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.
