David Towsey,
Accompanied by Claire Eadie, David Grieve & Morva McKenzie
The group of four met up in Mull, at the foot of Ben More on Thursday evening for the short crossing to Inch Kenneth to pitch our tents in the serenity of the east of the island away from the rapidly building south westerlies that were threatening us. After dinner, a short walk to explore the west side of the island to watch the waves crashing over the dramatic coastline that was so different to our grassy meadow.
In the morning, despite the grey skies, there was no hesitation to be on the water by 9, (actually 9.03) and we set off for Little Colonsay and a quick snack.
The basalt rock of Staffa is one of the most spectacularly iconic sites in the world and the privilege of kayaking towards the famous hexagonal rock columns as they get closer takes my mind off the prevailing wind we are paddling into. As the sun comes out and the hordes of tourists come into view so too does the crashing maelstrom preventing us from entering the cave. We land in time for the morning tourists vacating the island and have a blissfully quiet 10 minutes to ourselves on the walkway in Fingal’s cave, but alas no one remembered to pack the musical instruments so there was no Mendelssohn today.
Conditions picked up and the plan to continue out to Lunga was amended, Gometra was agreed as the sensible option given the deteriorating weather coming in from the SW. We paddled between Ulva and Gometra, making it through the gap with 5 minutes to spare before the water dried out for another 5 hours. Such good planning!!
Saturday morning brought a South-Westerly assault, so after a beautiful paddle around the sheltered north of Ulva and a spectacular close encounter with a sea eagle we stopped for a leisurely lunch at the (closed on Saturdays) heritage centre where we helped ourselves to the picnic table and David T. treated us to his ground coffee in preparation for the afternoon. Progress was slow and knuckles were white as we firmly gripped our paddles and headed into the wind, but spirits were high as we bounced and fought our way across the 2.5km back to the mainland. Alas, there were no photographs on that section.
Sunday’s paddle was abandoned in favour of getting the Saturday eve ferry and a visit to the Real Food Cafe in Tyndrum. I had a wonderful trip to Staffa, many thanks to Claire, David & David.