Paddling Planet

The third day of our trip on the Moray Firth dawned bright and sunny again. Raymond had hillwalking plans for this day and so it would be Allan, Lorna and I paddling. We'd discussed various route options for the day over dinner the previous evening - perhaps setting out again from Whitehills to make a continuous journey, or heading farther east to Aberdeenshire's North Sea coast.  It didn't take much debate before we decided on a trip which would take in some of the best rock architecture on this coast.

Our camp site for the night had been the very pleasant Sandend Caravan Park (which also has tent pitches).  Wild camping isn't so easy to find on this part of the coast, so this was a perfect base - especially as we were able to carry our boats straight onto the glorious Sandend beach to launch.

In the last week of August a spell of warm and potentially settled weather was forecast. High pressure dominated the weather across the British Isles but there was some doubt as to where the centre would be - and that could mean windy conditions would encroach from the west. Allan, Lorna and I were keen for a multi-day sea kayak trip somewhere and discussed several different locations. In the end we decided that hte best chance of good weather over a period of three or four days was actually quite close to home on the Moray Firth. Wild camping is possible on this coast but it would mean a long linear trip; we opted to use a fixed base at a camp site in a central position.

Our friend Douglas was due to join us but couldn't make it due to an unavoidable engagement but we were delighted that Raymond could join us for two of the three days paddling.

The route from home which I use most to access the sea kayaking and hillwalking on Scotland's west coast goes up towards the source of the River Don, crosses the shoulder of the Cairngorm massif to the broad valley of the Spey at Grantown, then runs south to Newtonmore before cutting through to Spean Bridge on the A86 road. This route gives fantastic and varied scenery - the great mountains of the Cairngorms, Creag Meagaidh, the Grey Corries and Ben Nevis, two of Scotland's finest rivers, long fresh water lochs and finally to the sea lochs of the west coast. Amongst all the grandeur of the big mountains, there's one small but very distinctive hill above the A86 which has long been on my list to climb.

A short way  south west of Newtonmore there is a small parking area opposite the picturesque Lochain Uvie, which is the only parking opportunity for quite a long stretch of road.  There's a gate into the wood at the parking area itself used by climbers accessing the crags above - a better point to start out for the summit can be found by walking 400m south west along the road to a gate opposite the gatehouse for Creagdhubh Lodge.


...