Page 107 - WishStream Year of 2023

Exercise CALEDONIAN CANOE
OCdt Runeckles
Ex CALEDONIAN CANOE was an Adventure Training Expedition during the winter recess with the aim of canoeing approximately 100km
along the Caledonian Canal from Fort William to Inverness, with wild camping along the way. We set off from RMAS early, the day after the Sover- eign’s Parade in order to make it up to Fort William. After 12 and a half hours, we arrived and met up with our instructor, WO1 Founds RAMC (Jamie). We finalised plans and got an early night ahead of our first day of canoeing.
We began from Banavie Locks, only a short day to begin with (10km) along a section of the canal to Gairlochy Locks. Jamie gave us some introduc- tory lessons on how to set up the canoes and the paddle strokes to help us steer. After a few early crashes we got the hang of things. The weather was pretty bad with relentless rain but the dry suits we had on kept us nice and warm and importantly kept the morale up. The bad weather did, however, provide us with some good wind to try our hand at canoe sailing and we made the
distance to Gairlochy Locks in good time.
Wewokeupearlyonday3toget ourselves ready and cook breakfast so we could be out on the water for sunrise as we had a much longer day, roughly 20km to Laggan Locks and crossing Loch Lochy.
tions meant it would have been too difficult to cross Loch Ness. Loch Lochy being a much smaller loch than Loch Ness had provided us with some chal- lenging conditions and, with even stronger winds forecast, it wouldn’t have been safe to attempt to cross at our current skill level and experience. We enjoyed a camp meal that evening of pasta, pesto and chorizo before retiring to our tents to get some well-earned sleep.
Day 4 was to be our final day of canoeing from Laggan Locks to Fort Augustus. We set off, canoe- ing down a length of the canal and having another
After packing up camp and having breakfast, we hit the water and Jamie took the opportunity to teach us some capsize drills and how to recover a cap- sized canoe after Mr Douglass decided to fall into the water almost immediately after setting off. We were quickly out onto Loch Lochy, one of the big- ger lochs along the Caledonian Canal route with some stunning scenery. The weather again gave us the opportunity to get sails up and do some more canoe sailing. We pulled up on the banks of the Loch for some lunch and for a quick lesson on navigation while canoeing from Jamie.
We were greeted by a rainbow as we arrived in Laggan Locks and set up camp. Unfortunately, at this point we had to make the decision to cut the trip short at Fort Augustus as the weather condi-
We were disappointed not to be able to complete the full distance to Inverness but nevertheless had enjoyed 3 days of canoeing and wild camping and learnt a great deal from our instructor, Jamie.
The general feeling was that the expedition had been a success despite it being cut short. We were able to adapt and overcome the challenges that came our way, mainly the poor weather conditions, to deliver an enjoyable and challenging AT expe- dition, learning lots of new skills and all meeting the requirements for our O2F Canoe qualification. Thank you very much to the Sandhurst Trust for providing us the funding to make our end of term AT Exped possible.
The general feeling was that the expedition had been a success despite it being cut short
lesson from Jamie, this time some more technical canoeing strokes to improve steering and control. We reached Loch Oich, a much smaller Loch than Loch Lochy but with equally beautiful scenery. After crossing Loch Oich, we canoed along another stretch of canal reaching our final point at Fort Augustus.
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