Picture of the Month - January 2013

Firth of Clyde

Maidens Sunset

Sunset at 5.30pm on a cold Winters day

click below for the trip

Maidens to Dunure

Dunure to Maidens

Dunure to Maidens

Blinded by the light 

Saturday January 12th

After our lunch in the bar of the Dunure Inn 

it was time to paddle back to Maidens.

You can see from the picture that Dunure harbour has a 

distinctive old beacon at it's entrance. 

(that isn't a reference to Andy)(or Elizabeth)

Mr & Mrs Lomo at Dunure Harbour 

It was now around two hours after high water and many reefs and submerged rocks were negotiated as we passed under the ruins of the old Kennedy stronghold of Dunure Castle.

Bill can confirm that the rocks were just awash as he left gelcoat on quite a few of them!

Sadly skies were no longer blue - high cloud had filled in and it was noticeably cooler

Dunure Castle remains - 15th or 16th century

Once clear of Dunure Point things cheered up, as a 'hole' sat on the horizon, directly in the path of the setting sun.

crossing Culzean Bay

The further south we travelled and the lower the sun, 
the more dramatic the lighting.

It felt like kayaking to Tir na Og
(although we were heading south, not west.)

Turnberry Lighthouse in the distance

Ailsa Craig was bathed in dusky colours, 

this was turning out to be a very special evening.

distinctive profile of Ailsa Craig

As the sun slipped toward the horizon and moved under the cloud 

the lighting changed in an instant. 

It was both blinding and irresistible-and we loved every minute of it.

passing wooded Barwhin Point

Although difficult to see detail in front of you, we knew if we aimed for Turnberry Lighthouse it was roughly the right direction!

'blinded by the light'

Entering Maidens bay with the sun sinking lower

 the ever changing colours were quite beautiful.

It is not often that you experience such a sunset whilst paddling.

crossing Maidenhead Bay

Reluctantly we headed for Maidens shore - the beach dries out quite a distance at low tide, so there was a bit of a carry back to our vehicles.

perfect west coast sunset

What a tonic this short day proved to be.

The forecast for the following day was good-

so lets go hillwalking tomorrow!

Maidens to Dunure

discovering the Ayrshire coast

Saturday January 12th

Leaving Maidens beach on a cold January morning Andy, Elizabeth and Bill, headed north under the headland of Barwhin Hill. An easterly breeze made warm winter gear essential. 

This was a leisurely 'recce' day; future exploration is imminent.....

Our morning journey from Glasgow had been under dark, dull grey skies; it was something of a relief to find the forecast sunshine.

During the holiday period in Decemebr 2012, the Scottish west coast and western/central Highlands have had very little in the way of blue sky and sunshine. We craved a fix!

Amazing the positive mood an 'open' sky brings.

Barwhin point

Culzean Castle commands a fine position on the cliffs.

We went right under the battlements - giving a few visitors something to photograph - titled 'Mad Kayakers' no doubt!

Interestingly, at the base of the cliffs, cave and castle passageway openings all had yetts.

Heading toward Croy - under Culzean Castle

Crossing Culzean bay was entertaining - It was only 3km - but felt longer. The east wind was funneled off the land, from Maybole direction, and although one kilometer offshore, we could smell the freshly manured fields - 'a fine country smell', said Andy.

'what a smell...was that you Andy?'

We reached Dunure at high tide.  It's a gem, especially as it has a kayaker friendly pub just yards from the harbour wall.

The layout of the village around the harbour makes it feel as if it should be sited on the Aberdeenshire coast.

Dunure Harbour

High water gave an easy landing on the small shingle beach.

A perfect landing spot

As Elizabeth had forgotten her lunch it seemed a great idea to grab a sandwich in the bar.....Bill and Andy did offer some of their lunch, but the warmth of the bar won!

As every man of the Moray fraternity knows, 

Elizabeth has trouble with zips.

'Pull woman, pull.....'

On warm days, drysuits are called 'boil in the bags' - 

for obvious reasons. Just as well we don't have 'smellyvision'

a highly recommended bar

Time, and tide wait for no man (or woman)

better drink up.....

The Cumbraes - December 2011

Pick of the Month 

Sea Kayaking around The Cumbraes

Firth of Clyde

A day of perfection in a month of storms

toward Little Cumbrae Lighthouse

Circumnavigation of both Great and Little Cumbrae.

Lots of birdlife, a warm sun, lazy paddling, companionship.

A real tonic, after one of the wettest and windiest spells for a long time.

