Mountains by Canoe: Glen Affric

[Music] this is the story of my solo journey by canoeing on foot through the remote wilderness of glen afric in the northwest highlands of scotland [Music] this glenn is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful in the country it's home to an important remnant of the ancient pine forest that once covered much of the scottish highlands this is a land of forest loch river bog and mountain my goal was to journey up through the glen over the course of several days to ultimately climb one of the great remote and inaccessible mountains of scotland two weeks earlier i just finished working on the dissertation for a part-time degree i'd been doing for almost 10 years with that submitted i now yearned for a trip to the mountains to renew my soul and to hit the reset button the plan for this trip was to canoe the two locks in the glen first loch bennevane and then lock africa i would then stash my canoe and continue on foot along the african tail way one of scotland's best long distance footpaths this would take me to the upper reaches of the glen where i aim to climb skurn and caravan a remote and hard to get to mountain much prized by hill walkers and mountaineers so on tuesday morning i threw my gear in the van put my canoe on the roof and made the journey from my home in dunbar in southeast scotland to the scottish highlands [Music] so [Music] the weather forecast for the next few days was for mostly fine weather interspersed with the occasional front that would bring cloudier and potentially wetter weather by the time i reached the western end of the loft the first of those fronts had come through an ominous sign of what i would experience later in the trip i now faced my first major challenge in the form of the river that connects the two locks outflanking this obstacle required a grueling five-hour portage through the surrounding forest i was eventually able to relaunch on loch afric itself she [Music] as i approached the western end of loch afric the front passed and the weather cleared giving me a pleasant evening [Music] do [Music] do [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'd now paddled as far as i reasonably could so i stashed my non-essential and my paddling gear under my canoe taking only a light pack i set off on foot up the glen to complete my journey to the mountain so [Music] [Music] as i reached the ridge that would lead me to my destination it began to rain the next weather front was coming through i was now in a race against time to get up the mountain and down to the loch where i plan to spend the night [Music] my spirits lifted as i finally got scientific skewer down caravan my ultimate goal and after another hour of walking i arrived at the east summit of the mountain [Music] the weather was deteriorating fast and i knew i needed to get down to my camp as quickly as possible i stopped to film only once on my descent down the ridge but now i could see the lock far down below me [Music] as the evening drew in it started to pour down in earnest and i fell asleep to the sound of rain on my temp the next morning the weather had not improved i ate a hasty breakfast and broke camp my goal now was to head over the west summit of the mountain back down to glen africa on reaching the west summit i marveled at the sensation of being above the clouds and the views across to the east summit that i'd climbed the previous evening was simply sublime the challenge now would be to descend the southern flank of the mountain through the cloud layer to reach the glen this would need good navigation and a steady nerve it was with some relief that i broke through the clouds and saw the glen below me the bright ribbon of the river afric seeming to guide me down the conditions in the glen were a world away from what i'd experienced up on the mountain and i took the time to eat a leisurely second breakfast before setting off back down the glen to be reunited with my paddling gear the increased winds brought by the change in the weather had whipped up some significant waves on the loft which would make paddling more difficult i lashed down my gear in the canoe and changed into my kayaking wetsuit just in case i experienced the cap size [Music] [Music] by keeping close to shore and ducking in and out of bays i was able to safely negotiate the conditions [Applause] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] as with most multi-day trips of this kind starting out on the last leg of the journey was a bittersweet experience one half of me looking forward to being home and seeing my family and the other half not wanting to leave this place these thoughts came to me as i paddled the last few miles of the lock and they reminded me of the words of the late great kazakh mountaineer anatoly bukriv the mountains are not stadiums where i satisfy my ambition to achieve they are the cathedrals where i practice my religion from their lofty summits i view the past dream of the future and with unusual acuity i am allowed to experience the present moment my strength renewed my vision cleared in the mountains i celebrate creation for on each journey i am reborn [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Gwilym Morrison

Views: 6,023

Keywords: glen affric, canoe camping, wild camping, scottish highlands, loch affric, canoe trip, wild camp, canoe trip camping, scottish highlands 4k, glen affric wild camping, loch affric munros, loch affric wild camping, hiking scotland, canoe camping trip, glen affric munros, solo hiking scotland, hiking scotland highlands, wild camping scotland

Id: BR9gvDH1ZUo

Length: 16min 30sec (990 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 26 2022