APPARENTLY LOCH NESS MONSTER 🤔 | GREAT GLEN CANOE CHALLENGE PART 2 | WILD CAMPING | SCOTLAND

Hello and welcome back. Thank you for joining us again. This is part two of our Great Glen Canoe Challenge. Just to recap, we're two and a half days into the challenge and we began at Fort William and have paddled canals, rivers, Loch Lochy and Loch Oik, not forgetting the exciting rapids of the River Oik. And we now find ourselves at the southern entrance to Loch Ness, where the river and the canal flow into the loch. We're at the small town of Fort Augustus and here we meet up with Ginge. Because Ginge had his two dogs with him he took the canal route whilst the rest of us paddled the River Oik. We've all been into town enjoyed some excellent fish and chips and stocked up on supplies. We first need to paddle across the loch to the southern shore which, although in short supply, favours more likely areas for wild camping. I do hope you enjoy the final part of this adventure. In this next video you'll see us paddling hard and sailing and having a really great time. You'll also get the opportunity to meet a few of the adventurers. Welcome aboard and thanks again. Right, we've just left Fort Augustus. We've got Loch Ness ahead for a couple of long paddle days. We'll see what we can do today and I think finding camping spots is going to be one of the more difficult things so we're just going to paddle paddle until we see somewhere suitable. But yep, excuse me fish and chips, we're on our way. Well we're just well into Loch Ness now, amazing views. It's got quite a swell so we're just regrouping at this little pull-in point to decide on a plan of action. Simon unfortunately has taken on a bit of water because I think he had a bash on his canoe in those rapids but looking at him now he's coming in under sail so I think he's done a bit of a repair which is good and will help him do something a bit more permanent tonight if we can. Yep, all going well. It's a funny feeling crossing that water from Fort Augustus because we had to cross right north to south across the whole of the loch and I felt very small for a bit but we went under sail so it was over and done with quite quickly so we're just going to hug the edge for the rest of the canoe and stick as a small group so that we can look after each other if anyone gets into trouble. But yeah, it's working well. We're at the end of day three and we found this little sort of shingly beach to pull up in. Pretty tight for space for various tents but luckily lots of people have got hammocks with them. I've just got a tent with me so I think there's a little area where I can put it but yeah generally it's okay it's just gonna be maybe a little bit of a cosy night and not the most comfortable one for some of us but we'll all muck in and get through the night, have a good time and tomorrow's another day. Such a huge fish and chips for lunch so I think I'm maybe just having some oat cakes and cheese for my tea tonight but you'll never know, I might get hungry later on. I need something more but I've got plenty to eat. Cheese and oat cakes, fantastic. Well I was a little bit apprehensive when we began that crossing from Port Augustus because we had to cross a very wide part of the loch and I was feeling very small and vulnerable and whenever a big cruiser goes past it makes quite a swell and it did make a big difference having Simon with the experience to sort of turn the canoe the correct way because you when you get these waves coming from another bigger boat you could cross them at right angles, impossible and he was doing a really good job of that. I'm really grateful but the whole thing has been such an experience I was really apprehensive about that whitewater today and apparently using Rick as the yardstick he reckons it was a grade two which I think for my first time is a little bit of an achievement so I'll celebrate with a piece of cheese but everyone's sort of settled in now we've got various hammocks, tents and I got my tent and I think we've we've managed to find one of the only suitable places on the side of Loch Ness so all is good. We're all tucked up now it was a really great day I'm just gonna keep my voice down because I know people are trying to sleep but yeah just had an evening by the fire chatting away we had some great trout that had been caught by Matty which is brilliant and looking forward to tomorrow hopefully going to raft up go in pairs with sails with the wind so yeah all it is is Loch Ness now and we'll just try and see how many miles we can get under our belts tomorrow see in the morning. Morning everyone from tent city just all sort of gradually stirring getting breakfast on beautiful day and day four begins I think the idea as I said is to raft up as soon as that wind starts to pick up and make our way down the loch still got a long long way to go it's about a probably about another 23 miles down the loch before we enter the canal for Inverness but all is good so the idea with this is that we get two canoes and we just lash them together using a bit of timber it's important to leave about a two-foot space between the two canoes else you get this channeling of water