For purists who are determined to paddle coast to coast from the Atlantic to the North Sea, they usually commence their journey at Corpach Sea lock. The disadavantage of starting from Corpach is that one must negotiate the largest flight of locks on the whole journey - Neptune's Staircase - which consists of eight locks lifting the level of the canal 20m over a distance of 500m (you can imagine it's a bit of a beast for portaging the canoe and gear). Towards the end of the journey is another nasty big portage at Muirtown Locks - a 500m portage then follows down the flight of five lock gates and across a busy road to put back in by the Scout Hut on the shore of Muirtown Basin.
Being no purists, we started our paddling journey at Banavie, the top of Neptune's Staircase, and finished at Tomnahurich Swing Bridge.
SCA GENERAL ADVICES
The following advices offered by SCA were found extremely useful:
- Get a British Waterways licence + skipper's guide
- Get a British Waterways key for their toilets and facilities - definitely worth having and their facilities are all to a very good standard
- Bring a stowable canoe portage trolley - canoes are not allowed in locks!
- Paddle from south-west to north-east - direction of the normally prevailing wind unless you fancy doing it the hard way
- The trip will take normally-fit canoeists three days, but there is plenty to see so four days is recommended. Allow for extra days because the trip could well take longer due to adverse conditions
- Organise transport at both ends, alternatively leave vehicle at the end of the trip and use public transport to travel back from Inverness to Banavie to start the paddling journey.
- Canoeists must give way to all other crafts, so be especially careful approaching bends, bridges and locks
- Check the Scottish Outdoor Access Code (SOAC) with regard to your rights and responsibilities - you are allowed to wild camp anywhere but must respect the curtilage of private properties/ scheduled ancient monuments, minimise disturbance to wildlife and bury all human waste
Day 1
Our party consisted of 4 people, Hilary, Dave, Garry and me. We travelled in two open canoes, Dave's canoe is named 'Seconda' and Garry's 'Apache'.
Once setting off from Banavie and leaving the urban fringe behind, we paddled in nice sheltered waters in this first stretch of Caledonia canal in tandem. After paddling for approx 8km, Moy swing bridge was reached. We got out of our canoes, quickly had our toilet breaks and some warm-up stretches. Feeling better being out of the wind, the friendly bridge-keeper kindly offered us the chance to operate this last remaining of the original swing bridges installed when the canal was built. We promptly accepted the offer (who wouldn't eh?) and opened half of the bridge by a hand operated capstan and it was amazing how well the mechanism still works! (Note that the bridge splits in the middle and each half is opened on the relevant side of the canal. This means the bridge-keeper must open one side and then jump in his dinghy (with outboard!) to get across the canal and open the far side)
A short paddle of 2km or so, we reached Gairlochy Locks and it's time for lunch! Using that as our motivation, we first took all our kit out of the canoes, then got the canoes out of water onto their trolleys for the first of the many portages around the many locks along the whole journey. It really is worth spending a bit of time to get a good system going (both in terms of strapping the canoes onto their trolleys and also packing the kit so there aren't too many loose bits floating about).
After lunch we set off to tackle Loch Lochy - the second biggest stretch of water in the Great Glen - we initially planned to camp near the end of Loch Lochy for the first day but unfortunately had a real battle with the wind and waves against us, so decided to call it a day at this sandy beach half way down Loch Lochy. We gathered firewood while setting up camp, started a fire and this really lifted our spirits ready for the assault the following day. One thing we noticed was that the wind and waves seemed to die down around 6ish in the evening.
Day 2We woke up to a beautiful day. Weather was good and surface of the loch was like a milk pond with no waves whatsoever! Camp was dismantled quickly and we set off before breakfast to take advantage of the calmness. With a gentle breeze behind us, we made a rather decent headway following the north western shore up Loch Lochy passing Bunarkaig bay (Achnacarry Castle) and Clunes. Next stop we reached was Laggan Locks where we gladly had our porridge, tea/ coffee and toilet break. Here at Laggan we found the Eagle - a fully licensed pub and restaurant based on an old Dutch barge moored just above the loch gates - but unfortunately it was closed.
The next 2.5km after leaving Laggan Locks was paddling in a sheltered canal before reaching Loch Oich, the shallowest and most scenic of the four lochs in the Great Glen. Loch Oich also marks the highest point of the Caledonian canal (33m above sea level) and has one of the few waterside food stores en route at the Well of the Seven Heads (before River Garry joins the loch on the north side). We took advantage of the store and got quite a bit of snacks and sweets for keeping our energy going. The day turned out to be one of jumping in and out of our canoes portaging around locks. Feeling rather drained and exhausted, we made camp at Kytra lock on this manicured lawns outside the lock master house. No toilet facilities here but it was lovely and quiet.
It was here where we helped some kayakers from Chiswick hurrying their way to Fort Augustus for the night. We also met Paul Sardar from Surrey, who soloed in his new Old Town canoe from Corpach to Kytra lock all in the same day.
Day 3
A couple of miles after Kytra the canal becomes more open and exposed towards Fort Augustus (we expected Loch Ness to be even worse!). Paul decided to join our little group which later turned out to be a very good decision.
Once we reached Fort Augustus, we portaged around 6 lock gates and a road bridge to reach the south shore of Loch Ness. Here we found toilets and superb shower facilities (it really is good - a must!).
