If we had a favourite activity pre-Little Chaps, then wild camping was probably it. The feeling of space, freedom and peace is almost unbeatable. So the question became, how to go wild camping as soon as possible? Although we probably ought to adjust our expectations about what "peace" means!
Let's face it, a wild camp needs quite a bit of additional kit (both in weight and volume) than a normal outdoor day. Sleeping equipment , in particular, is big and bulky and whilst the Little Chaps are quite keen to start carrying their own bag, anything beyond the day's biscuit ration has a serious impact on speed and therefore limits how far into the wild you can actually go. Anyway, I don't have a rucksack that big.
Walking is not the answer. But canoeing is!!
We hit on this idea a couple of years ago and went on our first family canoe expedition in Sweden. The expedition to paddle the Svartälven was organised through https://bynscamping.se/ which is run by an English chap so conversing to hire the canoe and arrange transport was straightforward. We paddled for 4 days, in a near constant 11ish degrees, grey cloud cover and a few heavy showers but this didn't put us off. The scenery was lovely, the paddling was easy with a few short portages (walking the boat bits) and the definite highlight, particularly for the Little Chaps, was spending the last night camping on our own little island. We saw one other couple in 4 days although failed to spot an otter (that is probably to do with that "peace" thing!).
Note the use of the word "canoe" not "canoes". We hired a 17 (possibly 18) foot canoe that had plenty of space for the four of us and all our gear and was easily paddled by 2 people (the boys had paddles, we just spent more time paddling back to collect them after being dropped in the lake than they did paddling with them!).
The Little Chaps have grown quite a bit since that trip so we are now a two canoe family, although Thomas is now able to paddle reasonably powerfully to provide very welcome assistance.
So we hatched a new plan to beat the post-pandemic rush on campsites (fully booked everywhere for half term and in Scotland they are operating on reduced capacity as well). Our objective was to paddle Loch Shiel, run the short river at the southern end into Loch Moidart and explore - this is a sea loch but well sheltered from any ocean waves. Four days of paddling and 3 nights camping where-ever looked best come teatime. The plan even involved some friends joining us in their sea-kayak. This would give them something of a speed advantage but at least that would give them the ability to a) escape the noise if they felt the need and b) scout ahead for campsites.
We hired 2 canoes and transport from the guys at https://www.rockhopperscotland.co.uk/, got hold of as many dry bags as we could and set off. Amazingly, given the growth of the Little Chaps, we managed to take pretty much the same amount of kit as we did on our previous expedition so the only additional weight was that of the second boat. There was loads of space in the boats, even enough space for the chaps to curl up and nap (we realised that due to school disruptions, this is the first time this academic year that either of them had done 6 weeks in a row in school!). We did have to invest in a new life jacket and this is the biggest tip we can give for water related activities. A proper life jacket is really much better than a buoyancy aid, helping to keep shocked faces out of the water (which they would be in the event of a capsize or just a fall overboard). These jackets from Jobe are pretty good and the Chaps have found them comfy to wear.
The weather forecast was great, except for a steady South-Westerly wind (our direction of travel for days 1,2 and 3 was South West!). We quickly decided that rafting the canoes together was the sensible choice (NB, you must create a V formation when paddling rafted canoes into waves as this deflects the waves and prevents the boats being swamped) and headed down the loch. Starting at Glenfinnan, we found three great campsites - one on a gravel beach (very comfy to sleep on!), a sandy beach towards the southern end of Loch Shiel and the third by a castle on Loch Moidart. Hired canoe paddles do make brilliant spades for sandcastles built to defend our campsite!
The paddling was technically easy, hindered a bit by the wind and some heavy gusts that almost took us backwards. The river section between the two lochs was a great introduction to moving water for the Little Chaps and great for polishing rusty river-running skills for us. We couldn't get as close to the sea as hoped on Loch Moidart (wind, waves and tide combined to make paddling a canoe raft a little tricky) but we did manage to see some seals who came over to inspect the noisiest boat on the loch! The last day was supposed to be an easy down-wind paddle to the pick up point (we started the day running the boats solo) but a change in wind direction and the local wind-funnelling effect meant this was a bit of an upwind rafted-up slog to end the expedition.
After returning the boats, we spent a few nights wild camping in the van near to Morar and explored the coastline.
It's a lovely bit of coast with great water quality and is a brilliant place to sea-kayak and that is definitely something that has got us thinking about plans for the future and a new paddling adventure...
Superb post, Andy - I am green with envy, and more than a bit inspired 👍👍👍