A Walk and some Wise words



The New Years Day Boys Ba' begins with two of my own lads somewhere in the scrum.

 In between the Boys Ba' at Christmas and New Year and the big family meals we got out once in a while for a windy walk to places sometimes visited by kayak.

Boy, dog and wind.

Broch o' Deerness - a sheltered geo often used for a break on the way to or from Mull Head.



Warebeth - the beach in this blog's header photo.

The beaches are covered in tangles (the old kelp washed ashore) that used to be gathered for soap making

Wrecks in the Hoy Sound hint at firece seas and tides encountered hereabouts.

I tried to take a photo of the tide racing through the Sound but my little lens couldn't capture the awesome moving water. As usual the scale and speed of the waves can't be reproduced in still images.

There are some fantastic images of this part of the world in this account of the Big 5 kayak challenge expeditions - No 8. John O'Groats to the Orkney Isles.



Taken with my Olympus Tough

I tried a trick my son had shown me - using binoculars as a lens, but I think it works much better with a phone camera's small aperture.

Watching the tide race through the Sound made me think of videos of Deception Pass and in particular this video of Warren Williamson. Awesome skills which I could never aspire to but prove that it can be done.

Recently I came across these words of Warren Williamson's at USK which describe his disciplined approach to skill development. 

 I hope that in 2011, despite my own slow and incremental learning style,  it is possible to build up the confidence to feel comfortable in moving water of the tamest kind and have a go at 'weaving my' own (modest!) 'basket'.