Autumn is upon us in Scotland...

Of course, it's an obvious thing at this time of the year. How many times we look out through the window, seeing rain, wind, etc and thinking 'naaa, not today'.

Is it still worth then trying to explore the outdoors? Of course it is! Just get some thinking on the go, which of the outside activities would be the most useful that day. Nights are also coming fast now, in Scotland. Hey, this mean we started doing night kayak trips! Truly great fun, specially when finished with a nice campfire, marshmellows and tea...

So here, below, some hopefully motivational photos, all taken in the last 10 days in Blairgowrie, Perthshire area. Fancy learning more abut any of these destinations, or maybe trying it yourself? We are guiding all year round, get in touch: www.outdoorexplore.org.uk

Campfire after night kayaking

Walking on Cateran Trail, Forter Castle area

River Isla, near Coupar Angus

Autumn walk near Bridge of Cally

Hidden loch near Blairgowrie

Loch Tummel

Enjoying the sun, in November!

Misty day walking Blairgowrie

River Ericht - lower section

It is not a secret, I moved to Blairgowrie priorly to be closest possible to the River Ericht. It upper sections, which I am visiting for years now I think are one of the nicest places to white water kayak in UK.

Yesterday was time to explore the lower section of the river. We started a bit down from the Blairgworie's road bridge, at the river right. Weather was quite warm, no major rain for couple of days now, with the water level (on SEPA gauge for Ericht @Craighall) 0.8. Standard spring, low-ish water level.

The whole stretch, till Coupar Angus, is about 11km long. First few are not giving you much time to warm up. You are straight away going through small rapids, plenty of meanders and you must navigate swiftly at time to avoid strainers. Inbetween, still near Blairgowrie, you should have a rest where water flow is gentle. Observe local beavers!

After 45 minutes we reached Kitty Swanson's bridge. It's being re-build now so probably when you will visit it will look different. It is also a good landscape and river changing moment. No more awaits from now on, only nice meanders. Also surrounding forest disappeared allowing you to enjoy the views of nearby Glens.

Soon also, 15 minutes further from the bridge, you should rich a confluence with the River Isla, from your left. Despite two rivers joining the flow is very slow now allowing time to gentle paddle, relax and enjoy the last stretch of the river. You will find here, mostly on the right, number of good spots for wild camping, away from fishermen, public and any roads or paths.

Coupar Angus bridge is impossible to be missed, with good egress points on both sides but better parking place for your car on the river left.
Overall Lower Ericht is a hidden gem of East Perthshire. You can truly enjoy your canoeing experience here and hopefully you will be back again. I know I will.

If you would like to try it or know more, just get in touch, happy o help:
info@outdoorexplore.org.uk 07904 324102 www.outdoorexplore.org.uk

Classic canoe skills on the River Ericht

River Ericht, East Perthshire is definitely my favorite canoe and kayak venue in this part of the country. Despite I mainly discovered the upper section and it's tributes when doing white water kayaking I think, the river is fantastic for touring too.

Blairgowrie, town located only 25min north from Dundee & Perth, provides great access and egress points to the river. You can also find free car parks, near the river, great places to eat, stay over night or have a refreshing pint after a great journey.

River Ericht has been a soul of this town for many, many years, helping to run the mills and bringing wealth and fame to Blairgowrie. Now all the mills are long time gone and the river is well under valued.

I am hoping to change it. Using the lower section of the river, starting near Tesco/Welton Industrial Estate, you can travel down and join River Isla, then River Tay and in 2-3 days time of mellow journey you can ended up in Broughty Ferry! This trip is really worth doing.

In the last few years a settlement of beavers is keeping well in Blairgowrie, which you might see if like getting up early. Few shallow parts of the river will be also


perfect for your canoe poling or lining skills. When you will reach River Isla, you can turn back again, creating a great full day of classic, trad, canoe skills. Otherwise you may want to stop by the road bridge near Coupar Angus. From there you could carry on for an hour or two and just before joining River Tay, there is another good access/egress point on the road A93.

