The Wild & The Wonderful

We begin akin the Lord of the Isles, setting out on our quest from the Isle of Arran.  Our paddle partnership renewed this time, for an expedition to visit and paddle in as many Scottish UNESCO sites that we can fit in. UNESCO’s key aims are to build peace, promote human rights and advance sustainable development.  Their Geoparks, Biospheres and Heritage sites are in places of outstanding natural beauty or cultural and geographical significance.

Neil and I have a lot of experience travelling independently, it can be challenging at times to synchronize in space and time.  It can be hard letting go of all else to embark on unchartered territories, our heads can whirr and whiz before the call of the wild and the wonderful wins.  So it was before this trip.

Following our paddle adventure last year and a dog bite in Albania, Neil’s knee and health had taken six months to heal from septic arthritis and return to the point of stability.  We didn’t want to jeopardize the stable foundations re-gained.  I had sadly lost my beloved Dad of 87, and grief had hit me hard in the preceding weeks.  Bodies, minds and spirits must be in tune to head out on an expedition that calls upon self-reliance, collaboration and courage.  Too much hesitation, deliberation or whatnot, and we can miss the tide or the tail wind… or the available e-charger!  And so, we learn more about timing and trust, working with the water on our journey, a healing source for sure.

Our endeavour only achievable when we had found ourselves back to wholeness for our quest – our house not an anchor for our travels, yet a mast, as Kahlil Gibran writes… or in our case, if the wind was up, an umbrella!

Arran Geopark

Our first stop and Neil’s home was the Isle of Arran, the Arran Geopark.  I wrote a poem inspired by some time on the island a few years ago:

Sacred lands,

Timeless sands,

Great Kings consecrated here,

Where time stands still,

Transcending man’s will,

Standing on the shoulders of giants – gifts wings,

Where life begins,

Reborn as the sun and moon,

Dance together night ‘till noon,

Kindred spirals, enchanted trance,

A chance,

To love.

UNESCO award Geopark status to unified areas with places and landscapes of international geological importance.  These places are managed with the holistic concept of protection, education, sustainable development relying on community involvement and local economic growth through geo-tourism.

We are travelling round the UNESCO sites, with our craft a Kia e-van, Neil lovingly refers to as Optimus Prime (if you’ve ever seen the Transformers movie…). Optimus is fully charged and we fuel ourselves first also at The Corrie Hotel, looking sharp from a recent refurb.  The coffee and cake hit the spot before we head off north to the shores by Lochranza castle.  The castle, thought to have been in situ since the 1300s, and where Robert the Bruce docked upon his return to Scotland from Ireland to claim the Scottish throne.  We head out in an open canoe skirting along the northern shore with the Kilbrannan sound behind us.  Our geology drishti, of the day, our focussed gaze, is toward Hutton’s Unconformity.  A salubrious seal, suns her head and joins us a while, not used to medieval-looking explorers entering her domain too often. 

Although smaller than a Birlinn, or West Highland Galley from the Middle Ages, there’s something of the craft that transports us back in time, even whilst a few millionaire yachters cruise toward the mainland close by.  The sea-water quality improves as we gain some distance from the township and the vista of mountain peaks behind us, strike the sky-blue.

My earth-science lesson begins, Neil’s undergrad is in Geology and he still has passion for the topic.  Luckily, I quite enjoy a spot of Rock talk.  James Hutton, a geologist of the enlightenment period advanced the notion that the earth’s crust could be used as an indicator of deep time, and that previous religiously backed ideas on the age of our earth as a few thousand years were under-estimated by a fair few millennia.  Neil places the SUP we towed as a rescue vehicle to demonstrate the geology we are investigating, pointing where older serrated, tilted layers of metamorphic rock schists are over-lain by younger horizontal crusts of sedimentary sandstone.  The distinct rock types are separated by approximately 65 million years. 

Metamorphic rocks are formed by heat and pressure whilst sedimentary rocks are lain down from the slow in flow of rivers or glaciers.  Like our expeditions, moments where the heat is on and other hours of more relaxation and ease.  65 million years is somewhat difficult to fathom.  I jump into the sea and submerge myself at this place of eon-infused rock power and look back up to the green valley from where the sandstone depositions may have flowed from.  There’s certainly a timeless energy to the place.  We paddle back using our strength for a bit more pressure into the headwind but make it back to Optimus in time to catch the Lochranza ferry to Cleonaig.  We are heading to the Kintyre peninsula to camp for the evening, before a long drive the following day to our next UNESCO site, Wester Ross Biosphere.