After a quick breakfast break, wash and drying our tents out, we set off to tackle the daunting Loch Ness. The loch is up to 300m deep and contains more water than all of the freshwater lakes in England and Wales put together - an interesting thought to bear in mind when you are in an open canoe battling against the harsh wind and 'giant' waves - no doubt you will agree that one will do absolutely everything in their power not to capsize here (or you would get one happy Loch Ness Monster)!
We sensibly stuck to the north shore and avoided crossing the middle of the loch. Less than a kilometre after leaving the Fort Augustus canal exit, the wind and waves became so bad that we were marooned near the old pier within the curtilage of the Old Pier House. Luckily the lady owner kindly permitted us to sit it out until the weather turned better (she's been living there for the past 35 years and told us that the wind and waves usually die down around 6pm everyday). Rest of the day was spent in the village, mostly in the Lock inn adjacent to the locks drinking Guinness and 80 shilling (d4mn good they were!).The old pier where we were marooned was once where travellers would change from train from Glasgow to paddle steamers for the journey up Loch Ness to Inverness.
Day 4
It's been raining all night and not exactly a pleasant start to the day. We planned to do a lot of catching up as we didn't really paddle much the previous day. Objective of the day was to reach Drumnadrochit which is some 24km up the loch. We had fairly calm conditions to start off with but gradually it got windier and waves got bigger by the time we reached the outflow of River Moriston. Overall spirit was low among the group so we decided to sit it out in our tents on the bank of the river.
While sitting in our tents waiting, we spotted some canoes near the far shore speeding across the waters using sails. After some discussion, we came up with the triple canoe raft, which to our relief, is more than three times as stable as a regular canoe. What we did was to manouvre Garry's timber canoe to go between Dave's mad river canoe and Paul's old town canoe, these were then braced together using human power (two people at the front in the outer canoes and one in the middle canoe) and powered by human power (two at the back of the outer canoes to paddle and steer). The result was brilliant and we speeded along quite nicely. Later on that afternoon we experimented with a bothy mountain shelter that Dave brought along. It acted as a giant sail and we gained a lot of speed, atlas we made it to Drumnadrochit just before 8pm. It was good to learn a new canoe skill to deal with windy condition but some would argue using a sail is not the right way to go about it. Another point worth noting is that the canoes tend to 'rub' against each other so, as suggested by Hilary, we tied our trolley tyres to the side of the canoes and they work a treat!
As we were losing daylight and there were no obvious camping grounds, we had to settle near the jetty by the remains of Urquhart Castle (Note if you just want to quickly stretch your legs then that's fine, but if you want to spend any time in the castle's grounds, you are advised to ascend the stairs to the car park entrance and purchase a ticket or you would get prosecuted).Day 5
We did a bit more 'rafting' but decided to revert back to tandem paddling because the wind had dropped some what. A short paddle from the castle at the head of Urquhart bay we reached Drumnadrochit. Further along the shorelines we passed Loch Ness Harbour where quite a lot of tourists were getting on board the Jacobite Cruises ship. Another landmark after Loch Ness Harbour is the Clansman Hotel which is some 5km from Urquhart Castle. With a fair wind behind us, the settlement of Lochend was reached which is some 7km from Clansman Hotel. We headed for the narrow channel by the disused lighthouse which marks the end of Loch Ness and the start of the much smaller Loch Dochfour (I didn't realise this at the time). We came across quite a few dogs and a lot of different birds during our paddling journey, the loudest being a couple of oystercatchers by the shore. The waterway narrows back down to normal canal width at the end of Loch Dochfour and we went pass Dochgarroch weir/ River Ness. Continue on we soon came to the start of a long line of pontoons and moored boats which herald arrival at Dochgarroch Lock. Here we found the first British Waterways toilet and shower block since Fort Augustus!
A short lunch break and we were ready for the final 5km push along to Inverness. As we were approaching the fringe of Inverness, there were noticeably more people walking, jogging, cycling and walking their dogs along the canal towpath. The first building that we came to notice as we enter Inverness was the rowing club with their water-level pontoons (why can't we have more of those along the way?). Soon after that round a sweeping left-hand bend we arrived at the Tomnahurich Swing Bridge where we finish our journey with the sound of bagpipes resonating in the background (apparently somebody was practising in their back garden?).We all arrived at our camp/ caravan site (only 15mins walk from city centre of Inverness!) with our gear and canoes intact. I personally feel a great sense of achievement having completed the paddling trip across Scotland from west to east. It was a great experience and I couldn't recommend it high enough, but special thanks must go to Hilary and Dave whose organisation and experience made the trip possible and highly enjoyable. Also worth mentioning is Garry's hardwork in preparing his canoe for the trip but unfortunately the 'old timber lady' got quite a bit of bashing around and now needs more repair work doing to it!
More pictures and a 'perfect' kit list will be added shortly.
TIPS AND LESSONS LEARNT
- Timing of our trip was good as we managed to avoid all the Easter holiday rush and traffic
- Not a significant amount of midges due to the temperature
- Research and book bunkhouse/ campsite at the beginning and end of trip well in advance - you will need good secure comfortable places to stay recuperatomg from the long driving and exhausting paddling
- Start paddling early in the morning because by mid morning wind usually starts to pick up. We also noticed the wind tends to die down around 6ish in the afternoon everyday
- Work out an efficient strategy for setting up canoe on trolley for portaging
- Bring plenty of roof rack/ velcro straps for securing kit and spare paddle(s) to your canoe
- Have at least one experienced canoeist in the group who knows the area and how to manage a group of people (especially when morale is low)
- Remember this - Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!
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