It was Good Friday, 7am at Oban Ferry Terminal. The Isle of Mull ferry sat in the calm waters of her berth in Oban Bay waiting for the Easter rush to get under way.
The sea kayaking team met up in high spirits, the thought of four good paddling days on the west coast of Mull lay ahead, and the weather forecast was spot on. We had a strong paddling group, 4 blokes and one to join later [but that's another story] all from the Oban area, used to paddling together but most importantly of all, up for the craic.
With the cars safely in the bowels of the Isle of Mull ferry, our first thoughts turned to breakfast and being at the head of the queue - God how I hate crowds. The ferry only takes 45 minutes to Craignure so if you don’t get a wiggle on you spend the last 10 of those 45 mins stuffing a fried veggie breakfast down only to feel rather sick by the time you’re ready to launch your sea kayak.
With the ferry docked we had a half hour drive from Craignure to the Ulva island jetty. There is a delightful passenger only ferry here taking island residents and tourists across the 500 metres or so to the Isle of Ulva itself. Well worth a visit.
With clear skies, the team set about packing the sea kayaks. All the usual kit was being stuffed in but I couldn’t help noticing the wine boxes finding there way behind seats and a rather decent bottle of malt getting wrapped carefully in a sleeping bag.
We were on the water by 10:30am, a quick radio check with the coastguard and the team was off, heading down the Sound of Ulva and out towards Geasgill Skerry. With a good force 4 blowing and a reasonable south-westerly swell breaking, we had an interesting paddle to come around the coast to the bothy.
The four days were to be spent exploring the archipelago of islands south of Ulva including the famous Inch Kenneth and have a full days paddle out to Staffa and Fingal’s Cave. Of course, the weather gods would have to be smiling on us for some of this to happen.
We arrived at the bothy with big cheesy grins on our faces, the paddle had turned in to a rather wet roller-coaster ride with rolling waves cresting and breaking over our heads, the last half a mile we had the waves on our backs so we had a terrific time surfing in to Cragaird Bay.
The bothy is rather palatial with comfy bunk beds, full kitchen facilities, a lovely wood burner, even a shower and toilet and, to top it all off, check out the stunning views, WHAT a location. [Below - looking across to the Ross of Mull from Ulva.]
This is in my top 10 of places to sea kayak in the world, especially when the sun shines.
Saturday morning dawned with a good forecast but a dodgy outlook, so the decision was to head out to Staffa and seek the sun. We set off a little later than expected, partly due to heavy socialising the night before.[Well; they didn't pack all that wine and finest malt for nothing.] I advised the team that if anyone wasn’t feeling as strong as they usual then they should wear their drysuits as I might enforce some rolling practice.
We made our way through the maze of islands and past Little Colonsay, then Staffa came into full view. From this point it was only a 5km crossing but immediately the swell began to build, not cresting and breaking waves as with Friday’s paddle - but long flowing sets that were comfortable to handle.
All of the team were paddling the Nigel Dennis Explorer sea kayak and for good reason; for expedition paddling and open crossings, even just a few miles, it really does the business. It’s been the sea kayak of choice by some of the world’s leading paddlers and used on most of the global groundbreaking expeditions in the last 15 years.
As we approached Staffa it became clear that it was deserted, this meant that the swell was too big for the tourist boats to land their paying cargo and we’d have the island all to ourselves.
We had a quick look at the entrance to Fingal’s Cave but the waves were breaking over the outer reef and thundering in to the cave so it was a no-go.
I got the group together north east of Goat Cave. I knew we could land on a tricky beach just to the south of here, but it wasn’t going to be easy. We had a group conference and decided to go for it. I designated Adam [going in, above] as my No. 2 and he stood by on the VHF. I would have to go in first and be ready to receive the team one at a time. This is where hand held waterproof radios really come in to their own.
In these situations there’s no real risk to life but a good chance of a sea kayak taking a hammering or even worse, lunchtime spent repairing a bloody great hole.
With all the team on the beach safe and sound, the sun came out, perfect timing. We set up our lunch station on top of Staffa, with views to die for.
With sea kayaks being 17-18 ft long, you can carry an awful lot of kit - and we did. Nothing was spared. Our lunch was of Parisian extravagance. Out came the stoves to make tea, coffee, soup, hot chocolate. Tom even had a cafetiere with him. We had a little cheese board with cheeses from all far flung corners of the globe……and even some organic cheddar from Mull, all topped off with just. a thimble of rum in the hot beverage of choice.
On a calmer day we would always paddle right in to Fingal’s Cave, but as you are about to see from this video below, that was defiantly not on the cards, so we took the tourist route and walked round.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmsQ4S3yPEU
After the excitement of the cave, we retraced our footsteps and prepared to launch back in to the swell. We’d been so long over lunch and exploring Fingal’s Cave that the tide had dropped considerably so the launch was far less interesting than the landing.
With the swell now behind us, the paddle back to Little Colonsay was good craic, the following sea would, if you got your timing right, catapult you forward to the point were you would be surfing down the face of a wave.
Little Colonsay was fast upon us and then it was in to the labyrinth of islands on route to the bothy. Now at low tide the water was crystal clear and calm, this was a fitting end to an adrenaline packed day.
Sunday brought heavy rain and very poor visibility. Again much socialising was done the night before so half the team didn’t have a strong desire to venture where they couldn’t see. Breakfast was eaten at a leisurely pace.
The day was to be spent paddling around Ulva and Gometra with an afternoon stop scheduled at the tea room (The Boathouse) where the little ferry lands.
The swell was still sizeable and we’d have to stay well off land on the west coast of Gometra - the waves here were pounding on to a boulder field with steep cliffs behind. If anyone ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time they wouldn’t be sending any Christmas cards again, that’s for sure.
A kilometre or so in to Loch Tuath, the swell began to die down and we had a pleasant couple of hours paddle, taking in the scenery and wildlife. We arrived at The Boathouse for tea and scones sometime around 3pm. As we were clad for wet adventures, I thought it was only polite to feast the team outside on the picnic benches.
An early start was needed on the Monday morn as we had a very full day ahead. The plan was to paddle over to the famous Inch Kenneth island, explore, then paddle on to Eorsa Island and get back to Craignure in time for the last ferry of the day to Oban.
Inch Kenneth is a magical place with brilliant yellow and white sand [above] as you can see from the pictures. The island is famous - or infamous - mainly down to the Mitford sisters who lived there during the years of the Second World War. Unity Mitford was a strong admirer of Hitler and had met him in Germany on numerous occasions prior to the outbreak of World War Two, but she loved Britain equally as much as Germany. When war broke out between the two counties she tried to commit suicide and shot herself through the head. She lived, but was brain damaged and her mother cared for her until her death in Oban hospital some years after the war.
We had spent so long on the island ['above, at the ruined chapel] - and I’m sure you can see why by the photos - that we had to sprint down to Eorsa and across to Ulva Sound where we had parked the cars. Thankfully the team are very organised so the unpacking of boats and loading on to roof-racks was over within half an hour, although everyone was still clad in their paddling kit by the time we arrived back in Craignure for the ferry.
Jamie Howard whose family owns Ulva, has asked me to point out that the bothy on the island is private and only for use by family and friends.
Happy paddling.
Julian Penney, Sea Kayaking Scotland
Note: The top photo shows the team coming ashore at Gometra.