Rannoch moor Canoe Crossing

January 2025 - Myself (Liam Green) & Emy McLeod were lucky enough to have some time off during a warm spell in the midst of a classic Scottish winter! With the snow melt filling the rivers and westerly winds in the forecast we decided to paddle from the Loch Ba beside the A82 all the way though to Pitlochry over 3 days.
Conditions were pretty awesome! Just enough water in the rivers to paddle down and some nice westerly winds to sail most of the Lochs.
This trip is well worth the shuttle and the journey! The remoteness and chance to escape the hustle and bustle of the world from the get go on this trip make it incredibly special. There are so many changes throughout the journey, from the tactics used to efficiently move through watershed to the scenery differences as you leave the rugged west coast to the rolling hills and wooded landscape of the east!
Night 1 Camp - Loch Rannoch
Night 2 Camp - Loch Tummel
Boats - Silverbirch Broadland 15 highland & the Hou Canoe Phoenix
Air Bags - Tribal Air Bags
Paddles - VE Offside Canoe 1 glass & 1 Aircore carbon a lovely light powerful paddle
Paddle Kit - Palm Equipment

[@martinoutdoors6941]

Excellent looking trip, surprised and interested on your shuttle journey on the train, did you have to pre-book that?

[@Greenwaveguiding]

@martinoutdoors6941 it was an awsome trip. So we got dropped off at the start after leaving a vehicle in Kingussie. We did originally have a pick up organised but we made good time and it was quicker to send one of us to get a train to kingussie from Pitlochry then come back and grab the canoes while the other kept an eye on the boats and kit :)

[@TheKayakCrew]

Looks like a super trip. Quite a contrast in paddling between the river and the loch. Do you mind me asking what action camera you used?

[@Greenwaveguiding]

@TheKayakCrew it's really great for its constant variety in nature. Keeps you on your toes and excited. Sure it was a combination of the gopro hero 10 & 11. I'd like to get a mic though for better sound

[@TheKayakCrew]

@@Greenwaveguiding It certianly looked fun going down those rapids. i'm a bit of a coward when it comes to rapids 🤣. I use inflatables but was thinking of getting one of those small sails you can attach to the bow when the wind is favourable. Thanks, I have a GoPro7 that I still use but it's quite long in the tooth now. Yeh, audio is always a challenge when out on the water

[@Greenwaveguiding]

@TheKayakCrew the pack raft would be great on this trip. Although interesting in some of the stronger wind gusts I imagine. Yeh it's worth the upgrade and also get the longlife special batteries rather then the standard ones.

[@TheKayakCrew]

@ pack rafts are handy when you need to portage a lot, I probably will add one to my kayak armada this spring. The field of view and picture quality certainly looks better on your GoPros compared to my old GoPro7.