Scotland SUP Expedition - Everything you need to know!
We’ve put together this detailed guide on our Scotland SUP Expedition to give you all the info you may need before booking and for simple planning once you’ve confirmed your spot!
We’ll be covering:
Travel to us by public transport or driving
Your arrival
Packing and packing list
Paddling
Where we will camp
Wild toilet adventures
Health and safety
Destination
We will be paddling on the beautiful west coast of Scotland, on a combination of inland and sea lochs, and finishing on the isolated Knoydart peninsula, a wilderness area cut off from the mainland road network and surrounded by awe-inspiring mountains. Knoydart is steeped in history and wildlife and its remoteness is breathtaking.
LOGISTICS
WHATSAPP GROUP
We will create a WhatsApp group for your trip; please use this to plan any travel together if you wish. This can be helpful to reduce the cost of driving/renting cars, or maybe sharing a cabin on the sleeper train!
You’ll only be able to access the WhatsApp group once you have confirmed your booking with us.
GETTING TO US BY PUBLIC TRANSPORT
You will need to meet us at Fort William train station at 10AM
London Euston to Fort William
The sleeper train from London to Fort William is the simplest travel option for this trip if you are based in London or close to London. It departs from London Euston at 9pm, and arrives in Fort William at 9.57am the following morning.
You can choose between a reclining seat or a cabin. You could plan to share a cabin with another guest to reduce the costs!
GOOD TO KNOW: If you are in a reclining seat between London and Fort William, you will be required to change trains in Edinburgh in the middle of the night (at approx 4am between London and Fort William and approx 1am between Fort William and London). This coach change requires guests to alight one service, wait for a short period of time on the platform before boarding the next service. If you are in a cabin, your entire carriage will be moved to the new train so you won’t need to wake up!
FLY > BUS OR TRAIN / TRAIN > BUS OR TRAIN
There are plenty of flights and train options to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Inverness. From arrival in one of these hubs, your onward travel options are as follows:
Glasgow to Fort William
There are a couple of buses a day direct from Glasgow Airport to Fort William. Otherwise there are many more from Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station (3 hrs). You can get from the airport to the bus station and into the centre of Glasgow on the regular Glasgow Airport Express bus (service number 500).
There is a bus from Glasgow Buchanan Bus Station at 6.45am which arrives at Fort William train station at about 9.45am, so you can arrive in Glasgow late the day before, spend the night there and still get to Fort William in time for our 10am meeting.
There is a good Premier Inn very close to the bus station in Glasgow with great views over the city!
There are no trains from Glasgow which arrive early enough in Fort William, so if you want to travel by train from Glasgow to Fort William, you will need to travel the day before and spend the night in Fort William. The train actually takes longer than the bus, although it is a beautiful train ride.
Edinburgh to Fort William
You can also travel by bus from Edinburgh to Fort William. This takes about 5 hours and usually requires a change in Glasgow. You will need to travel the day before as no buses arrive in Fort William early enough for our 10am meeting time (unless you take a bus at 4.30am which connects with the Glasgow bus in the Glasgow section above).
The trains also take about 5 hours and require a change in Glasgow. You will need to arrive in Fort William the day before as no trains arrive early enough in Fort William for our 10am meeting time.
Inverness to Fort William
The bus from Inverness takes about 2 hours. You can get from the airport to the bus station using the airport bus (service number 11). You will need to arrive in Fort William the day before as no buses from Inverness arrive early enough into Fort William for our 10am meeting time. There are no trains from Inverness to Fort William.
DRIVING
If you are driving meet us at 11.30am at Morar Hotel, Columba Rd, Morar PH40 4PA
We encourage car sharing on all our adventures if possible! If you are driving and would like to offer a space in your car to another guest, this can be arranged via our Whatsapp group. Driving in Scotland is a fantastic way to take in the epic landscapes and it boasts some of the world's most scenic drives!
