Day 4.. Calm waters

 I woke up on Day 4 feeling surprisingly ok. I thought that after yesterdays exertions, I would feel a lot worse than I actually did. A slightly dehydrated feel, but not surprising given the small amount of water I had had throughout the day.

I scrambled out of my sleeping bag and found that my legs still worked which is always good, and debated about what to do today. Ihad marked on my map a place that looked lile a good launch spot for a kayak on an inland loch, no sea tides to worry about. The glen it was located in was part of a nature reserve. Only problem was that it

 was at least 1.5 hours away and if my info was incorrect about launch spots, it could have been a very frustrating wasted journey.

Hey ho.. thats the point of adventure right, sometimes it doesnt work out the way it was planned. So I hopped in my car for a scenic drive at the very least with the hope of a good few hours on a loch in the middle of nowhere.

The drive was lovely topped off by seeing a herd of deer cross the road in front of me (no why did the deer cross the road jokes please).

I arrived at a point I had marked as a possible launch spot... no dice. The dam had no area to launch to the loch from so I carried on up the road. I spotted 2 kayakkers on the water so knew that there must be a good spot somewhere. I saw a parking spot with picnic tables and swerved my car round,  noting one car with kayak roof bars. Perfect. Parked up and unloaded the kit.

Getting the kayak off the roof is the easy part, lifting it to the water harder. Fortunately in this case it wasnt far and I could drag it a little bit of the way. The waters edge had a little gravel beach and without delay I jumped in, hitched on the skirt (to prevent water from getting in and soaking me)  and away I went.

In my excitement I've realised that I hadn't eaten anything this morning and probably it would have been wise to at least pack a snack but the effort of hauling the kayak back out meant I just couldn't be bothered.

The loch was glassy calm, reflections of the trees and the mountains in the water that I disturned as I paddled onwards. I headed to the north side of the loch, enticed by the snow capped mountains and wanting to get a better view. Sticking close to shore at first, then gradually heading further out... pulled towards the next view round the next bend.

There were some small islands in the middle of the loch and I skirted one or two of these, wishing I had bought my gas cannister with me as I could have landed on the beach, pulled up the kayak and sat in perfect isolation drinking hot chocolate. Hey ho... next time.

It was these thoughts that drove me to turn around and head back to eat something. I landed where I had started, fired up the camp stove and made myself some rolls whilst I waited for the water to boil. As picnics go, it was pretty damn good. A small bird flew and landed on the table begging for some food so I dropped some bread crumbs and watched as he hopped closer to me to grab them. As a thank you he allowed me to take a photo....

For round 2 I headed the other way. The clouds had come over a bit and the wind had picked up but it was still smooth paddling.

I investigated the next set of loch islands closer, paddling round them and gazimg up at the tall pines. It felt like I had been removed from this time and transported back to milennia ago... I wouldn't have been surprised to see a pterodactyl soar above so ancient did the islands feel. The primordial feeling was similar to what I had in the Amazon, the feeling that this had remained untouched by time and human habitation. Small though the islands were I imagine they were a sanctuary for many animals.

As I island hopped the rain started falling and the wind began whipping up small waves on the once smooth face of the water.  It was time to turn around and head back. Battling the wind was a bit of a struggle but thoughts of being dry and warm spurred me onward.

I reached the shore with a sigh... sad that this little exploration was over.

Loaded the kayak on my car and set off back to my campsite. On the way back I pulled i to a forest car park, having seen signs for waterfalls on the way there.

It was a perfect leg stretcher after yesterdays leg breaker. A 2 mile amble to a waterfall and through the pine forest. The air smelled like damp pine, my version of Heaven and the birds were singing as I wondered alone on the paths.

The small ups that I encountered reminded my legs what they had done yesterday and although there were no temper tantrums, there were a few grumbles. Shut up legs!

The walk done, I headed back to the campsite with a mission. Cook a meal and pack as much as possible ready for my very early start tomorrow. Over the sea to Skye and beyond!

My meal, cooked on my brewkit was another experiment and this time turned out ok.

Boil water, add a cup a soup, packet of microwave rice and a small tin of kidney beans... not cordon bleugggg cooking but not bad at all. It was still light when I crawled into my sleeping bag at 23:00 with my alarm set for 5am. The mozzies had wreaked their revenge and bites were appearing all over the place. Fingers crossed they can't follow me to Lewis and Harris!