So as you can see, this location and it's venue you can use in number of time, combing differently aimed trips and never get bored. Plenty of wildlife and fantastic view around will be a nice top up to a really good water features which you might expect. All access/egress points are very close so it's easy to shuttle, means more time for the journey. If you struggle with the shuttle, or wish to get more info (maps, borrow boats/kit, see more pictures) just get in touch. I am as always happy to help.

info@outdoorexplore.org.uk 

Kayak in your area, expect to be surprised.

How many of us always dreams or travels far away to explore some great places?
How many of us can see lochs (lakes), rivers, some sea on the daily basis, from home, work but never bother to explore it?

I was always a keen believer that beside great places to see somewhere far away there is always something interesting nearby.
Here it is my Easter, local travel story;

Loch Clunie, located just 5 miles west of Blairgowrie, the largest town in Perthshire.
Not many local folk is even interested in this venue anymore. Fair play, during the summer place is not managed at all, number of litter left by members of the public is spoiling the reputation of this venue.

Nevertheless thanks to my friend's information I have found out lots about the history relevant to the loch. If you explore Loch Clunie you will be exploring some of Scotlands oldest history. On the shore there are remnants of an old castle, once used by Kenneth MacAlpin, the first king of Scotland. The small island is actually man made and was used as a crannog with another castle built on it.

During the Easter time, just past, I have decided to take my family and friends to show them this well undervalued place. I think the pictures, some attached here (more on my Pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.com/o_explore/ ) shows how great little kayak journey we had!

Castles, an inland, great company, peace and quiet at this time of the year and nice views of nearby hills created a really great, 2hrs long journey. I would love to show the place now even more to visiting tourists and living nearby people. There is probably plenty of more hidden gems waiting here to be explored. I am hoping to find them all.

Do you have some great venues like this somewhere close? Feel free to comment it below or email me at info@outdoorexplore.org.uk

Mountain Biking trip on some of the best Scottish routes

What would you choose to do on your short holiday break, when you work in the outdoors?

Outdoor Explore offers kayak tours on lochs, rivers and sea mainly so this time we went mountain biking to Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland with friends from Alyth Cycles (www.alythcycles.co.uk).

If you haven't visited 7 Stanes Mountain Bike centres in Scotland yet, change it! They are really well developed project,, mainly by Forestry Commission. 

Five out of seven centres is in Dumfries & Galloway so it was an obvious choice for four of us to go camping and biking.

We set off from Blairgowrie on Saturday, as work still had to be done in the morning. Straight away we headed off to Kirroughtree. 

AS all these attractions, they are easy to find. Alwyas signposted well, included standard brown road signs, helping you to find the right directions when you are nearby.

Kirroughtree is quite large bike park, which beside great routes has also cafe, bike shop and camp site (closed at this time of the year though). As the day were still short on that day (clock was changing over the next night) we only managed to complete one route. We probably would stay longer but we also had to find somewhere to wild camp, ideally nearby and the weather was horrible; rain and quite cold (3-6 degrees).

Quite luckily we found a great, hidden spot nearby just by the edge of the bay. Even we started to set up the campsite in a pour rain and darkness we managed to have a great BBQ and chilled evening.

Following day was much, much better. Slightly less rain, so it was time for breakfast and hit the road to the next bike park. I do have to mention here a great gift I have been given earlier this year; Kelly Kettle. If you are camping often and would like some hot water to boil quickly, get one! It's a genius, Irish idea of boiling water on mini fire. I had 1.5l of water boiled in under 4 minutes, in the rain, using only two 'tweeks' of silver birch! Amazing, in my opinion.

So anyway, next bike park, Dalbeattie. Much less car park infrastructure but still done to a high standard. There is a toilet block and nearby cafe if needed. Tracks are much more 'rustic'. Plenty of single tracks, through the narrow forest and with great views whilst riding on the nearby hills. Again, place worth visiting. 

And at the end even sun came out! So a really good, very active and extremely short weekend.

To top it up, we headed off to Kippford, where an Anchor pub serves superb meals for not to much money! You really should head over there when you are in the area.

Once more, short, active breaks are amazing. Completing a challenging trip when you think there is no time for a 'proper' holiday is really worth doing. You might be exhausted on Monday at work, after driving 400 miles, riding in two bike parks, wild camping in cold March and cleaning all the gear at 6.00am before going back to work but at least you have amazing stories to tell...

