Took Norman, Alice and Andrew Banks for a weekend paddle to Moidart area to cover the three start skills and a bit more.
Weather was benign so seas were generally flat but it was a great weekend.
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We paddled out of Loch Moidart via the north channel.......................
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Once in the open sea we saw an object in the distance moving steadily.............. turned out to be a basking shark, absolutely huge, longer than the sea kayaks, probably 20 feet long and of enormous girth.
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After the initial shock of seeing the size of the beast we began to follow it. Soon we found another. Normally they cruise just under the surface, with a floppy dorsal fin and a tail fin showing, the latter powering from side to side as they swim along, mouth agape, sieving the plankton in the sea.
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This shot shows I am not kidding about the size of the shark. Look at its dorsal and then its tail and then imagine where the head would be. It dwarfs a sea kayak. Eigg and Rhum in the background.
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In the evening I climbed up the rugged hillside above the Smirisary camp for this view down on the North Channel.
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A lovely late evening view across the skerries towards Eigg from Smirisary.
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Next day we returned via the South Channel and Castle Tioram. Stopped for lunch at the gorgeous coves near the mouth of the loch.
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We were lucky to pass close to a seal colony on one of the skerries in the South Channel.
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Ahhhhhh.............!!!!
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