An adventure across Scottish seas

Pupils embrace a sea kayaking challenge 

This summer, 10 Year 12 pupils enjoyed a sea kayaking trip along the Scottish coastline. Tackling new challenges and finding a strong sense of adventure, Year 12 pupil, Sam, shares his experience of a truly unforgettable trip. 

We started our journey up to Scotland with a ‘short’ 9-hour journey, where we stopped in Oban to look at the boats which were taking part in the race across the world, which was a unique sight for us all. We then carried on with the final part of our journey, arrived at our campsite and pitched our tents before we had our first experience of truly taking in the Scottish countryside, looking out across the sea which we would be kayaking on the next day.  

The next morning, after everyone’s shock at the 6-4 England result, we packed down our tents and put our kit into dry bags before meeting our kayaking instructors, Kenny and Phil, and choosing the kayaks we would be using over the next three days.  

We all had to make the conscious decision of what we actually needed, and not just wanted, as there was limited space in the kayaks. These decisions looked something like: how little clothes we could bring to allow space for as much food as possible? After we all fully packed our kayaks, we donned our dry suits and spray decks to aid us in staying as dry as possible. We then set off on our first day kayaking.  

Kayaking mainly against the current to begin with caused some of the less experienced kayakers to struggle, but they quickly overcame this with the guidance of both Phil and Kenny. This was vital as we had to push hard to beat our 2 o’clock deadline; if we were even five minutes later, the tide would’ve been far too low for us to kayak through and we would’ve had to get out and carry our kayaks, which would’ve been suboptimal for the entire group. We managed to push through and beat the tide, making it through the necessary sections.  

Once we had finished our short stop for lunch, we were taught the proper technique for a 4-man carry – a lifting technique used to transport heavy, fully loaded kayaks over difficult terrain.  With the proper technique taught, we were able to quickly and safely get our kayaks back in the water, and we set off again.  

After more kayaking, we reached our first wild campsite. We set up our tents and cooked our dinner consisting of couscous (which several people had never eaten before) and sausage. After dinner, we had time to look out at the setting sun and take in the awe-inspiring surroundings. We then set up a fire, with the use of Kenny’s foldable saw, to crowd around and discuss how much we all enjoyed our first day. We also watched the World Cup final (with the aid of Mr Lightfoot’s phone!) and settled in for our first night of wild camping.  

The following morning, we mostly woke up within a reasonable time, with some people sleeping through their alarms. We all decided that we wanted breakfast, which is when we realised that none of us had picked up any of the breakfast foods. So, we had to make do with what we had – mainly custard creams! We packed the campsite down and did a sweep of the area to make sure that it wasn’t even noticeable that we were ever there. We then rigged our kayaks back up ready for the day ahead.  

This day was far more relaxed as we were kayaking with the current, meaning we had more time to view the sea life of the area. We saw things such as sea urchins, which we were able to hold, many species of birds, especially the herons, as well as different species of jellyfish, with the biggest being the lion’s mane jellyfish. However, we did still have some challenging sections. When we were all challenged by Kenny to kayak back up the channel we’d just come through against a heavy current, we all took it seriously and gave it our all, racing back up to see who would be victorious. This then perfectly tired us out just in time for lunch.  

After several more hours of kayaking, we reached our next campsite. The main difference to the last was the fact that this one had a sandy beach. After getting our kayaks out of the water and stripping ourselves of our dry suits, we ran into the sea. We were immediately shocked by the cold temperatures of the water, but we quickly acclimatised to it. We then settled in for the night and prepared for our final day of kayaking.  

Much to our dismay, we had already come to the final day of kayaking. We packed up and set off at the same time as the day before. The final day was certainly the most challenging as the waves were considerably higher. Whilst this made it far more fun for us, it did, in fact, lead to us being drenched by the high waves. Moreover, we were placed in rows of three, which showed us the true effects and strength of the currents, as people were sent off in varying directions, which they then had to work through to hold the formation.  

Our final stretch in the kayaks was by far the hardest part of the whole experience as we had to stay tight to the coastline because the current was incredibly strong the further you go. Under the guidance of Kenny and Phil, we were able to make it back to our original campsite to unpack our kit and return the kayaks. We were all massively grateful to Kenny and Phil as, without them, we would not have been able to do this experience; their knowledge was irreplaceable, and they helped all of us massively. We were all sad to be done with the kayaking as we all thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Once we had arrived at our hostel, and after our Tesco click and collect order arrived, a few of us offered to make dinner for the group, making sausage pasta which was devoured very quickly. We then settled in for the night as we had a large walk the next day.  

After a breakfast of hot dogs, we prepared our hiking bags for our walk. We climbed two Munros but saw little to no view as it was extremely cloudy at the top. It was most certainly worth it and not a day wasted, however. We then got picked up in the minibus and taken back to the hostel, where we enjoyed a chippy with a Scottish twist as we all tried some haggis from the chip shop. After our chippy, we settled in with some playing card games and some completing a puzzle, which was a fantastic end to a brilliant trip. 

Sitting on the minibus back, I can confidently say, on behalf of everyone, that this has been an unforgettable experience and one that we will all treasure deeply; it has strengthened our bonds with each other, with many laughs shared with everyone that we met along the trip.