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Scottish Paddle
Feb. 19th, 2008 11:23 pmSo, with the Welsh trip fast approaching, I figured I need to start working on the English and the Scottish trips.
The Scotland trip will require more planning so I'll start that first, although it wont be till later in the year after the Lakes trip.
So, all the way from the highlands, I give you Loch Maree
So, my plan is to paddle the loch in a number of stages.
Depending who wants to come along the route can be split between 2-6 days, either camping on the small islands in the middle, or staying at the hotel midway.
The loch itself is 20km long, and about 3.5km wide, there are several small islands in the middle which are suitable for wild camping.
As can be seen on the map below, there is plenty of potential for taking a day off mid trip and going for a spot of hiking.
For the actual paddling, I was thinking of something like the OldTown Camper15 as seen above. Nice and stable and plenty of space for storing the camping gear.
Now, who's interested? It's a flatwater loch, no tides and fairly sheltered so suitable for a novice on a leisurely plod, which is handy as it'll probably be my first trip of any real distance in a canoe.
There are lots of different options depending on how confident people are, ranging from a full circuit of the coast line taking several days + excursions with wild camping on the center islands (which island depends on the wildlife situation with the local rare ducks) and a formal campsite at Poolewe on the North West shore right thru to a stay at the hotel with a few hours pottering around on the water.
Although the only real egress point is the hotel, if needs be the A832 runs along the SW edge so there are plenty of escape routes.
As for excursions, for the foolish there is Slioch for those not so keen on extreme death by exhaustion, there's a gentle stroll for an our taking in the views of the magnificent Caledonian pinewoods on this gentle walk.
Photos © Celtic Fringe , Gordon C Harrison and Ordnance Survey
The Scotland trip will require more planning so I'll start that first, although it wont be till later in the year after the Lakes trip.
So, all the way from the highlands, I give you Loch Maree
It's a full days drive away from Birmingham as it's about as far away as possible to get, so I'd suggest breaking it up into two or three chunks. If it was a Friday then an initial halt at Warrington with CAD (kinda handy as she'd be bringing the one canoe) and then either a mad dash in the morning, or a more leisurely trip stopping for lunch with someone like  nailsie or Rana. |
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So, my plan is to paddle the loch in a number of stages.
Depending who wants to come along the route can be split between 2-6 days, either camping on the small islands in the middle, or staying at the hotel midway.
 |
 |
 |
The loch itself is 20km long, and about 3.5km wide, there are several small islands in the middle which are suitable for wild camping.
As can be seen on the map below, there is plenty of potential for taking a day off mid trip and going for a spot of hiking.
|
|
For the actual paddling, I was thinking of something like the OldTown Camper15 as seen above. Nice and stable and plenty of space for storing the camping gear.
Now, who's interested? It's a flatwater loch, no tides and fairly sheltered so suitable for a novice on a leisurely plod, which is handy as it'll probably be my first trip of any real distance in a canoe.
There are lots of different options depending on how confident people are, ranging from a full circuit of the coast line taking several days + excursions with wild camping on the center islands (which island depends on the wildlife situation with the local rare ducks) and a formal campsite at Poolewe on the North West shore right thru to a stay at the hotel with a few hours pottering around on the water.
Although the only real egress point is the hotel, if needs be the A832 runs along the SW edge so there are plenty of escape routes.
As for excursions, for the foolish there is Slioch for those not so keen on extreme death by exhaustion, there's a gentle stroll for an our taking in the views of the magnificent Caledonian pinewoods on this gentle walk.
Photos © Celtic Fringe , Gordon C Harrison and Ordnance Survey
