Canoeists

It's been a while since we did this. In fact it's only the second time since we moved here that I've been out in the canoe. The first was not long after we'd arrived in Ullapool

First thing the weather looked promising.

We set off. The canoe is 17ft long. Niels knows real joy paddling about in boats

Here he is in a former life! When we lived in the gentle south and had the Basingstoke canal running along at the bottom of our Surrey garden

This couldn't be more different

gentle surrey canal bank 

towering lochbroom rock face. The tide difference is huge. Seaweed and mussels clung to the rocks high above our heads.

Bridge ahead.

Cormorants ahead - oh no - my mistake, just some ancient tree remains pretending to look like cormorants.

We pulled up on the opposite shore and I saw my first

violets of spring.
I couldn't get a photo but we also saw two great black-backed gulls. They were enormous. They were by the shore at the edge of the loch. Large heavily built birds with strong contrasting black and white plumage. Fiercely predatory and dominant over all other gulls.

It was getting cold and the breeze had turned into a wind blowing across the front of the boat. We paddled on the spot for about an hour until bit by bit the garden came into view. We climbed the hill and home to a warm fire and supper, feeling just ever so slightly achy!