Suilven, in a round about way.

The amazing Suilven stands proud amidst its boggy, knock and lochan surroundings.  Voted ‘Scotland’s prettiest mountain’, it is easy see why.  Even shrouded in mist, its wonderful shape and grandeur give the landscape a real focus.   Its cliffs and curves transform as you travel round;    domed from the west, pyramidal from the East and bosom shaped from the.  At 731m, it narrowly misses out on Munroe status, this means people climb it because they want to climb ‘Suilven’, not just as part of a greater goal.  I love that.

Like many, Suilven is the focal point for our trip; however, we decide to explore it in a different way.  We chose to travel round it by canoe.  Easier said than done.

We trundle down the road in high spirit, past cavers and reindeer, surrounded by solitary hills frozen in time. 

Six kilometres pass before we push the front of the boat into Loch Assint.   We launch eagerly.  The first paddle strokes feel effortless, as we glide peacefully across the water.  A tail wind builds with our enjoyment so we erect a sail, pulling us faster across the loch.

In no time, we reach the western shoreline.  The River Inver drains Loch Assint and poses our first real challenge.  The boat weaves between rocks and shingle deposits as river bank becomes cliff.   We enter the first gorge and the gradient steepens, forcing us to maneuver the boat with lines, down the rapids.

"We enjoy using these traditional skills, invented along Canadian fur trade routes in the seventeenth century."

The river steepens further, so we decide to re-join the road, making a speedy decent down into Lochinver.   Exhausted, we pitch our tent beside the football pitch, eat and make a be-line to the pub.  Bliss. Then bed.  Double bliss.

With bleary morning eyes, we swoosh the midges away, excited to get on the mirror like sea that waits.  The canoe cuts through the oceans silence as we round Kirkaig Point.  Turns swoop, shags dive and jelly fish wibble as we approach Inverkirkaig with our eyes on the next leg.  The steep, rocky; River Kirkaig.

This technical river offers another significant barrier to the canoe.  We chose to trolley and carry up the parallel path.  Passing a sign warning of steep drops and difficult walking.  Uh oh!  The path soon becomes too much for the trolley. Huge boulders, steep drops and deep heather mean that we have to start carrying the laden boat.  Four brutish kilometres of sweat and exhaustion later, we reach the Falls of Kirkaig marking the top of the river.

"By now we are both totally crippled.  Soaked to the skin, sapped of all our energy, we slump over our bag felling very sorry for ourselves."  

We know the hard bit is over; however it takes an age to conjure motivation and carry on.  To our dismay, the river above the falls is still un-navigable.  We portage further, questioning our sanity.

For the third time in 2 days, we climb back in the boat and with new found energy, power along beside the incredible lumps of Suilven.  We wave at fisherman, answer the cuckoos and spot leaping trout as we motor along Fion Loch.  The water shallows as we reach the Uidh Fhearna River, deploying our tracking and poling skills to make upstream progress.  We are again reminded about the versatility of the canoe traveling both up and down stream with ease.

It slowly dawns on us that the end is near; however ten kilometres of Loch Vaeyatie and a seven kilometre of uphill trolley soon crush any excitement.  Moral drops once again.  

"I struggle to keep my eyes open in the front seat, my mind drifting far from the canoe but I know I must keep battling."

The end of the loch comes into sight, with another huge waterfall crashing down from above.  Excitement slowly builds as we spot or portage track.  Like a well-oiled machine we; attach the trolley, adjust the balance of kit and begin to tug.  For motivation, we split the final uphill slog into three, two kilometres sections, as our weary bodies trudge on.  

Eventually we reach the highest point of the trip and enjoy the final kilometre back to the car.  A huge feeling of relief sweeps across us as we reach the car, incredibly relieved to have finished but also greatly proud to have survived two arduous days. 

Looking back, it dawned on us pretty soon that the trip wasn’t going to be easy.  Twenty one kilometres of portage with only thirty five kilometres of paddling wasn’t a great ratio.  On a normal river, this would be a pretty bad time; however, somehow, this ratio was forgivable.  Yes the trip was incredibly and possibly unnecessarily tiresome but this kind of adventure is what the canoe is designed for.  Like the ancient Canadian fur traders, we used ropes, poles and sails to travel incredible distances both up and downstream.  This is what the trip was about.  Exploring a new area, in an incredibly cool boat and having a bit of fun even if it was very much of the “retrospective” variety. 

This is certainly not a trip that I would recommend to anybody however, if you fancy a challenge, get stuck in.

Photos - Jonny and Paul