which can slosh over straight into your canoe which is something I wouldn't have thought about so that's great and yeah we're going to set sail really excited about this is quite a wind blowing in mid loch there's a lot of white water you know sort of white peaks on the waves so with the hug the edge and just see how much headway we can make down the loch yeah great sail we've done five miles in an hour and 20 so it's not bad pace really considering just been using wind power really and a bit of power from the back yeah so lunch stop and we'll keep making progress well all good things must come to an end we ended up getting a sort of wind that came across and then even turned into a headwind so we had to come in and take the sail down because it wasn't something we could just do mid loch and we're just still rafted together and make a bit of headway in saying that and now feeling the wind at the back of my neck again so we might put the sail up again but we'll see well we've had to undo the rafts because it was hard work paddling them rigged together and we just heard from Matty who's now in front saying it's much easier as a singleton so here we are just the two of us again onwards to Inverness long day? Yeah. Well it's the end of day four that was a really hard paddling day we've made our way until we're about let's say four-fifths of the way down Loch Ness and so we're on schedule to finish tomorrow which would be great although it's really really enjoyable we've now pitched up at this great little beachy bit some of the guys have pitched on the sort of Pebble Beach and myself and Simon and Rick actually and Matty have picked this sort of little plateau of grass which is just perfect really. I very quickly got off the canoe and put on some warm clothes because I was holding the sail for about the last half an hour whilst Simon steered and I got quite cold doing it so yeah nice and warm now get the camp set up and get something to eat so tonight is a yellow curry just look at that and the great news about today is that a couple of hours ago we refreshed the just giving page and we have topped the 10,000 pounds mark thank you so much we're just absolutely amazed we're not surprised because everyone's been so generous and we can just tell by the the feeling around this adventure that we're doing that everyone's behind us we're just getting great messages through from Instagram through YouTube just sort of wishing us well along the way people have been following the Garmin link as well and yeah nothing makes us happier than just seeing those donations come in and and just enjoying the support you're giving us and it's helping us along the way it's giving us that sort of real push that you know there have been times where it's not been particularly easy today we had this lovely tailwind which turned in the space of about 10 minutes into a blasting wind in our faces so we had to completely sort of untie the canoes get a sail down and separate and then battle into this headwind for a bit which again it then turned around and helped us but I think today for all of us was it was the hardest paddle but absolutely worth it anyway I'm gonna get on with my meal but thank you either is it just if you do look like just I'm just putting on my yeah my moisturizer now we've got the same hat yeah I go put my glasses on and we look he's not taller than me I'm just standing on a ledge honestly he's smaller than he looks in the videos anyway what have we got to say are you enjoying yourself I'm having a fantastic time what was your favorite part of today part of today apart from dinner which I just thoroughly enjoyed that was good no I've just I've loved smashing Loch Ness yeah we've done some serious miles today yeah it's been good and it's not been easy so that was the good thing so we've at least we've we've pushed ourselves for the charity which is really important absolutely yeah we've got tonight and hopefully we'll push up the canal tomorrow and be ready for you all waiting for us with your wallets open lining the streets of Inverness right I'll see you tomorrow so I'm here with my boat partner and really captain of the ship because I haven't really known very much what I'm doing and I've been extremely grateful for his wisdom and yeah there've been some conditions certainly today and a bit of yesterday where I'd have been a little bit concerned if I was on my own so the baptism of fire on those great great two rapids so we're just doing a little bit of a question and answer one question one answer best part so far of the challenge for you or the challenge yeah that's part of the challenge I like doing the river yeah the river was good yeah yeah it's nice getting a bit of white water under the belt yeah yeah the best part not not falling out of it a couple of sketchy moments where you know if you just move a little bit a little bit quick and you know yeah yeah you know because we've had a lot of stuff in we've had a lot of gear in that canoe so here we go with the dude himself we've got ginger scarf here who's just been fantastic I've really enjoyed his company along the trail we're on our last hopefully our last night all things being