Sea kayaking on Loch A’ Chadh-Fi

Clear blue skies continued over our little corner of Scotland yesterday as the six day summer camp took to the water. We packed lunches into the kayaks and headed out onto Loch A Chadh-Fi, learning new skills as we went.

We stopped on the crofts at Ardmore for lunch in the sunshine and then made the most of the shelter along the Ardbeg Peninsular to escape the stiff easterly breeze and test some advanced strokes to the point of capsize.

With a bit of practice, deep water rescues are fairly straightforward and as all the team had all kayaked to some extent before the start of the camp we taught them to clear up the capsizes and rescue those who found themselves swimming.

Back at the Adventure School by mid afternoon the team set about the ‘fire and food’ element of the survival skills that they will need for the island on Wednesday night. With a temporary shellfish ban in place we looked at gutting and cooking mackerel on the fires that the team had constructed and lit themselves with fire steels.

With todays forecast suggested high winds on the summits we have deferred the mountain day to Tuesday when the winds look lighter and so after supper this evening, the team will head out to camp at the bothy (mountain hut) tonight.