"Peak Pursuits, Matt & Friends, Caledonian Canal Reccy"

Dave, Jonny, Me (Matt) and Benno

So off we set, heading north to Scotland on the car park known as the M6! We finally arrived in Fort William late on Saturday afternoon and dropped the gear off at the hostel. While Jonny and Benno rigged up the boats, Dave and I shuttled his car to Inverness for the drive back.

We set of early Sunday morning launching the canoes above Neptune 's Staircase. It seemed as though we had brought the good old English weather with us, so with the rain battering down, we headed up the canal towards Loch Lochy. It was a pretty simple paddle up the canal with the banter flowing and our spirits high, huh! Until the first canal loch we had to portage around. But no worries, it just a minor setback, now it was time to paddle on to Loch Lochy and set up our sail, which would save us some time and our arms from paddling.

So we set sail out on to Loch Lochy, all of us full of anticipation, waiting for the wind to catch and inflate the sail and hurtle us towards the end of the Loch… but no, flat as a millpond, well may be a little ripple, but nothing to hurtle our canoes forward… oh well back to paddling. We would try again the next day on Lock Oich.

Our first night camping was on a beach three quarters of the way down Loch Lochy. This was the first outing for my new tent so I was keen to see how it performed. With the rain and the gusty winds I think it did quite well, we couldn't say much for the shelter we had put up though!

We bagged Loch Lochy in the morning and after two more canal loch portages we headed back up the canal to Loch Oich. Compared to Lochy and what was to come, Loch Oich was a baby. I think we'd had a little luck on our side that day, we even saw some blue sky, and we'd learnt from the previous days portages, and got the lock keeper to let us though the next canal loch, buzzin! But as on Lochy it was flat as a millpond so there was no sailing today, back to the good old paddling

It wasn't long before we'd hit the massive 10 canal loch steps at Fort Augustus , the start of Loch Ness. Well after a 10 canal loch portage… yeah we defo had a fish and chips for tea, and went to the pub to watch the footy and enjoy a beer.

We woke up the next morning, yes to more rain. We were half way now, and it was time to go Nessy hunting!! Loch Ness Over 25 miles long, this was gonna be a mission, bring it on! It was just a case of head down and paddle. I hear you asking why not sail, you've guessed it no wind, again. We were gonna paddle this bad boy and catch us a Nessy to go!

We paddled about three quarters of the way down before it was time to find a campsite for the evening. We found a wicked little spot, and the rain had stopped,the cloud had broken and the sun was coming out.

Our last day on the water, yes! It was sunny, yes! It was windy, time to get the sail out. We quickly broke camp re-rafted the boats up and set out, back on to Loch Ness. Wind, now I have an issue with wind, we don't have any for 3 days and now we have, it's too windy, aaarrr!!!!! But was this the end of the trip or the beginning of the epic?

The wind was blustering down Loch Ness forming rolling 2 to 3 foot high waves.Every so often a wave of around 4 foot high was thrown into the mix. Imagine being in canoes and you get a little concerned when you're heading in to the trough of a wave and you look up and all you can see is the wave in front of you. We had tried to sail earlier but the wind was so strong that the sail just flapped around and the wood rafting the boats together at the back had started to split under the strain. So we we're still rafted up, paddling towards the end of the Loch . We must have only been about a 100 or so meters from the end when the front bit of wood rafting the boats together slipped out of its bindings and we split in to a L shape, with mine and Jonnys canoe across the waves and me and Benno franticly trying to snap the back bit of wood that was keeping us together.We all thought we were gonna take a swim and be collecting our belongings from the beach. Benno managed to finally snap the bit of wood and we paddled safely to the shore. Wow! Nessy had spanked our buts on the way out; I think just to let us know she was boss…

Well after a well-earned cuppa we were on our way again on the canal and it was a short journey into Inverness and Dave's awaiting car at the sports centre.

What a trip, more mental and physical than some, not many places to get lost, so not much navigation needed, but finding a good spot to camp is a skill, all in all a wicked trip well worth the effort.

Cheers boys,

Matt