equal it shouldn't be too bad and I'm just asking ginger today was that pretty hard paddle wasn't it what was your what was your memorable moment from today I think being swamped by a big wave I think that was the most memorable and trying to keep the canoes stray and not letting the dogs fall out it wasn't a good day it was tough it was tough it was tough how many we've done 18 it's about 18 miles today that is outstanding and and I've just made this point ginge didn't have a sail you know a lot of us had a sail up today ginger is all hand paddling all the way and it's really good and that's again proof you know we're doing this we show a bit of graft because we were taking this so seriously to get ourselves over to Inverness and get this challenge complete 10,000 pounds we've raised today well not today it's hit 10,000 pounds I knew it was teetering on it yeah so brilliant you couldn't have imagined it good and it's great to meet this legend and this legend too and talking of legends here's the legend himself organizer of this amazing adventure I mean what a time we have had and yeah we've we're on the side of Loch Ness now with how long do you think paddle wise and miles to go no yeah I would say I would say around about six something like that so the end is inside yeah and yeah I was gonna ask and what had been his sort of most memorable part of today today well that's pretty darn easy when Mike shouted we've reached 10,000 so yeah yeah 10,000 quid but thank you thank you so much for you know every single donation and you know what these guys really deserved it today because we fought tooth and nail well we've been in we've been in a you'll see it in the videos we've been up with the sails and things like that but the three three lads who set off first which was ginger Mike and Matt they was just literally paddling all the way fighting Gus fighting huge swell and you know none of them came a cropper none of them went in the drink they all made it safely here something's watching over us on this trip it really is you know everything you know everything has gone in in our favor and thank you so much for all your your donations that's come through it just has really spurred us along I look taller in this one that's good I'm still in the slope to be honest oh yeah we've got Matt here from adventure is made and yeah he's had a solo paddles today no sails no rafting up a real day of graft well what was your most memorable part of today do you think probably say staying in my board it was a bit choppy at times and we really struggled to stay on a straight line yeah especially when the embankment was quite steep yeah no the west end of the lock it was it was a tough day so and that's good because we wanted we wanted to show you a bit of graph yeah one of the challenges me exactly it's called the canoe challenge brilliant so we'll see you tomorrow yeah good morning well it's a very midgy beginning of day five got the full gear on today nice day a little bit low cloud no wind at the moment we could do with a little bit of a following wind because there's still quite a hard paddle to go but yeah I'm gonna get some breakfast on and you've seen that all before dehydrated and have a cup of tea and we'll get on our way so we've set sail for well we haven't set sail but we're paddling for the final push ahead there's a spit of sort of forested land coming out into the lock and we need to head left of that to pick up the canal network that leads into Inverness as I said earlier a couple of portages and yeah not an easy day well we've we've left the lock system now it's a shame to be out of Loch Ness and beyond but there's only one way to get to Inverness and we just got this very sort of shipping wise quite busy canal system now all the way up into Inverness and the finish but it's all very calm so this is the first of two portages of the locks just leading into the canal from the lock system so these are locks and we've been in a lock just on the outskirts of Inverness now probably hear a little bit of traffic noise first proper civilization really since Fort Augustus it's a funny feeling I don't really want to hear vehicles and see sort of metal structures and that sort of thing it's been nice being very very much in the wild but all good things must come to an end I think we've probably got about a mile and a half total to go and we'll be at the end after the last portage we began the paddle up the last few hundred yards of the Caledonian canal big smile from a bloke in the woods as we neared the end we pulled up in a tight formation and we were really lucky to have a well-wisher on the bank who shot this amazing footage of us finishing our paddle of the Great Glen there we go finish line all safe and sound and that's us all finished we're at the finishing line just packing up the boats and what an achievement we're all over the moon I think we all can't quite believe it well this is me signing off from back at Fort William it's just been brilliant hope you enjoy the video and I'll get down heavily to the edit now but again thank you very much for all the donations thanks for supporting us along the route I look forward to see you again