Four days in Scotland

The Start of June (5th) found a small group of  twelve friends in Scotland for a swim adventure in the Gulf of Corryvreckan. Its a mile or so of sea between the island of Jura and Scarba on the west coast.Its become famous for its huge whirlpool and rough water.We hired a small motor boat called Farsain, and amazingly everyone completed the swim even though it was extremely cold water ,but it was calm!!

This swim was featured in a program with Robson Green recently but many others have now done it.The following day was spent swimming on the island of     near Oban ,in a flooded quarry shown here ,the water was very clear and it was a great experience

The next day to complete the scottish waterthon I endulged in a bit of solo sea kayaking  near Oban .Setting out from Lunga Pier I paddled down Cuan Sound and over to Belnahua Island and then on to the Garvellach Islands for camping.They are historic as Saint Brendan had a monastery there when Christianity first came to Scotland. The monastery is still preserved and many remains are to be seen

The sea was as flat as any pond which was lucky for me as I cant paddle very well.

The Garvellach Islands are uninhabited but have some ancient dwellings and have delightful sheltered places to land a small boat or kayak ,like the one above.The kayak had all my camping stuff in it , the following day I paddled backto Lunga pier through the channel north of Scarba known as the Grey Dogs . It was scary as the current there can get up to eight knots and in full flow looks like a very fast river . I miscalculated thetimes and had to wait two hours for the tide to slow .