Across Scotland by Canoe
posted 24th June 2019
Canoe across Scotland
Keeping my diary clear for a canoe trip to Scotland was the easy bit, finding someone to join me was the surprisingly difficult bit. I had a week free and really wanted to make the most of it. I dismissed paddling the Spey again, as I wanted something new and a little more challenging. So in a rather disorganised fashion and with a few weeks to go, Malcom Durnham (Talc) and I decided to cross Scotland by canoe from Kinlochleven to Perth. Not a trip for the faint hearted, but we were confident in our canoeing skills and had both done plenty of canoe trips before.
A quick call to Gus at 'Escape Watersports' meant we had some portage trolleys which we thought would be essential. Although these trolleys definitely have their place this crossing was not it, as we were about to find out.
A drive through the night in early June and we arrived at Kinlochleven early morning, and secured our parking spot with a friend at the ice climbing centre. We stood looking up at the west highland way path, our route to take us to blackwater reservoir and I was a little bit apprehensive. We packed our kit and put the boats on the trolleys. After a few problems with canoes falling off trolleys, bags in the wrong place and canoes rolling back down the path, we soon got into our stride. Two to a canoe, and a walk back for the other one was the best way to go on the steeper bits. Doing this kind of trip with someone you know well is important, this was tough, hard work but we got our heads down and just kept going.
The views were reward enough, but after 3 hours of hard going, a stroke of luck occurred when a man from the most isolated cottage you could find, beckoned us to follow him through his garden. This led us onto a concrete path about 5 feet wide, that carried water from the Blackwater reservoir down to the power station at Kinlochleven.
This proved to be a godsend as we could now simply tow our own canoes at a nice walking pace, with minimal effort for the next few hours until we reached Blackwater reservoir.
We knew we were getting close when the concrete path came to an end. It was a push, pull and scramble with boats and bags to get to the shores of blackwater. When I realised the wind was blowing the right way I was really pleased and quickly got my sail set up. After such a tough first day, downwind sailing in our canoes the whole length of blackwater reservoir was amazing, and we were on the edge of Rannoch moor with an hour of daylight left.
My first impressions of Rannoch Moor were bleak and remote, crossing it with a canoe was going to be interesting to say the least! Anyway, that was tomorrows problem. I managed to find enough drift wood for a nice tea on the Firebox wood stove before a great sleep in my old faithful, and probably a bit past its best tent!!
Day Two
We were up and moving quickly realising that it was going to be a long day. After some accidental testing by Talc, that his dry bag would not leak from the inside out when his bottle of whisky emptied - oops, we were on our way.
We very quickly realised that the combined weight of canoes and bags was not going to be possible. We walked the bags half a kilometre then walked back to the canoes to drag them with our makeshift harnesses to the bags. All that dragging gave us both a new found respect for the artic explorers.
Rannoch moor felt endless and there was lots of sinking in bogs, crossing of small streams and the occasional sense of humour failure! All of this whilst the weather was constantly changing from thick fog and mist to lovely sunshine.
It was another get your head down and get on with it day, after a long day of pulling we found a path that lead downhill through a small forest to Rannoch station, where we took advantage of the small shelter of the train station to cook a large evening meal. We pushed on and after a short paddle we were road walking with the trolleys to the shores of Loch Rannoch where we made camp in the dusk.
Day Three
It was an early start, partly encouraged by a local who informed us that we were, 'not supposed to camp here' so it was a breakfast on the move whilst paddling along on Loch Rannoch. This was not to last too long, as the wind picked up to a good force four in no time at all and we were paddling across the wind to get to the safety of the shore.
There was nothing for it but another road walk to get us to the Tummel, and the hope that we may be doing a bit more paddling, rather than walking, our canoes across Scotland. We were overjoyed to be paddling some moving water on the Tummel and whilst it was only short lived before we arrived at Dunalastair reservoir it was still a nice bit of moving water.
We ate an early evening meal on the shore of Loch Tummel, and had a great evening sail down the loch with a nice force three powering us along to a nice spot that had clearly been taken advantage of by others in the past.
Day Four
After the calm waters of Loch Tummel, a long road walk was not filling us with joy, but was unfortunately something that needed to be done to get where we wanted to be. With a little more research on when the tummel was releasing, we may have been able to paddle more river than walk around!
We paddled the last section of Loch Faskally and did some interesting rope work to get boats, kit and ourselves back down to the river after the dam. It was a short paddle to Pitlochry for a river side stop at a café for a great plate of toasties and chips.
As we glided down the last section of the River Tummel, I was excited to join the River Tae. I have paddled this river many times, but not for a few years. I was really looking forward to running the section from Stanley to Thistlebrig. We hit the first few rapids early evening and found a nice little spot by the white water just big enough for two tents for our last night of the trip.
Day Five
The last morning paddle was beautiful, with no wind and a bit of drizzle. We were finished in a little over an hour and finished in Perth where the tide makes its way in-land from the sea. Whilst waiting for our shuttle I went on a mission for food and came back with two large breakfast baps which were well earnt, and really hit the spot.
Together we had crossed Scotland from coast to coast with our canoes in 5 days and 4 nights. It had been a brutal trip, and one that though relatively short, had really tested us both physically and mentally. We loved every minute of it. We had done things with our canoes that we had not done before, and that would only stand us in good stead for any future trips, and there would definitely be plenty more of those.