Day 9 – I unclog my nose in your direction

• Gallanach to Dalnatrat
• 31 kms

I had three main objectives for today: have a seafood meal in Oban, take photos at Castle Stalker, and get as far up Loch Linnhe as I could. Objective three was definitely compromised by the first two.

The flood flow going up Loch Linnhe didn’t start until 11.30, so I used this as an excuse for a relaxed start to the day. In truth, the currents in Loch Linnhe are not particularly strong and only cause problems in a couple of locations.

The 2nd of my cycling neighbours, a young Dutch man, was also planning an Outer Hebridean cycle. Today, however, he was taking a break from cycling and doing a boat trip to Staffa. A great thing to do any day, but with the sun and light winds today, he was in for a real treat.

I finally rolled my kayak down to the dive centre at 10 am. My out of hours arrival yesterday had been caught on cctv, so my £1 launch fee was doubled to £2. Still a bargain considering the other options.

It was just a short paddle up to Oban, during which I pondered the options for landing there. In the past, I’ve always landed on the strip of beach below the main road in the centre of town. When the tide is out, it’s rough, gentle slopping and seaweedy. This is not a problem with two or more people as you can carry a loaded kayak a short distance up the beach to deal with the tidal movement for an hour in town. With one person, this is not possible. Even with the trolley, you need to offload kit before attempting to roll it over rough stuff. I would prefer another option.

On entering Oban bay from the south, I went under a walkway that led to a pontoon with many yacht tenders tied to it. This turned out to be the solution to my problem. For a mere £2 I could leave my kayak here and walk into town for that much anticipated seafood snack.

The yacht moored next to me on the pontoon had sailed up from Southampton to take part in the Scottish Islands Peak Race beginning tomorrow – Ben More on Mull, The Paps of Jura & Goatfell on Arran. I’ll be keeping an eye out for Tahira of Beaulieu in the results table.

I set off again across the bay, crossing the channel at the narrow buoyed entrance where it is easy to see what is coming and nip across quite quickly. There are two quite different buildings on either side of the channel here.

Once out of the bay and past Ganavan beach, I headed north towards Lismore until I was in the centre of the channel. At this point I headed NE, hoping to make the most of any tidal assistance. I only really noticed the push at the north end of Lismore. After this I headed into the shallow waters around Castle Stalker. There was just enough water to allow me to get all the way around it. This is one of the castles used in filming the French taunting scenes in Monty Python’s The Holy Grail. Everyone likes a Monty Python quote, but I’ll leave it for those interested to match up my castle photo with a YouTube clip. More interestingly, my deviation gave me the surprise opportunity to get a clip of a young otter clambering up the rocks beneath the castle.

After this, the wind picked up and swung round to the NE. Paddling into this became an effort, so I sought out the first half decent campsite and got some rest