My trip to Scotland

Last week I went to Scotland with the Outlook Trust, the organisation that takes young visually impaired people on residential where they do outdoor activities. This week we did activities such as kayaking, sailing, gorge walking and white water rafting. We set off on Sunday 1^st of July from the co-op car park to travel for about eight hours on the magic bus to Strontian, which is a village on Loch Sunart, which is a sea loch on the west of Scotland near Fort William. We stayed in a self-catering bunkhouse which was actually quite modern, however most of us didn't get any signal on our mobiles. The only phones which got a signal were one of the leaders' phones which was on Orange, and ironically enough, my Samsung D600 picked up enough signal in a certain spot of the room for me to have a decent phone conversation.

Anyhoo, we went kayaking on the Monday morning. We kayaked to a channel in the loch where porpoises are found. It was quite scary in a way that I had a feeling that a porpoise may come up around the boat. We then paddled back for Lunch. Afterwards, some of us were given the opportunity to have a go at driving the Rib (Rubber Inflatable Boat), dubbed "Orange One" while some of us went sailing on one of the leaders' Yacht, which was called Moya. We then swapped over and some more people sailed while the others had a go at driving the Rib. Tuesday was a bit more strenuous, with gorge walking on the agenda for the morning. This gorge (I forget the name) was a tricky one, with certain parts where you had to swim in it. I have been in this gorge before; We did part of it in 2003 the last time we were in Strontian. This time it was slightly tricky with my having to wear sandals. The right sandal kept coming loose and on the way back, I had to just take them off and walk barefoot back to the bus, which was bad news for the leader who loaned me the dry suit in an attempt to keep my toe dry. After gorge walking, we went for lunch, and afterwards it was time to learn how to capsize in a double kayak, which was fun and also very wet. Some of us got to have a go at wind surfing but because the rest of us were sitting in the rib cold and wet, we had to retire for the day. On the next day, we white-water rafting with two professional instructors from Vertical Descents, an organisation that takes people white-water rafting, canyonning and Fun Yaking which is like white-weater rafting but in two man inflatable boats which are as stable and safe as rafts but as manoeuvrable as kayaks. We did some white-water rafting on the river Gary which is a class 3-4 river. Rivers are classed in how tricky they are and the classing system goes from 1 to 6, so our river was quite fast, in fact we were stuck in the first rapid, and I will have to admit to being absolutely petrified now because if I don't somebody else will. Once we had finished the rapids we headed back to the bunkhouse for a quick rest and then we had a barbecue on the Wednesday evening. On the Thursday, we headed out on a kayaking expedition. The weather was quite cool, and it rained occasionally but we paddled for about four hours from Loch Sunart through Loch Teacus to some ground by small estate. We set up tents and had tea which was cooked on stoves that use mentholated spirits. We had tomato pasta and freshly caught mackerel which tasted fantastic. After tea we all turned in for the night. The next day we packed up and set off back. The original idea was to sail through Loch Teacus into Loch Drambuie, into the open sea, then back to Loch Sunart, but because we were all tired, we canoed in Loch Drambuie just for a little while and then back through Loch Sunart. The journey was quite long and in places very tricky because of the wind, so we all rafted up and made a makeshift sail from paddles and tarpaulin, which worked very well as we made some speed. We used the rudders on the back of the double kayaks to steer, and we made quite a distance before we headed for Lunch. After lunch, we only had an hour to go, but we put our backs into it and we got back okay. After helping to shift the kayaks back to the bus we headed off back to the bunkhouse for a quick hower before we went to a restaurant for tea. The lasagne we had was really tasty as was the lemon meringue we had for dessert. After tea, it was time to pack up for the long journey back home.

We all enjoyed the trip to Scotland and thanks to the Outlook Trust for putting it on for us.