Wester Ross Biosphere

We head off after some morning yoga over-looking Arran’s pretty peaks to the south, driving up beside Scotland’s stunning west coast of lochs and crags before we must stop to charge Optimus in Fort William.  I am also training for the Isle of Islay Half Marathon on this trip, so I use the charging time to stretch my legs and keep my training on track by the River Lochy.  The rounded shoulders of the giant Ben Nevis impressively dominate the surrounding views.  As we set off again in Optimus heading Northwest, we enter the Biosphere. 

UNESCO Biosphere reserves are areas of breath-taking nature where balancing biodiversity conservation with sustainable local development is the focus.  Wester Ross is known for its Ancient Caledonian Pinewoods, low population density and rugged beauty.  We have a little trepidation on the sparse settlements as we start to wonder where to stop for dinner and make sure our next e-charging point is within reach.  The Loch Marree Hotel thankfully takes our booking later in the evening and we plan our paddle to some of the islands for the morning. 

We set up camp enjoying the view of the dramatic mountain views of cloud shrouded Slioch (the Spear) as the evening draws in, but take cover in our tent in haste as the midgies are out.

For our paddle, we head back out on the open canoe from the West paddling toward Slioch in the East to explore some of the islands.  I am treated with a glance of a Great Northern Diver before we set sail in our canoe again and soon after, we are greeted by the concerned call of an Osprey nesting on Eilean Ruaridh Mor.  The birds are not used to much human contact in this place.  I catch a glimpse of her white under-belly heading to the canopy and we keep moving to give them space.  We stop at one of the smaller islands, have a quick skinny dip under the reflection of the Caledonian Pines and a picnic.  The quiet of these wild places is comforting.

On our route back, the headwind picks up again and brings some choppy waves to contend with. We skirt along the dark grey granite rocks of the islands for a little more shelter and this time the pair of ospreys join forces to tell us off. We keep moving and make it back, after a 4-mile round trip.  We are aiming for the Northwest Highlands Geopark, next.  On our way, we stop off for some delicious cake at the community run Gael Café in Gairloch and I manage a run along to the beautiful Gairloch Big Sands beach. Further north, we climb over a high ridge with the Game of Thrones theme tune playing and consider our own watershed moments on our careers and lifepaths.

North West Highlands Geopark 

Heading out West again aiming for the pub in Lochinver to watch the FIFA world cup final, then our campsite for the evening, Achmelvic beach. The North West Highlands Geopark is home to the oldest rocks in Europe, Lewesian Gneiss, said to be three billion years old, and Inselbergs or ‘Island Mountains’ such as the unique and majestic Suilven, as well as more exquisite coastline, caves, moorland, and forest. We plan a short coasteering visit the following day and adventure out along the Achmelvic coast with some fresh exhilarating plunges into the bright blue deep, toward Vestey beach.  The shore here is bestowed with striated and streaked Lewesian Gneiss, nice rocks. I have a wee scramble whilst Neil a cool snorkel, scout about.

One more night at Achmelvic, then we decide to return slightly south to paddle the Lochs at Inver Pollaidh, cradled at the base of Stac Pollaidh, another solitary inselberg of Torridonian sandstone. On the way we stop off at the spectacular craggy landscape of Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve. The exhibits here help me make sense of Neil’s geology lesson on the Caledonian orogeny (the geological term for mountain making)! Neil tells me, along the crag, there is a tectonic phenomenon where older rocks (metamorphic gneisses and schists) were lain across younger (sedimentary) rocks which accounts for the Moine Thrust zone! I raise my eyebrows quizzically; indeed, I ponder.

With my fascination for human biology, tectonic tumults always make me think of the fault line where our brain hemispheres meet, and the structure that joins the two, our corpus callosum. Exuberant axons undergo their own metamorphic process during our development to form this structure, which plays a vital role in sensory integration, intellectual processing and the management of social and emotional stimuli. Adverse early years experiences such as trauma and neglect can damage these processes and cause defects in the corpus callosum, noted in indications such as addiction, bi-polar disorder, epilepsy, autism spectrum and other disorders. The good news is that time spent outdoors can boost our brain plasticity and function, bringing some balance for any neuro-divergency needs we may have.

