The miles were ticking down as we wound our way towards northern Scotland. We were excited about our next adventure but there was a problem: forecast after forecast predicted an opposing wind direction for our coast-to-coast journey. It was becoming increasingly clear that if our upcoming expedition was left as ‘Plan A’, the group would arrive at Loch Ness facing an untenable wind in their faces and with 26 miles to build up – some serious waves. So as the van, with canoes atop and support boat behind, ticked off the miles north, the laptop was put to work reversing the whole trip to work with the predicted northerlies and stay clear of the dangerously high winds on Loch Ness. Plan A had failed to make it to first contact.
The Great Glen is a 60-mile cleft stretching from Fort William in the west to Inverness on the east Coast. The glen typically lines up perfectly with the prevailing south-westerly winds but not this week. Traversing the glen is a wild and beautiful way of crossing from coast to coast aboard a canoe – mostly in large lochs stitched together by a canal.
Our adventurers this year were a bunch of great fun, adventurous, silly and occasionally rude-minded paddlers. Two of whom are also wheelchair users who have paddled or canoe sailed with us before.
Thus we found ourselves at the lovely accommodation of SYHA Glen Nevis -completely the wrong end of the Glen from our chosen north easterly transit direction. Such is the nature of best-laid plans and the inflexibility of train travel for our non-driving clients.
Fortunately, the disability adventure specialists are a close-knit community and our friends from Able to Adventure (Nethy Bridge) quickly stepped in at short notice to move everyone from the new endpoint to the new start point, neatly allowing the vehicles to be in the right place to finish.
The next morning, after a breakfast of toast and beans, we were winding our way to the new start point at Inverness. There is nothing better to increase the trepidation for a group than to drive the route passing lochs, castles and mountains. There is no choice but to appreciate the length and sheer challenge of what has been signed up to.
The group arrived at Inverness and visited the end of the canal to mark their departure from the sea of the east coast with a promise to revisit the salt water of the west.
Four travellers turned and walked or wheeled away from the shore. They traced the line of the inner basin and short canal section that leads to the first lock gate ladder that leverages the energy of falling water to lift boats to the heights needed to access the lochs.
The team met the canoes just after the lock ladder, as canoes cannot use the locks and need to portage around them – they are too small and risk being swamped in the powerful eddies that mark the water entering the lock chamber. Typically a paddler would have to carry their canoe around each gate they come to but we had a cunning plan. “Freedom”, our accessible powerboat,is allowed through the locks and can tow the canoes to assist those who could not easily portage their boat.
“Freedom” is our key tool for enabling our groups, and she had four important jobs on this trip:
- Transporting the canoes through the locks
- Guaranteeing that we will arrive at the known accessible camping spots by towing the group where needed
- Acting as a portable, accessible toilet with privacy
- Providing a safe water rescue platform – float aboard rather than haul out
The team members had paddled or sailed with us previously, so it was a relatively simple matter to set up the boats with the right level of supportive seating for their needs. We also deployed our outrigger floats and chose our 17-foot canoes to provide plenty of buoyancy and stability. This helps greatly as the supportive seating some of the paddlers with mobility impairments chose to use raises the height of the original canoe seating, making the paddler more comfortable but more top-heavy in the canoe.
And then we were off along the still water of the canals from the city, to the outskirts and into the open countryside. Through swing bridges and reeds to the first set of intermediate lock gates at Dornoch and our camp spot for the night. Much of the route is served by excellent canal-side camp spots with fresh water, flat ground and accessible toilets.
Dornoch is the gateway to Loch Ness and the following morning, we were ready for our first day of tackling Loch Ness. Now the trick with long-distance paddling is to avoid paddling at all! Opportunities typically for this top tip are created by choosing a downwind direction and sailing a big A frame sail. This year the winds were contrary to the norm (and the forecast) and blowing across the desired direction of travel but we had a trick up
our sleeves – our lateen sails. Lateens allow for a ‘proper’ sail shape and thus allowed everyone to sail quickly across the wind – it’s a bit exciting and takes some skill but at least one member of each canoe crew, had sailed with us before which made this easier.
It was still a long day with fluky and awkward winds which caused one accidental capsize from the canoes. This meant we made use of the powerboat to quickly recover our swimmer (we think they were just keen to get a closer look at Nessie) and also to make our evenings camp with a tow for the final few miles.
This night was spent at a campsite and we enjoyed the advantage of having a vehicle-based support crew – arriving to find our dinner already cooked.
Day 2 (day 3 of the trip) on the longest body of water in Britain saw the wind fill in and come around, so we got some truly exhilarating sailing into the low autumn afternoon sun. Arriving at Fort Augustus for a night in the lovely Morag’s Lodge, we had a pile of ‘neeps and tatties’ big enough to feed a lake monster.
Fort Augustus locks are closed in the afternoon: so it was an early start the next day to tow the canoes through to Loch Oich where we set out for our chosen camp venue looking over the lower half of Loch Oich. We had a beautiful wild camp, with just enough breeze and smoke from the
campfire to let us enjoy the falling sunlight midge free. In the morning, the wind was against us so we elected to create one catamaran with our two canoes and use this to punch through the headwinds.
Loch Oich leads to Loch Lochy where we met near stand-still headwinds – this week was the worst wind conditions we have seen on the Great Glen. Facing paddling into the darkness, we chose to finish off with a cold and rough tow through the waves to the locks. This is the only lochside camp where the accessible facilities were on the ‘wrong’ side of the water from camp but we coped well – had we needed to to use it, we had a portable accessible toilet with us.
The final day of the expedition is on the canals leading to Neptune’s Staircase. This is a steep series of locks leading down to the west coast of Scotland and where the paddling ended. We made our way down the last stretch of canal side by foot or chair to the sea on the west coast 60 miles from where we started our journey on the east coast.
6 days of challenge, laughter, comradeship, and silliness.
Join the next trip
2023’s Great Glen Journey will be the 11th – 18th of September 2023 arriving and departing from Fort William.
In terms of accessibility, to join the open trip you must be able to:
- Mobility: Self-transfer between seats of different heights, manage your own personal needs (or bring an assistant), sit in an adaptive seat for long periods of time.
- Cognition: Understand instructions and reliably follow them.
- Communication: Receive vocal instructions without reliance on signs (or bring an interpreter)
- Sensory impairment: There are no visual requirements (we can facilitate any level of vision impairment)
About Anyone Can
Anyone Can is an adventure specialist that provides challenging, remote and engaging adventures in the UK and beyond. Our ethos is to design experiences to maximise inclusivity for people with a range of specific needs or none. As well as creating an itinerary with accessible camps, choosing big boats and stabilisation, carrying a suitable portable toilet, running a support boat and having land support as mentioned in the article, we also have accessible tents, raised sleeping facilities, lead back sailing controls, raised cooking facilities and a roll-out ramp that aids us in making the venues accessible to our clients.
Anyone Can provide sailing, climbing, canoeing and caving adventures which are always adapted up and never toned down.
WWW.ANYONECAN.UK / 01539 310 041 / Info@anyoneCan.uk
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