Updates

We landed in Scrabster after 11 days of some of the best canoeing I have ever experienced. The scenery has been spectacular, the weather gave us clear blue skies, sometimes with strong winds. At times we have felt very small and humble in huge racing swell with waves breaking. There were times I was just waiting for one of these to get us! And on a couple of occasions they did but with good buoyancy (we have 8 airbags and 3 barrels of various sizes in the boat) and Davis and I bailing, we quickly emptied and pressed on.  Turning Cape Wrath was a major milestone in our journey so far.  We had been informed that the military training range was in use until 11.30 and we couldn’t go round until then.  The problem was the tide changed

When I decided to circumnavigate Britain in an open canoe, I knew I had to make sure I had the right tools for the job. The first thing to do was to choose the right canoe. I already had a 17ft Old Town Penobscot which by that time I’d used on a number of trips including the circumnavigation of Anglesey, but for an expedition of this magnitude I wanted something with a bit more room for gear and that wasn’t going to take on quite as much water in rough conditions. In June 2015, I met Ray Goodwin and I told him about my plan. We got talking about different boats and Ray let Katrina and I have a play in his We-No-Nah Rogue. This is a 16 foot Royalex boat that feels huge due

Welcome to the Canoe Around Britain Blog... This blog has been set up so that you can follow Colin Skeath and Davis Gould-Duff on their attempt to circumnavigate the British Mainland in a Open Canoe. Colin and Davis will be setting off on this adventure in the morning of 30th April 2017 from Strontian on Loch Sunart on the West Coast of Scotland. They would love to see you there to wave them off on their travels!  And if you'd like to make a few days of it, then Sunart Camping offer great facilities - http://www.sunartcamping.co.uk/ This blog currently contains write ups on some of Colin and Davis's previous adventures, and over the next few months we hope to be able to update with how the preparation for "The Big Trip" is going. In the meantime

Two hours sleep before a big trip… what was I thinking? It had been Jamie and Flo’s wedding; an event we didn’t want to miss. So we went to the reception at Fort William, offered our congratulations and then left for Loch Insh from where we were going to start our journey. We set off at 04:00 on Sunday morning and headed into River Spey aboard our trusty 17’ Penobscot, loaded with Solway Dory expedition sailing rigs, camping gear and enough food for 5 days. The concept of the trip was borne in a conversation 12 months previously when Ray Goodwin spoke of doing the Spey in a Day and the Caledonian Canal in a day. Inspired by this I studied the relevant maps and charts and reckoned that the 50 mile ‘Missing Link’ along

Five days previously, Davis, my 23 year old nephew from County Clare Ireland, had next to zero canoeing experience. However, in the few days leading up to our adventure, Greg Spencer and his family joined us in Strontian and put Davis through some intense training on Loch Sunart. Over 4 days, Davis spent around 20 hours in a boat. Greg really put him through his paces, practicing solo paddling, canoe sailing and many, many self-rescues in F5-6 conditions. It has to be said that Davis was a natural in a canoe. That, coupled with his extensive mountaineering background and fitness as a triathlete, I had no doubts about his ability to cope with our planned adventure. Davis and I set off at 11:15am on Thursday 23rd July 2015 from just west of the Skye Bridge