Today begins like any other. We sleepily drag ourselves out of our tents, eat our breakfast whilst battling a cloud of midges, jump in the boats and paddle eastwards...
After an early morning exploration of the local fisheries nets, we duck under a bridge to join the River Arkaig. A considerable river, the Arkaig drains the wild and remote mountain area that we have spent three days travelling through. It links Loch Arkaig to Loch Lochy. The river will provide us with our most difficult paddling of the trip, so it is with some trepidation that we launch ourselves between the eddy lines.
Heading downstream, the river is flat and gentle until we come to a left-hand bend, where the river picks up. It is also the site of a new hydroelectric plant. Fortunately, we arrive the day before the planned diversion of the river!
From the construction site, we plan out our route through the first major rapid. I am in the second boat and watch Brian and Matt take a perfect line through the first and the second part of the rapids and then I watch them disappear right. This seems odd as we had agreed to go left there. They were out of sight, so we had no option, but to follow...
Alistair and I hit a rock in the first rapid, but managed to keep our balance and complete the second rapid perfectly. We then pulled into an eddy on our left to see where the other boat went. We can see the boat wedged on a rock, with Brian and Matt sheepishly bailing out the boat.
We regroup to man handle our boats down the left channel to avoid the final (and most challenging) part of the Grade 4 rapid. The river from here slowly winds its way through the rhododendron bushes. There is the occasional surf wave (nothing more than a Grade 3 rapid) to keep us alert. That said, this section is not completed without incidents as Alistair and I narrowly avoid getting tangled up in a hefty tree, whilst Brian and Matt take another bath! Sadly though, the final rock-filled rapid above the bridge comes all too soon.
Beyond the bridge, the river opens onto the glassy waters of Loch Lochy. We skirt the tiny islands that sit in the mouth of the river and then raft together to enjoy a short break to take in the stunning views of the rounded mass of Ben Nevis and beyond. All around is total tranquillity, the water is a perfect sheet of dark blue silk. It is hard to believe that anything so boisterous as a rapid lies just a few hundred metres from our boats.
We resume our journey eastwards towards the end of the loch. The tail wind encouraging us to our final destination, but before we get to relax, we have one last obstacle: our first portage around a lock. Once the lock is successfully negotiated, we paddle the final few kilometres along the flat waters of the Caledonian Canal to South Lagan and our first taste of civilisation since departing Morar.
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