- Dalnatrat to Corpach
- 30 kms
The plan was to get up early, be otw (on the water) by 6am, paddle hard up to Corran to get through the narrows before the ebb started, and then take it easy up to Fort William. If I made it to Fort William before 2 p.m., I might consider doing the first part of the canal up to Moy – the first permitted camping area.
The plan failed miserably.
I was constantly on the move over breakfast as there was no wind to keep the midges at bay. When I set off, 20 minutes behind schedule, the wind had suddenly picked up. I soon found myself battling against an F4 northerly with a short choppy sea. I thought it might blow over quickly, but after an hour, with a cold wet t-shirt, I decided it was time to get dressed for the conditions.
The Corran narrows were still a speck in the distance at the time the flow changed.
Two more hours of hard paddling and still a kilometre short of the narrows, I took a rest.
At the narrows, I decided to ferry glide across to the west side of the Loch – maybe there’d be some shelter from the wind over there. The crossing went smoothly, and I only lost a few hundred metres to the current. However, I still had to get past the point where the current ran fastest. It took a serious amount of effort. The shore just inched by on the left side until the current finally eased up on the other side of the ferry ramp.
There was no more shelter from the wind on the west side than there had been on the east. To make matters worse, I was forced to stay 500 metres offshore to clear a fish farm. On the bright side, the sun was now shining.
After lunch, I started to feel the impact of my short 4 hours of sleep last night. I was falling asleep at the paddle. I decided to stop again for short nap. When I awoke after 30 minutes, conditions had changed dramatically. The wind had gone completely, and I was able to switch back to wearing just a t-shirt again.
Paul and I did this section of the route last year. On that paddle, we’d got caught out by this next fish farm. We’d attempted to paddle between it and the west shore but had had to turn back and go round when our path was obstructed by plastic tubes used to send food from the shore facilities directly to the fish enclosures.
As well as the inconvenience, forcing paddlers away from the shoreline has the potential to cause real safety issues when the weather conditions are poor.
The rest of my paddle up to and past Fort William was easy and done at speed now that the wind had gone. There were perfect views of Ben Nevis the whole way up.
My opportunity to do the first part of the Caledonian Canal had long passed, so I camped opposite, ready to take it on first thing in the morning.
One Man And His Boat 
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