Till the next time then

www.outdoorexplore.org.uk

www.alythcycles.co.uk

 

Spring, sea kayak season 'is open'

So here we are again.

Spring time, 20th March, we decided to have our first sea kayak trip at our nearest location, Broughty Ferry.

Just by coincident, it was a day to observe an eclipse, whats a bonus. I was glad sun kept clouds away and the trip was an amazing success. We set off, from the beach, by the castle at 8.30am. It was a LW time. We crossed the Firth of Tay first and follow the southern shore to the sea.
Throughout the trip we had minimal amount of wind and waves making this trip extremely pleasant. It really didn't feel like it's real. As we have been exposed to the sun all morning, moment of darkness was not as obvious as you would expect. Nevertheless, it was great to kayak during the eclipse.

All journey took us around two hours, of pleasant paddling with a little bit of tidal race on the way back. We have been very lucky with the weather, which resulted with few nice pictures (see samples below). If you ever fancy trying sea kayaking, get in touch. Our email is info@outdoorexplore.org.uk

Great wildlife near Dundee & Perth - another kayak trip completed

Classic trip, from Perth to Broughty Ferry completed. Nearly 40km distance but if you count your time right and use the benefit of tide in the River Tay it takes only up to 7 hrs. We did in two half days with a great wild camp in the middle. Trip worth doing!

We were lucky and as a small enough group,permited to access river at Perth Sailing Club grounds. Very polite people even allowed us to put our car on their grounds. If you considering taking a bigger group or regular trips, use SCA access point instead, in Perth.

River is nice and mellow, but be aware that during the high water quite large ships might be travelling up and down here as well, going to Perth Port!
Leaving Perth you already can see first two out of five castles you will be lucky to view during the trip. There is also number of herons living around here so trip is enjoyable straight from the beginning.

After River Earn joins us from the right keep your map handy. There is a lot of sand banks and overgrown river edges. Make sure you stick to the main channel, otherwise you might get lost, stuck or just simply slowed down. Worth checking what each water buoy means and how should you behave when other water crafts are passing by.



Newburgh is a lovely small town, worth stopping by. For those who don't have 7hrs spare, could be a good start point of the trip. From now on you will see Dundee at the horizon. Plenty of abandoned houses on the right bank. Left bank is way to overgrown to access the land.
Shortly after passing town we have spotted first seal!

We decided to stop 2-3 miles down from town. Stony beach but comfortable enough and plenty of drift wood. Keep your fires under good control! This summer there is way to many large fires initiated by disposal BBQs. I know, I am a firefighter too!

Soon sunset was absolutely amazing. It was also a bit windy, so no midges as of yet. Two sea otters came out of the water and walk near us, ignoring the world around, to their hidden settlement. Then five herons as a group flew by, heading East. More seals can be seen not far, settling for the low tide on the river's sand banks. What's an evening...and all of it with Dundee in the distance. How many of folks living there doesn't even relies about this great spot we are in.

Morning welcomed us with no wind, so classic midges waited for us. Thousands of them, so it took maybe 10 minutes to pack up and go. Breakfast, we decided, will be eaten on the water :)

Completely flat conditions maintained all the way to Tayport! We paddled against tide, but because of this great weather it only took us 4 hrs from camp site to Broughty Ferry beach! Pictures taken in this conditions (see link to them below) are probably one of the best I ever took!

Seals. I can't finish without saying how lucky we were that day. We started trip when water was still low. Before approaching Tay Rail Bridge, we passed by a sand beach with 20 - 30 seals relaxing in the early day sun. When we arrived to them, quietly, they all went on the water at once. We waited when suddenly they started to appear near us just curiously looking at us and diving here and there. They are massive animals but staying a safe distance from us. Fantastic experience we had , which lasted nearly 20 minutes. Then some of them followed even us for a while...Loved it!

Who wouldn't enjoy such trip? But there is more to it and also plenty more to see, so get in touch! Join us for our next venture or propose your one, we will arrange it all for you!

Contact: info@outdoorexplore.org.uk

Link to pictures:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/107970469148549274301/albums/6041715116301347009