmed that the beach campsite at Port na Rubha was accessible and we all made successful landings through some quite bouncy swell. Tents pitched early around 1630, we settled in for a windy and what became a rainy night.
Sunday dawned bright and calm – the noise of the previous evening had disappeared and conditions were ideal. On the water at 0900 after a quick yoga warmup courtesy of Catherine, we headed clockwise round Eilean Musdile, ferry-gliding across the wider flow which was now heading in the opposite direction and punching up into the flow line at the very end of the island. We took advantage of the flow to circumnavigate the small island – with some minor playing in the tide-race – and began to make our way up the eastern coast of Lismore, passing the cottage at Dalnarrow which appears to be in process of restoration. Buzzards, a merganza and northern diver were spotted amongst the constant presence of Canada geese throughout the entire trip. From Lochan Treshtil we rounded the northern tip of Eilean na Gamhna and landed on the large shingle beach on Eilean na Cloiche for elevenses, watching a yacht anchor amongst the ever-present common seals who had begun to follow us. Refreshed, we headed towards the car ferry slip at Achnacroish spotting an occasional porpoise further out in the Lynn, passing the remains of the Iron Age broch at Tirefour Castle and lunching at Port Moluag as a local family beach-launched their outboard to head towards Port Appin. Eventually we followed, reaching the jetty around 1430. Unpacked, boats stowed and divested of our paddling gear we availed ourselves of coffee, tea and the excellent lemon drizzle cake and frankly humongous scones (complete with generous dollops of jam and thick cream) at the Pierhouse Hotel. Truly, ours is a hard life.
Many thanks to David Grieve for organising and leading and to everyone for making this another memorable weekend.