Paddlers: Hugh, Geoff, David, Tim and Robert
Weather: Clear, Sunny or light, high, cloud. Wind F1/2 increasing to F3/4 at end of afternoon
Report: With high winds forecast further south on Jura, the proposed trip was altered to a trip around Kerrera. This proved ideal as 3 of the 5 paddlers had not been before and it was a lovely trip on a wonderful day. The wide sand beach at Ganavan is 2 miles north of Oban and is a perfect launch spot with excellent parking, toilets and a wide slip. Parking is a modest £2 for 24 hours.
The sceney is magnificent with Lismore and Morvern to the North, Mull to the west and Kerrera to the south. The odd photogenic ferry also helps
Our paddle south was quite fast and we overshot our intended coffee beach at Slatrach, although the next sand beach at Barr-nam-boch was extremely pleasant. After lunch we paddled on round the point heading for Gylen Castle.
Once again we spurned the poor beach to the west of the promontory in favour of the worse beach to the east.
500m up from the castle is a lovely tea room; thoroughly recommended.
The journey north was assisted by a rising tide .
At Oban, whilst Hugh, Tim and Robert decided to mix it with the ferries David and Geoff decided coffee was more inviting and pushed on to Gallanach arriving about 6pm. The tidal flow and the increasing breeze made the final couple of miles quite interesting (bouncy) and rounded off an excellent days sea kayaking.