Elizabeth, Bill and Andy

click here to return to the Moray Club home page

Goatfell Arran

'Madame Butterfly'

Saturday 11th June

Roni suggested a day trip to Arran.

It has been years since any of us had walked there.

Goatfell is possible at a leisurely pace, leaving Ardrossan on the 9.45 morning ferry, catching the 16.40 afternoon boat home. This gives about five and a half hours round trip from Brodick.

One of the good things about modern Calmac ferries is that the bigger ships all have decent bean to cup coffee machines and serve tasty bacon rolls. They definitely have customer priorities spot on!

Another big plus is that Calmac don't charge for pedal cycles- 
(or sea kayaks)
Arran has long been popular with cyclists and there was a good friendly atmosphere as we waited our turn with around another 30 or so to disembark.

It's such a short cycle to the start of the hill it hardly justified taking the bikes. Still faster than shank's pony.
So many signs it's easy to miss 'Goatfell this way'!

Now, what is the combination again? Oh boy.....

You gain height rapidly up the well graded path.
It was warm, humid & bright -occasionally a few splats of rain fell.
Thunder was forecast later on in the afternoon.
A day of jackets on, jackets off.

A jackets on moment, as big raindrops, then hail, briefly 'caressed' us.

We could see a heavy sustained downpour over Brodick and Holy Isle, glad we weren't there!

Goatfell is a very popular summit - rightly so as it's a superb viewpoint. Our time to the top was two hours exactly.
The sun shone brightly but the wind had a cold edge.

Dee was attacked by a summit goblin, or was it a dwarf?

Dee giving Bill the evil eye for such a scare.

We scoffed some lunch and posed for photos.

Time to head down smartly, we didn't want to miss our ferry, as it would involve a long wait for the next one.
There has been a lot of work carried out on the path over the years;
considering the number of ascents, it's in good condition.

Roni was befriended by a butterfly. 

The colour blue must have been the attraction, as it darted between Roni, Bill and another hillwalker in a blue jacket just behind us. As Dee was wearing white she wasn't visited!

It's a Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary - Boloria selene, not to be confused with the Pearl-bordered Fritillary, but we knew that didn't we.

Pearl-bordered Fritillary vs Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

visit UK Butterflies site for more information.

It was reassuring to see the MV Caledonian Isles was leaving Brodick as we descended, no we hadn't missed it.....it would be 2 hours before it returned!

Holy Isle looks as if it's part of mainland Arran from this angle, it also looks like a big shark fin.....

It only took 90 minutes to descend and we wern't running, it's a really good dry mountain path.

Dee is smiling as there is a small restaurant at the track end, and they serve good strong coffee.

....not to mention the home baking....

It was hot in the sun. Such a change after a very cold start to June.

We sped round to Brodick in a few minutes; looking back to Goatfell we wondered how many ascents it gets in a year.

There was a marked drop in temperature as we waited to board the ferry, big banks of low cloud rolled in and obscured the mountain, we had been lucky!

Forty cyclists made the journey back home, a lot having cycled around Arran in the time we had walked up Goatfell and had a coffee.

An easy day visit, well worth the early(ish) start.

click here to return to Moray Club home page

Little Cumbrae Circumnavigation

Sea Kayak to Little Cumbrae

Saturday 6th December

The Moray Club water babies haven't just discovered

open canoeing,

they've also sampled the pleasures of sea kayaking, with DCKC.

We launched  at a rocky inlet next to Portencross Castle under cloudless winter skies of intense blue.

The view to Arran's snowy peaks was stunning.

We were soon rounding the southern end of

Little Cumbrae island.

The island's south tip is called Gull Point.

That explains all the gulls then.......!

Heading north, up the east side, we were delighted to find conditions improving, the sea state became flat calm. The paddle towards Millport was really attractive.

You can see Bill has chased all the locals and visitors off the main street in his bright yellow drysuit and blue spraydeck.

After lunch in the balmy warm sunshine on Millport's front, we set off in mirror conditions.

We were certainly well tanned, crossing The Tan!

(it's the name of the sound seperating

Great & Little Cumbrae)

Ailsa Craig floated and shimmered in the distance.

This short video shows how good the weather was and how much fun we had.

...and the cameraman didn't capsize!

Note that there are no pictures of the massive Hunterston Ore Terminal or the Nuclear power station on the mainland.

They were easy to ignore today as the views seaward kept drawing the eye.

We approached our take out at Portencross Castle which basked in the late afternoon light.

Soon be time for another wee cup of tea!

We had a magnificent day out,

totally unexpected for December.

It was a short day of 10 miles, but what a cracker!