After an early morning dog walk around Kinlochwere, we headed off for a day canoeing on Loch Maree. We had already contacted Scottish Natural Heritage and been asked to keep away from a couple of areas (the north and west of Eilean Ruairidh Mor due to Sea Eagle nest, and Eilean Subhainn as there may have been some Black Throated Divers still at the nest) but everywhere else would be OK.
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| Loch Maree from Slatterdale |
We set off from Slatterdale, making our way across the 1km or so of open water to the beautiful islands of Loch Maree
The early morning cloud was slowly lifting. It was going to be a glorious day.
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| Eilean Ruairidh Beag, Loch Maree |
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| Eilean Ruairidh Mor, Loch Maree |
We paddled around the islands and aroud the bays and lagoons.
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| Eilean Ruairidh Mor, Loch Maree |
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| By Eilean Ruairidh Mor, to Slioch |
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| By Eilean Ruairidh Mor, looking east |
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| By Eilean Ruairidh Mor, looking south east |
As we came around the south of Eilean Ruairidh Mor, we spotted a Sea Eagle surveying his domain.
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| Sea Eagle - Eilean Ruairidh Mor |
We floated by for several minutes before he took to the air, flying south over the loch.
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| By Garbh Eilean, looking north west |
The day was warm and sunny, but with a cool northerly breeze.
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| Good place for a spot of lunch? Unnamed isle (OS) NG911731 |
We found a spot on a tiny island (mostly) out of the wind for lunch.
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| Loch Maree - Unnamed isle (OS) NG911731 |
We continued around the islands, but the wind was getting steadily stronger, whipping up the loch into quite big waves.
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| Getting a bit rough - near Eilean na Creige Giubhais |
We made our way south to the small islands near Creag Ghuibhais (NG943935) and then across to the south west shore of Loch Maree. We followed the shore north back to our start point. It was still very rough, rougher than anything we had experienced before, and I was soaked from the neck down by the time we got back to Slatterdale due to waves breaking over the bows. Freddie was pretty wet as well, only Jim was sitting in the stern shrugging his shoulders and asking what all the fuss was about!
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| Rafe, Freddie and Hal at Slatterdale - views east to Slioch |
Having said all that - What a beautiful day!
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| Views north west from above Kinlochewe Sgurr Dubh as the sun goes down |
We finished off with an evening walk to the Beinn Eighe Visitors Centre, via the Ridge Trail, and were rewarded with a glorious sunset.
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