Went to Scotland again the other week, because that's what October half term is for. It was a week with nowhere near enough kayaking - but we did do a load of "cultural" stuff instead, so...

We visited Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness, and Inverlochy Castle just outside Fort William.

At Urquhart, the car park is sort of on the roof of the visitor centre.  You go downstairs and watch a film about the history of the castle.  I assumed it was in ruins due to general fighting, but it turns out they deliberately blew it up so no-one else could have... continue reading »

Somehow I never got around to writing about our trip to Scotland last October. oops.

We went up for a whole week, for some paddling (of course!) and also for Sharon and Duncan's wedding

I'm a sucker for autumn colour anyway, but the highlands were particularly orange and beautiful.  Not that it hasn't been just as pretty at easter, of course - just a bit more green.

Paddling wise, we were quite lazy and could have done more rivers if we'd felt arsed.  But instead there were hangovers, trips to the shops/pharmacy, and some faffing about driving up to Invermoriston for no... continue reading »

I might have been spending a bit too much money recently. 

First up, a new camera - replacing my old no-longer-entirely-waterproof with an Olympus TG-620.

Then I went to the canoe shop, and it got really expensive...  I came home with a brand shiny new Dagger Mamba, size medium in lime green.

This is what the hull looks like.  I'm loving the attention to detail, even though it's obviously just going to get scratched:

Just in time for Easter weekend in Scotland!  Distinct lack of water anywhere, but we found enough things to do to keep ourselves amused.

I finally manned up and got myself... continue reading »

It's April, which means Scotland time!  Previous trips have been over Easter, but as that's stupidly late this year we went a weekend earlier, in the hope of more chance of rain.

Hah!  A gloriously sunny weekend, and very little water in the rivers (but I believe things haven't improved in the week since, so still a good call, methinks)

Still plenty to do for our 'intermediate' trip though! We had a very long weekend, taking the whole of Thursday to travel up to Kinlochleven, where we were staying - Blackwater bunkhouse, highly recommended!

Friday started well, when the lens fell out of... continue reading »

Last year, I spent Easter weekend up in Scotland.  This year, we were more sensible and went for an entire week.

(Yeah, I could/should have posted this weeks ago.  But I've been somewhat busy with work, business trips and hours and hours of photo editing...)

Awesome week!  Plenty of rivers, mountains, gorgeous scenery, lovely people, drinking, cakes, faff, etc etc. 
And one not so lovely stomach bug that went round throughout the week, knocking most of us out for a day.  grr

We travelled up on Good Friday, stopping in the Lake District to run the River Kent on the way.  Camping on... continue reading »

I spent Easter weekend in Scotland

Bit of a last minute plan, following a conversation the weekend before that went something like "Scotland next weekend?" "ooh, can I come?" "yeah, sure".

Wild camping around the Fort William area - near to rivers, obviously (yes, it was a kayaking trip).

We left Birmingham at stupid o'clock on Friday morning, and arrived at about half 2 I think.  Went for a walk along the banks of the Etive, which had a lot of water in it.  Randomly bumped into some people from Cheltenham canoe club while we were there. As a side note, walking... continue reading »