If you are flying or training into Glasgow, Edinburgh or Inverness you could share the cost of a hire car or even a taxi with others doing the same.
Driving to Fort William from Glasgow or Edinburgh is a beautiful route, passing through Loch Lomond and Glencoe; one of the most scenic routes in the UK. We recommend planning for stops along the way to take in the awe-inspiring scenery.
Glasgow to Fort William: 2h30
Edinburgh to Fort William: 3h20
Driving from Inverness is another option, and you could stop at Urquhart Castle which overlooks Loch Ness.
Inverness to Fort William: 1h40
ARRIVAL DAY
Your first expedition is filled with excitement, but maybe a few nerves, we’re breaking down the first day to give you an idea of what to expect.
If you are arriving by public transport, you will meet us at 10am at Fort William train station
From here it is about an hour’s drive to our launch site in a minibus.
If you are driving to us, you will meet us at 11:30am at Morar Hotel, Columba Rd, Morar PH40 4PA. We will drive in convoy around 10 minutes from there to the start point.
On arrival at launch site:
welcome briefing
pack bags - transfer your kit into our dry bags
leave unneeded kit in the guides’ van
change into paddling gear
Drivers:
Once you’ve packed your bag, you will drive in convoy to Mallaig (10 mins), where you will park your car at no charge for the duration, and where we will be finishing the journey. You’ll be transferred back to the launch site by mini bus.
We’ll try to get on the water as soon as possible on day one, this can be around 2pm as there’s lots of moving parts!
DEPARTURE
We will take the ferry over to Mallaig harbour from Inverie at 9.30am, arriving in Mallaig (conditions, ferry timetables and weather dependent!) at about 10.00am.
On arrival in Mallaig:
Sort out and return kit and re-pack own bags
Those of you with vehicles in Mallaig should be able to leave Mallaig by about 11.30am, if not before.
Those of you needing to get to Fort William will be transferred back to Fort William and should arrive no later than 1.00pm
Some degree of flexibility is needed on departure timings as we will be at the mercy of the ferry timetables and weather conditions, but we have tried to build some leeway into the above times.
It is also possible to take the train back to Fort William from Mallaig. This is a beautiful journey (you'd be responsible for your own train ticket). You can take the standard ScotRail service, or even take the afternoon Jacobite Steam Train, (the Hogwarts Express from Harry Potter). Advance booking recommended.
There is a direct bus (citylink service 915) from Fort William to Glasgow Airport, which departs Fort William at 2.00pm and arrives at Glasgow Airport at 4.51pm in time for an evening flight.
If you are taking the sleeper train back to London, there will be quite a bit of time to kill before it departs. In Fort William station there are luggage lockers (within the bathroom/shower section) which you can use to store your luggage while you explore the town and its surroundings if you wish.
THE PADDLING
We don’t like to publish our exact itinerary as it is a carefully guarded route that we don’t want too many people to know about! As a guide:
We’ll be paddling between 10 and 15 km on days one to three. We only have a short paddle on day four.
We will have plenty of stops for tea, coffee, hot chocolate and snacks, or to admire the scenery or look at wildlife.
On day two we will have a big portage. This means that as a team we have to carry all our kit from one loch, a couple of kilometres over a small pass between hills, and down to the loch on the other side. This requires a couple of journeys for each of us back and forth. It is often described as “type two fun”, but there is an amazing sense of satisfaction once it is done! You will want to wear shoes with decent soles for this section.
On the final day we will just have a short paddle to the pier at Inverie. Here we will deflate our boards and carry everything onto the pier ready to be loaded efficiently onto the ferry back to Mallaig. There is likely to be some time to relax or explore Inverie once we have organised our kit before the ferry arrives. The ferry takes 30-45 minutes and is a beautiful journey - you might see more wildlife! On arrival in Mallaig we will need to carry everything off the ferry and onto the harbourside. Once this is done we can collect vehicles, hand back our kit and repack our bags.