So off we go to paddle the length of Loch Lurgainn in the open canoe. The wind picks up from the west, so we decide to paddle east for a wee boost. We traverse the first half of the loch quickly and stop off for a picnic at a wild beach to the south.  There are lovely sandy beaches dotted along the way.  The second half is more challenging in identifying our egress point at the estuary of the River Polly, since the vegetation is thick. We have a quarter mile or so to lug the open canoe back up the bank of the river to the roadside where Neil stashed his bike, an extra dose of resistance training for the day!

Since the weather was a little bleak, we decided to book into a bunk at the Explorer’s Lodge, Inchnadamph for the night. The friendly hostel is the perfect base to explore the Assynt area, with cooking facilities, a fantastic dry room, geology geekery and a breakfast of cereal and toast included.

Well-rested, we are eager to explore more of the North West Geopark, and head off all the way North to Durness. Our goal had been to paddle our pack rafts into Smoo cave, however the tide no longer rises high enough, and exploring the internal pools is limited to guided tours. Still the deep, dark enclave of the karst cave is worth a visit, granting shelter for sailors and smugglers through the ages.  We save our paddle for the next day and I head out a run across Sango Sands toward Balnakiel beach, one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve visited. Pristine white sands on a western shore and to the east of the Faraid Head peninsula, impressive sea stacks form part of the most westerly thrust zone, if you have a thirst for more thrust… geologically speaking!  We camp at Sango Sands before we leave for our final UNESCO site of the trip: The Flow Country.

The Flow Country – Caithness and Sutherland

As we drive along the NC500 with a tribe of other vehicles on their pilgrimage, the landscape feels more like Nordic Fjords, the road curving around the wide sea inlets sweeping deep into the land, banked by high cliff tops.  We make a quick stop at the bakery in Tongue and find there are two, one is the Alba Bakery and the other is the Norse Bakery, these days bakers don’t let old feuds slide it seems! We prefer Alba, although Neil does look quite Viking, and carry on to the River Naver to christen my new Kokopeli pack-raft.

The Flow Country is considered the largest, most-intact area of blanket peat bog in the world. Scotland, the wild, the wonderful and the boggy! The peatland is of international importance including Sphagnum moss, wet heath, grassland and interconnected pool systems as habitat for rare bird species, amphibians and other small animals.  The peat plays an important role in sequestering carbon, with the peatlands storing more than twice the amount of carbon as the world’s forests, and peat thicknesses reaching over eight meters here.

The River Naver flows between two distinct areas of peatland, the gaelic word Nabhair meaning cloud or even nebula, where new worlds are born. During our reconnaissance on the best access point for our short paddle down to the estuary, we can’t help but notice multiple stone ruins strewn along beside the country roads, evidence of the Highland Clearances circa 200 years ago.  In Sutherland alone, some 15, 000 people were displaced over a ten-year period.  There is a eeriness that descends like the fog from the river, if our thoughts linger too long on that dark past.  We paddle a mile or two down through the scenic green glen, meeting some leaping salmon as the river slowed who were too clever for the friendly fisherman that day.  Our last camp at Bettyhill, offers up more stunning, sweeping coastal sands and cliffs and certainly a place to return to, but with a surfboard!

For our last day paddling, we head east to the River Thurso, the winds are too high for a paddle on Loch More so we head straight on to the river. Unfortunately, our least pleasurable paddle of the trip due to low water levels and high biting bug populations!  We do manage a couple of small shoots and are happy that Neil’s knee survived a high proportion of lining and dragging the canoe down the rocky river.

To finish the trip, we were lucky enough to have a warm welcome with my aunt and uncle who have restored a Sutherland croft.  Re-wilding with native woodland plantations, growing an impressive range of vegetables in their polytunnel and farming a small stock of highland cattle.  Neil enjoyed a last bit of energetic output here, tossing the hay and I finished off my half marathon training across the wild moors and wooded glens of Sutherland.  After all our adventures, uncle Mark’s cooking was top notch!  It’s sad to think so many other crofting households have lain derelict for two centuries or more in these parts.  Still, re-population efforts do exist to restore crofting such as restoration, crofting succession plans and community buy-outs.  My own love for the highlands was thoroughly reignited on this trip, and stewardship of these pure waters and lands as UNESCO rightly support, must be prioritised by us all, our very own Garden of Eden.

Alba gu bràth, Scotland Forever!