After a great weekend at Largs, I pointed my trusty paddlewagon northwards and ended up near Arduaine for a couple of days paddling with Mitch and Andy.
Day one was an introduction to tide races for Mitch. We went to the Cuan sound and played around in the swirly water at the north western end of the channel as the flood tide squirted water over a shallow bar. Waves and 'funny water' made an interesting playground.
Day two,three of us set out on a journey round Luing.
This trip was remarkable for two things; firstly the size, number and variety of jellyfish encountered and secondly, within moments of announcing to the others that I would like to see an otter, a great big dog otter (I’m guessing it was a dog otter as it was the biggest otter I have ever seen) ran across the rocks just beside me. The otter was far too fast to appear in a photo, but fortunately the jellyfish weren’t.
From the southern tip of Luing we had tidal assistance, initially too little to appreciate but as we travelled north, our paddling speed got increasingly swift, until just before our lunch break on Fladda island we were notching up 14km/hr without really trying. Conditions were flat calm so the sea appeared to be swirling in all directions. Having enjoyed dry weather so far, it started to rain as we were building stone towers on the beach while waiting for the Cuan sound to turn in our favour for the ride home.
While lunching on Fladda we say another otter. You are going to have to use your imagination but the little dark blob in the middle of the water is an otter (honest).
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