CAMPING
We will be provided with small, lightweight tents. We will be wild camping along the water’s edge. There are no facilities in these campsites, but they are remote and beautiful. The scenery is out of this world. We often see some amazing wildlife from these campsites, like seals, golden eagles, sea eagles, and even dolphins, porpoises and otters.
Make sure you bring enough clothes to keep you warm and dry in the evenings and overnight.
There will be spots where you can wild swim at or near the campsites.
WILDERNESS
As we are going to be living in a wilderness environment we have a few codes of conduct to follow. Any materials we carry in, we carry out, and any human waste will be disposed of correctly (we will explain how we do this!).
If you are taking any soap etc to wash with then please ensure it is eco-friendly/biodegradable and suitable for a wilderness environment.
There will be plenty of water available; our guides will be filtering enough water from wilderness freshwater sources for us all. All our guides are trained Leave No Trace Practitioners and in Level 2 Food Hygiene.
The biggest question we get before any expedition is ‘where do we go to the toilet’?
Wee: We do wild wees - find a suitable private spot, and do a wee. We also recommend these Kula pee cloths - a super hygienic quick-drying pee cloth, for those of you that prefer not to “drip dry”!
Poo: When we are at camp, our guides will dig a communal “short drop” loo some distance from the campsite. This is essentially a large hole in the ground (following certain rules regarding safe distances from water sources and the campsite), with a flat stone on either side.
We designate an “engaged” sign so that everyone knows if the toilet is free. You place your feet on the stones on either side of the hole, and do your business in the hole. The earth that was dug up to create the hole will be right beside it, and you should cover up your waste with a couple of handfuls of earth.
You will need to bring your own toilet paper with you to the loo, and there will be a waste bag to place your waste paper in (this should never go in the hole). When we leave the campsite, this hole will be filled in carefully, and all waste paper etc will be carried out with us.
For those of you who will be on your period during the expedition, we have all had this experience and are happy to address any questions you may have about this! We will need to carry any waste out with us, if you do not use a menstruation cup, remember to bring extra zip lock bags for your waste.
MIDGES AND TICKS
The midges in this part of Scotland can be bothersome. You will be provided with a midge head net, but by all means bring your own and don’t forget plenty of insect/midge repellent.
During the day, we are moving on the water so they don’t tend to get us. In the evenings, we will light a fire, the smoke keeps them at bay and hopefully, there’ll be a breeze too! Our May trips have the least likely chance of midges.
There are also ticks in the wilderness. We recommend avoiding walking through or weeing in long grass (where they live and can transfer themselves onto you), and to tuck your trousers into your socks in the evenings off the board to avoid gaps in your clothing. Use insect repellent.
Our guides will have tick removal tools with them and can help remove ticks if you find them. Ticks do tend to like warm, damp places, so make sure you check yourself over every day, especially in your groin, armpits, and torso. If you have had a tick and later develop a “target rash” around the bite area, please seek medical advice for Lyme Disease and do let us know so that we can follow up. This is rare, and ticks are nothing to panic about - but it is best to be aware.
SAFETY
This adventure will be managed by a WSA Expedition Guides who will act as head guides on the expedition. We will be carrying a group first aid kit and communication suitable to the environment. All our guides are qualified and insured to work in this environment.
WEATHER
Whilst we can plan and prepare for many things, travelling in this type of environment is always weather dependent. We will monitor the weather leading up to the start of the journey and during. We will not start the journey if we feel the weather will be too challenging. In this instance we will use our extensive local knowledge to ensure we get on the water each day, this may involve some travel and we may be reduced to day journeys or one night journeys.
We do reserve the right to postpone or cancel the journey due to weather, should it be necessary. We will camp in rain or shine, however, in the unlikely event it is unsafe to do so, we will arrange bunkhouse accommodation, this could be an additional cost of £20 a night.
