Snow everywhere, why not go for a paddle? And so we did.

We drove as far up the east shore of Loch Ewe as we could and dropped the car somewhere at the end of the road, where historically a signal control station was. From there a little scramble with the kayaks down the cliffs to the water and off we went.

Loch Ewe is historically an interesting destination. It was an important gathering place of convoys heading for Russia in World War II, because of its north facing mouth that provided protection from the prevailing westerly winds. Reading a bit more about it, there were anti-submarine boom nets, guard loops, and a string of mines (exactly on our kayak route), in the mouth of the loch. It seems to have been cleaned up by now, but the bunkers that provided protection can still be seen on the west side (perhaps also on the east side, but we missed them). There is a lot of fascinating information about this history on the internet if you want to read more.

Seeing snow on the hills is beautiful, but somehow seeing that from the ocean makes it extra special. Also here. We looked around in awe, on loch ewe. Doesn’t that sound funny!

Our first stop was there fairway buoy (in the middle of the removed minefield) that marks the end of the loch, and indicates safe water on all sides. To not miss anything of the amazing view (or more likely to reduce wind resistance) the buoy had a window in it. There was a fair ocean swell, but nothing to be concerned about.

We kept on paddling to the west side of the mouth and followed the coastline on the outside. There are a few islands that we could meander through and we stumbled upon a group of sunbathing seals. Some of them jumped in the water to have a good look at us, others were content where they were. We were just able to paddle over a rocky gap, and made a mental note to go around this island on the way back, when the tide would be lower and this would not be passable by us anymore.

In the summer we had visited Rubha Reidh lighthouse. Our intention was to paddle there, but not wanting to cross the mouth of Loch Ewe in the pitch dark meant it might be better to turn around. We did see Camas Mor beach, a beautiful sandy beach that we had missed in the summer and that lies just a few kms next to the lighthouse.

We turned around, now paddling against the wind. />

The seals were still there, and so was the fairway buoy. However, we found some of the water gone, the tide was a lot lower. The scramble to get down to the water at the start of our paddle had turned into quite a substantial climb that had to be undertaken to get back up to the car. A beautiful sunset helped us find the motivation to use the tired arms for a final kayak-climbing workout, and marked the end of another nice paddle!