Loch Sunart played host to our now yearly pilgrimage up North.
As with all our other Northern escapades a secret Facebook page was created to "discuss matters"
Area Information;
Loch Sunart (Scottish Gaelic Loch Shuaineart) is a sea loch on the west coast of Scotland it runs west from the sea, bounded to the north by the Sunart district of Ardnamurchan and to the south by the Morverna brutta
At 31 kilometres (19 miles) it is quite a long sea loch. At its deepest the depth of the loch is 124 metres (406 ft) east of Càrna and the entrance to Loch Teacuis.
There are a few islands in the loch (from West to east) Oronsay, Risga, Càrna, and Eilean Mòr, which lies towards the landward end of the loch in line with Beinn Resipol.
Day 1 (part one). The longest day.
On the big drive up we were in pairs, myself and Clive DS in his car, another Tim and Dave in Tim’s car and Stuart and Andy in Stu’s car.
Myself and Clive travelled up through the night to meet up with Tim and Dave at the Camping and Caravanning Clubs site at Oban, we arrived a little early at 0200 hrs so we located the visitors car park and dozed in the car until the gates of the site were opened at 0700. I sneaked in and tracked down Dave and Tim’s camp. It was easy to spot with a canoe trailer and Dave's tarp attached aka the "trailer tent" where he spent the night (much to the disbelief of the other campers). A quick trip on one of Dave’s guy ropes had alerted him to our presence. Coffee was brewed and quickly drank as the campsite slowly came to life, caravan curtains were twitching away.
The camp commandant was on his way towards the Tim/Dave camp when he must have thought against it as four men in outdoors gear were gathered with bleary eyes and steaming coffees in hand and he quickly turned towards the toilet block.
Our mini convoy set off towards the ferry at Ardour and our planned meeting with car three. We boarded the ferry for the small but time saving trip across a narrow section of Loch Linnie, the ferry ride itself felt like the real start of the expedition.
Waiting for the ferry
We pulled it to the small village of Strontian, this being the main village in area of Sunart, It lies on the north shore and close to the head of the loch. In the hills to the north of Strontian lead was mined and in these mines the mineral strontianite was discovered, from which the element strontium was first isolated. Here in this small village we planned as our finishing point.
After our final shop for supplies in the local shop we quickly discussed the car ferry, we asked one of the friendly locals who was passing by where best to park Clive’s car for week, and she pointed to a car park set back a little from the shop. We then asked permission from the shop assistant who said it was ok, we were sorted
Whilst we were unpacking Clive’s car a lady from one of the nearby houses asked us what we were doing, after telling her our plans she said she would look after the car and would call the emergency services if we miss our ETA, what wonderful people they are.
Twenty miles or so along a tight and twisty road we arrived at a tiny little bay called Port na Cross, west of Eilean Mòr. For us to put in much further west we would be paddling in a full sea state, not too wise (we thought) in fully laden open canoes.
We freed the cars and trailers of our kit and loaded up our canoes. The two drivers then “hid” the cars a short distance away.
We were now off, the weather was playing nicely, the sun was out and warmed us as we headed off to our destination, the island of Oronsay. This is an uninhabited island, low-lying, barren and rocky, deeply indented with relatively small sea lochs and when inspected via google earth it looked like an idyllic place to set up our small base camp.
The group decided it was windy enough to “hoist the sails” however I have to admit due to several packs and re-packs of my "loose gear" that would live in my boat, I had managed to leave my sail in another bag…..400 odd miles away at home.
Some of us had bought fishing kits with us with the hope to supplement our diet with fish; so feeling a little fed up being sail-less I deployed my (not so) secret weapon, a Para vane, this being an underwater “glider” that tows a lure under the water and flips to the surface when a fish is caught, it is a canny device and within minutes to my surprise I had caught a fish with it! However this slippery overactive fish promptly escaped.
We pulled into Sailean Mor, Oronsay’s largest bay to look for a place to camp. As previously stated I had been scouring the area with google earth and from space it looked rather good for tents, but the truth was far from it, the whole area around this small sea loch consisted of very uneven ground with bogs, thick ferns and “holes” deep enough to lose a leg (and even break one whilst carrying gear) we searched the bay for over an hour to no avail.