The beauty of Kayaking

Friday, November 30 2007

As a follow up on yesterdays story about the Islay Canoe Club, who are planning a 4day trip to Jura next year (there's no way back now Mark!), I would like to draw your attention to a kayaking related website which I found a while back. The website I'm talking about is the Scottish Sea Kayaking Photo Gallery. This site is packed with great photography from all over Scotland and I was really impressed by all the beauty Scotland has to offer seen from a kayak's point of view. A quote from their website will bring you in the right mood:

Imagine wanting to climb one of the Munros but not knowing where to set off, not knowing if there would be a path, not knowing how long it would take, not knowing what you might find, finding your own way in solitude. That is what the Scottish mountains were like four decades ago when I started exploring them. Today sea kayaking gives the same sense of adventure, exploration and solitude that is now found in the hills only in bad weather in the depths of winter. Sea kayakers follow and create no paths or erosion and our footsteps on the beaches are washed away by the tides. When sea kayaking the west coast of Scotland you are exploring one of the last wildernesses in the world.

In 2003 Tony Page made a kayaking trip through the Gulf of Corryvreckan, the whirlpool between the islands of Scarba and the north of Jura, the place where George Orwell almost drowned when he wrote his book 1984. The Corryvreckan whirlpool was also the place where a Scandinavian Prince, named Breackan, fell in love with a princess of the isles and drowned when his boat sunk in the same whirlpool. Tony had more luck and was able to put his whereabouts on paper. He made a 60km paddle from Crinan through the Gulf of Corryvreckan. During his trip he took some extraordinary pictures of a place in Scotland which only a few (lucky) people get to see.

In 2004 Tony took it a step further and circumnavigated the Isle of Jura. "A 115 Km paddle from Carsaig Bay across the Sound of Jura to circumnavigate Jura via the Sound of Islay and the Gulf of Corryvreckan". The wild westcoast of Jura is appealing to many of us being so remote, lonely and full of wildlife. Looking at the pictures was a real eyeopener for me, seeing the west of Jura in all it's endless beauty.

Jura's west coast - Ruantallain

The pictures are courtesy of Tony Page

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