This trip was absolutely stunning. It's a classic canoe journey and well worth it.

Our trip was to paddle from Glenfinnan at the north end of Loch Shiel down to the River Shiel, and out onto the sea via Loch Moidart, then round the coast and up into Loch Ailort.

Having done lots of research into this trip, it seemed that lots of people intend to do the route I've just described, but as they get to the sea, the weather takes charge and turns them back up Loch Shiel! We were incredibly fortunate with all aspects of our trip - even the wind direction was in our favour the whole way round!

The trip began at Glenfinnan Hotel (just launching - not staying!), they were very accommodating, as they let us leave the car in their car park, and took our trip details in case we didn't get back when we said we would!

We got the boats loaded up, and set off - the sun was in the sky, the weather was warm and we had a gentle following breeze - all completely unexpected, especially the breeze as we were expecting to paddle into a head wind most of the way! Loch Shiel has no roads that follow it, so it truly is beautifully quiet, even aircraft seem to avoid it! Anyway, we stopped for Lunch about 8km down the Loch, and then mooched our way further down, stopping on one of the islands for a photo and scenery appreciation session! Our first night's camp was about two thirds  down the loch, in a lovely secluded bay. We got the tents up and the tarp, and got a fire going asap, as the midges really began to swarm! Skin So Soft, Mozzie coils and midge nets all came out in force!

The second day wasn't bright and sunny, but it was still warm, and the breeze was thankfully a little stronger (keeping those midges at bay) and still from the north, so we put up the brollies and pootled our way down to the end of the Loch. Lunch was had, and then we paddled past Shiel Bridge and into the beautiful 'dingley dell' of the River Shiel. This was a really stunning part of the river. :-)

Further down, we met a not so friendly fisherman, who we decided didn't do too well at finishing school, as he really was most impolite which was honestly totally unprovoked! Still, we paddled past and carried on. The River Shiel is only 3.5km long and if you get to the end at high tide, all is well!

If, like us you get there at low tide, there is a big drop !! (which Pam and Jon nearly wandered down - some fishermen are very friendly - thankfully!). It really is quite impressive, but with laden canoes, not really something we fancied trying! Even lining the boats seemed to be a little scary, as the footpath isn't too clever in places!  Having chatted to the local ghillie, who informed us that a load of fishermen would be coming to fish that section as soon as the tide was in sufficiently, we decided to portage the kit, which wasn't too bad really, and it meant that we wouldn't clash with the anglers, which was a good thing, I think the ghillie was relieved too!

We were now officially on tidal waters! The sun had come out, and all was well - we had a short paddle to the island we were camping on, where Pete met us. We put the tents up, got tea on and mellowed out watching the sun set and the tide come in - perfect.

Wednesday morning, and we woke to heavy rain. This was the storm that had hit the rest of the country, but fortunately for us, it was just rain, no wind at all, just rain bouncing off the sea - awesome! After breakfast, we paddled Pete to shore, and then continued into Loch Moidart, which is a beautiful sea loch. On our way out to open sea, we saw thousands of jellyfish - the ones with the four bright purple rings, which was amazing contrasted against the clear green tinged water.

Onto the sea, and we stopped at a beautiful white beach for lunch, and watched seals swimming around. We were still in the rain, but it created a misty atmosphere, and the islands of Muck and Eigg looked mysterious. As we turned into Loch Ailort, a seal popped up to say hello, and continued to follow us for about 6km!

Loch Ailort is beautiful and the sun came out as we paddled up it. There are some beautiful beaches and places to stop, but we carried on to the end, camping in a lovely little bay! However, the tide was out, so we wades through the shallows to set up camp and waited for the tide to do the hard work of getting the boats up to camp, for us!

We had stunning weather for the final evening of our trip, and the loch was like a mirror, so to avoid the midges Libby & Jon went for an evening paddle. We'd only been on the water ten minutes when we were caught in torrential rain! We got very wet, but what an amazing place to be, with the incredible sound of rain bouncing off the water!