Choosing what to pack on expeditions can be tricky, often limited by space and weight, meaning the things you take must be multi-purpose. This has never been so much the case than on my recent trip to the Outer Hebrides.
The islands are off the west coast of northern Scotland and a 5 hour ferry from the town of Oban. The chain of islands extends for 210km, most of them being uninhabited. Our target was to sea kayak around the southern tip and base ourselves on the islands to do some multi-pitch sea cliff climbing.
With a perfect weather window, the trip was a total success. The highlights being paddling in the 3m gap formed between the mainland and Liànamuil island in an exciting swell, a four way arch, multi-pitch abseiling and seeing lots of cool wildlife including puffins, seals, eagles and basking sharks.
Narrow Gap at Barra Head
The front hatches of our sea boats were filled with climbing gear leaving limited space for 7 days’ worth of food, something to sleep in and on, and some spare clothes. The only shoes I had were my Palm Gradients and were used with great comfort to paddle over 30km twice in consecutive days and on other days walk and scramble across the islands accessing the crags. I was so impressed with these in the mountainous terrain that I plan to use them again next time I head into the hills at home in North Wales. Their grip,
support and comfort over long distances is as good as any mountain boot.
A Bashing Shark.
My Oceana jacket was comfortable over the long paddling distances, a pleasure to use but also kept the wind off me whilst cooking dinner at base camp on the cooler evenings, again multi-purpose as it was the only windproof (& water proof) layer I had taken with me!
I can’t describe the extent to which I enjoy overnighting from a kayak. It’s hard to do within the UK in a white water context, but we have one of the best coastlines in the world so why not enjoy it!
Here’s a little teaser video from our recent Colombia expedition. If this whets your appetite, we’ll be showing more HD video along with telling tales of our epics and adventures on our lecture tour, so check out the dates and venues. And if there isn’t a talk happening near you, get in touch on info@flowfree.co.uk and we can probably get one sorted!
Myself, Niamh Stack, Dave Hollins and Fran Kohn are two weeks in to our month here in Colombia. We’ve been stunned by how beautiful it is: dramatic moutains covered in thick, lush jungles and huge canyons… a landscape that makes for some very committing sections of river!
So far we’ve paddled some amazing white water, including the big volume Suarez that really got the heart racing and the stunning multiday canyon of the Chicamocha. But the big story so far has been how one river that should have taken us 3 hours ended up taking 4 days – including two gruelling hikes out through the jungle in the dark! (read more about this epic on our trip blog)
The new Mamba is treating me very well and fitted all my multi-day gear plus camera gear in the back no worries. And it handles really well both with and without kit. Its really hot here so my Zenith shortie cag is probably my favourite new piece of kit as it doesn’t let water into my boat but also keeps me cool. That said, with all the jungle hiking we’ve been doing I’ve been pretty glad of how sturdy my Gradient boots are too… you can never underestimate the importance of shoes in the jungle
Surfing a big wave on the Suarez in the Mamba
Getting from one place to another has been an adventure in itself as we are hiring 4x4s and trucks of all shapes and sizes for our shuttles and have been squeezing our kayaks into the luggage compartments of buses for transit between regions.
We spent the past 2 days on buses to reach Villavicencio and paddled a really pretty canyon on the Guayariba today. In the next couple of days we’ll be heading out into the hills to paddle a river that requires hiking for 3 hours, but this time we’ll have mules to carry our kayaks! Pretty excited about that!
2012 is getting off to an exiting start for myself, Fran Kohn, Dave Hollins and Niamh Stack as we are just about to set off for a month of boating in Colombia.
Bags packed and ready to go…
I’m taking the new Mamba 8.1 on this trip which I’m really excited about because it seems to handle really well both with lightweight day kit and a full boat for multi-day adventures. We have a long list of rivers we’d like to get done: some of which may involve jungle hikes and sleeping in hammocks or bivis. We can’t wait!
I’ll be updating the Palm blog as often as is possible on these kinds of trips, so stay tuned and I hope to bring you tales and photos from our adventures!
For those who don’t know Olly, he is a long time Palm paddler, but more than that he is a highly regarded sea coach, guide and expedition paddler…. as well as being a formidable mountaineer!
In other words when it comes to big trips and big adventures he knows what’s what.
From the trailer and the roll call of names he’s got involved it doesn’t look like you will have to look much further for something to inspire and also guide you in your schemes and plans.
He’s locked down editing at the moment, so hopefully it won’t be long before we can all get a copy in our hands.
