Day 8 – The Slate Islands

• Garvellachs to Gallenach
• 30 kms

There was no rush to get going today as the ebb tide was running south in the sound till 10.45. I got a good night’s sleep and felt recovered from my heat exhaustion of yesterday. I ate a leisurely breakfast before lugging all my kit down to the kayak in the channel.

Yesterday, I had again not been happy with the trim of the kayak. Today, I made an effort to do something about it. There was more room in the hatches now that I’d eaten through half of my rations. I put the wheels of the trolley in the front hatch first, and then tried to get everything else in. It worked!

I was ready to leave before 10. As the channel continued to dry, I decided to get underway. I was in my short sleeve cag today as it looked like the sun was about to make an appearance.

I headed round the west side of the other islands in the chain to see what bird life resided on the cliffs. None! I was surprised. It looked like prime fulmar territory to me. There didn’t appear to be any bird life between me and Mull.

Once round the north end of the last island, I headed east to Balnahua, the doughnut island (or donut to my American family). From above, it looks as if it has a hole in it – thè flooded slate quarry. I landed here for a snack and a few photos.

It was after taking these geese photos that I realised I’d mistitled my day 1 post. You’d think I’d know the difference between a gosling and a cygnet. Fixed now.

I took the opportunity to remove my cag here and spent the rest of the day with just a t-shirt.

It was then an easy paddle on to Easdale, another Slate island. I was surprised to realise that I’d never actually visited it before. Wendy and I rented a cottage across the Easdale sound in Ellenabeich for a week one Christmas. We even went out for a short paddle, but for some reason, we never landed on the island.

In today’s sunshine, it was an very charming place. I imagine it can feel a little different in the winter. It seemed very quiet when I paddled into the small harbour and tied up on the visitor pontoon, but when I climbed up the steps on the harbour wall, I was encountered by 20 or so people sitting at picnic benches. I thought it must be a buzzing cafe, but it turned out to be a wild swimming group from the central belt up here to swim in some of the flooded quarries.

Easdale is, of course, home to the World Stone Skimming Championships, so no visit to the island would be complete without a visit to the venue and a wee test skim. Although I fancied my chances, this year’s event in September is already fully subscribed – maxed out at 350 participants.

I had a nice chat with one resident who’d married in to a family with a long slate quarrying heritage. She was from Perthshire originally but had now been living on the island for 40 years. There’s a good chance that the slates on my Edinburgh New Town flat come from here.

I didn’t stay long enough to see everything I’d have liked to, but it was still too long to make my hopes of getting to a camping spot beyond Oban unrealistic. I therefore took it easy paddling up to the campsite at Gallenach south of Oban.

The campsite has an old jetty on the water’s edge, but getting a kayak out here and up to the campsite would be extremely difficult. I paddled a few hundred metres further to the nice boat ramp at the Puffin Dive Centre. It was just after 5 and had closed for the day, but there were two fellow paddlers sitting in a camper van who welcomed me ashore. Ann and Heather had just finished their final day of a series of paddles in the local area and were able to fill me in on the dive centre’s facilities and charges.

I walked up to the campsite to make a booking and check the suitability for getting my kayak there fully loaded. Within a couple of hours, I had my kayak parked up next to my tent in a nice spot, looking over to Kerrera.

My camping neighbours were both cyclists. One was heading over to Barra on the ferry tomorrow to lead a group of female cyclists on an Outer Hebridean adventure.