Day 4- The long awaited portage

More mellow about the day by now

Happy to start the day

The wind had died a little so we managed to cross the loch and finally get stuck into our portage, the streams had flooded a little so we were able to pull the canoe along which was pretty easy and the most fun part of the day. We managed to get into the first connecting loch and we paddled around that to our next stream, this one was definitely not big enough so it was more dragging. After dragging the canoe up and over a smallish bump into the next little loch we knew this would be the theme for the day, not much of a fun prospect. This carried on for the rest of the day and it was certainly not flat, it was a gentle incline for most of the day which wasn’t too bad if you were just carrying our bags but when you have 15ft canoe life gets a little awkward not to mention the occasionally hail and rain spurts we were getting. It was quite bizarre and sinister as we could see the weather fronts coming so we knew based on the cloud colour and the brightness behind it when we were going to get rained on again and that it would soon pass, much better than any forecast when you can actually see the clouds coming for you.  

The first of many lumps to conquer

On our map the portage was just short of a 2km distance but ferrying the stuff then the canoe took a bit of time, as we couldn’t drag the canoe with all of our gear- the food barrel weighed a ton!! It took us most of the day (we broke camp around 10am and got to the other lake at around half 4ish) so it was a good workout and definitely sweaty. I’m proud we did it though, I’m not particularly strong and neither is Izzy and we managed that keep going pretty well and to paddle into strong winds when we finally got onto Loch Sionasgaig.

We went from th top loch into the wiggly stream into the first loch then into Na Tri Lochan then basically followed that round to Creag na h-lolaire were it was a tug over to Creag Sionasgaig  which fed into the loch...... so pretty simple

So after a “controlled” descent down the hill to the lake (we realised the height we had actually gained, about 200m which is a lot with all of our stuff) we set off and it was relatively still and just so great to be paddling not pulling……. Until the wind picked up as we got around the corner into the main lake and we were paddling straight into some substantial winds. Being the stern paddler (in the back) I tried to keep us into the wind to avoid being capsized by side on waves but we wanted to head left around the loch so when a few waves sloshed over the side I was not happy. We ended up ‘pulling over’ and we got ourselves camped up around a bump relatively out of the wind on a spot that looked deceptively comfy. But of course it was not, probably the MOST uncomfortable spot of the whole trip for Izzy mostly I just got squished by her.

Chuffed with this, we came from the lake and this wasn't even half way to Sionasgaig

Dinner was made and sleeping bags set out, if I remember correctly it was stir fry that night which was well deserved and so tasty!! we buckled down to sleep and deciding to carry on with the paddle round Sionasgaig and into Loch an Doire Dhuibh below Stac Pollaigh the next day. When I sleep I mean curl around the edge of my mat as a certain someone invades my side but no matter she put up with my whining during the portage so I suppose she deserved a little space (yes that is what I’m going with, I took the mick of her in the morning for good measure though).

First day of sustained sunshine