Day 3 – Portage, It seems fitting to try and explain the difficulties and admin we had to go through off the water as well as on throughout the journey and a good chunk of this expedition was spent moving our boards and equipment around Lock gates on the canals. Called a ‘portage’ it just so happens that this day was the most demanding for the difficulties we faced off the water. 
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Imagine it. It’s raining, freezing cold and for the last 2 hours you’ve been using your arms and putting pressure through your legs to allow yourself to paddle efficiently down a choppy Loch, your fingers are cold, you can barley feel your feet and your body is aching everywhere but all of a sudden, your faced with a 700m long series of Lock gates. What do you do? Jump off and walk around right? Well on a touring SUP board loaded down with gear, that’s not quite as easy as it sounds. 
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Individually we were each carrying around 60lbs of gear that included everything we needed to live from our boards. Combined, that’s over 180lbs of gear that we had to unload from the boards, haul up a slippery bank, carry 700m, return for the boards, carry another 700m, reload the boards and then lower carefully back into the water down another slippery bank. I cannot explain how absolutely exhausting that is to do and on this particular day, we had to do it 5 times along with 15 miles of strenuous paddling. 
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Portaging became an absolute nightmare for us, it would use up valuable time, daylight that we couldn’t really afford to lose and it was breaking us as well as taking its toll on our boards. Sam had badly cracked his toe and toenail and pulling the boards out through reeds, thorns and onto old pontoons was a puncture waiting to happen, not to mention the massive strain we put on the fins every time the heavily loaded rear accidentally touched the ground. Luckily Hatha have made a super strong board here and it stood up to the abuse we had to put them through on a frequent basis.
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Once through all of the portages and the stretches of Loch Ceann and Loch Oich we finally made it to Fort Augustus, where the canal opened up into the daunting expanse of Loch Ness. Tomorrow’s challenge.

Day 2 – We woke at 3am to the sounds of howling wind and rain rattling our hotel room window and Once ready, jumped in the van and headed down to Corran ferry. We struggled against the wind to get our gear down onto the beach and as we loaded our dry bags on the boards and strapped them down, the unpredictable Scottish weather worsened and brutal hail started driving into us as we stood on the exposed shoreline. It almost felt like a sign, a final ‘are you sure you want to do this?’ 
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Seemingly undeterred, we climbed on our boards and headed out into the blackness of Loch Linnhe. We immediately realised just how big the swells were but almost ironically the waves that were causing us problems were also pushing us along from the rear, helping us down the vast expanse of water in front of us. The entire journey was tiring and disorientating, with zero visibility we dropped down sizeable swells and struggled to stay together as the wind pushed us in different directions, a dim glow stick and head torches that disappeared now and then our only way of tracking each other in the pitch black.
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The lights of Fort William were a welcome sight and as we paddled along, a fishing boat stopped to ask us if we were okay. The crew looked slightly confused when we explained we were fine and continued paddling and looking back now, I can see why. We pulled up on the shoreline at Caol soaked through and once we had reached the safety of the canal, finally began to enjoy our surroundings in the dim morning light. 
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We pushed past Ben Nevis and once on Loch Lochy, were greeted by the ever changing weather once again. A strong paddle down the Loch in the driving rain saw us arrive at our campsite in considerably calmer conditions were we made an open wooden hut our home for the night and after shovelling down some food, enjoyed the warmth of our sleeping bags and got ourselves ready for the next day.

On the 21^st December 2020 they challenged themselves to addle Board the entire width of the Scottish mainland, unsupported, via the Caledonian canal. This is from Corran in the West to Inverness in the East. They will follow the glen for 70 miles passing through Loch Eil, Loch Lochy, Loch Oich and then finally the last 23 miles across Loch Ness to the finish at Kessock Bridge.   This is where they will once again meet the sea at the mouth of the Moray Firth 4 days later on the 24th December, Christmas eve. They will be completely self sufficient throughout the journey receiving no assistance and carrying everything we need for the duration on the boards with them.

They are doing this to raise money for disadvantaged children in the UK at Christmas time. The festive period can be an extremely difficult time for a large number of young people throughout the country who may be living in poverty, without family or find themselves the victims of violence. For these children, Christmas can be lonely, upsetting and not very magical at all.

They want to help raise funds that will go toward making the festive season a happier time in these children’s lives and any donation you can spare would be greatly appreciate, but more importantly by the young people around the UK who desperately need it.

On behalf of the team, Esland care and Action for children they would like to thank you for your support and donations.

You are helping to change lives.

Although this challenge has now been completed you can still give to their charity by following the link –

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/eslandadventurenorth

Their diaries will follow…….