FOOD
We can cater for all dietary requirements and will have requested this information when you booked. If you are not sure you have made us aware, or have changed dietary requirements since booking, please make sure you let us know asap.
Please ensure you arrive on day one having had a good breakfast and bring a packed lunch for the first day. Whilst we are in the wilderness, we will be eating boil in the bag expedition meals for dinner, which are nutritious and surprisingly tasty!
We will provide three breakfasts in the form of porridge pots, two fresh lunches, and two expedition dinners. On our final evening, we will have dinner in a restaurant or pub in Knoydart to support the local community. This dinner is not included in the price.
We will also provide some snack bars, but we recommend bringing some of your own as well to supplement these. Paddling in the wilderness in unpredictable weather is hungry work and staying well fuelled is key.
SPENDING MONEY
You will need money / cards for your meal and drinks on your final night in Inverie, when we will be eating at a local restaurant. There is also a small shop and a coffee and breakfast bar in Inverie, and there is often time for a coffee and breakfast bap or to purchase some souvenirs on our last day, before we catch the ferry back to Mallaig.
COVID
Please bring a mask for use in Inverie. This is a very small and remote village and we need to respect their desire to protect the community.
TRAVEL INSURANCE
Please make sure that you are covered by a medical and personal accident insurance policy that covers paddleboarding.
THE GUTSY GIRLS APPROACH
At Gutsy Girls, we aim to create a community for women seeking adventures, taking on new challenges, facing fears and having incredible experiences together. Gutsy Girls is for all women; using the outdoors to unite them: women of all races, ages, sexual orientations, cultures and backgrounds.
We offer our guests the opportunity to discover new sports and activities or to pursue old ones, and promise them that this will take place in a supportive, non-intimidating and fun environment - to help them push their boundaries and discover a new, more confident version of themselves, discover new passions and meet new friends.
We are passionate about providing the best experiences and service and recognise our responsibility to the people and places we visit on our trips.
LUGGAGE
It makes sense to pack fairly light for this trip since you will be carrying everything on your board and will also need to carry it on the portage. However, please don’t skimp on warm or waterproof clothing, and make sure you have one full change of clothes in case you get rained on or fall in! And make space for a decent pair of waterproof shoes or boots. Be aware that as well as the kit you bring, you will need to fit a tent and your food and snacks (which will be given to you at the start) into the dry bags provided.
PACKING LIST
You will know what you are comfortable paddling in. The water will be cold and the weather can change quickly. Off the water we will be living outside, so warm clothes will be required as this is a coastal / mountain environment.
WE PROVIDE:
Stand up paddleboard and paddle
Leash and waist belt
Small, lightweight tent
Buoyancy Aid
Long John Wetsuit (a 2mm wetsuit with long legs and a vest style top section for ease of arm movement. These do not tend to be too tight or constrictive.)
Dry bags - one 75 l and one 25 l, plus two smaller lightweight dry bags.
Water/Windproof paddling jacket
Midge head net
If you would like to use your own equipment, please send us the details on the board you have so we can check its suitability.
YOU WILL NEED:
KIT
Sleeping Bag (3 season)
Sleeping Mat (inflatable - so that it fits in our dry bags)
Head torch (including spare batteries)
Mug (plastic or metal)
Spoon / fork / spork
Warm wetsuit boots or beach shoes with a reasonable sole
Inflatable / camping pillow (optional)
Water bottle (1 ltr at least)
HYGIENE
Wash kit including toilet roll etc (please ensure any soap is biodegradable)
Towel (Microfibre/fast drying)
Suncream (waterproof / reef safe)
Any prescription medication
Midge / Insect repellent
CLOTHING
For paddling; depending on the temperature, we recommend wearing swim wear or sports style underwear, then a thermal or lighter running top underneath your long john wetsuit, with a thin fleece and the waterproof paddling jacket (provided) on top if it is chilly
Cap
Warm hat
Swimwear
Sunglasses
Trainers / boots for dry land (waterproof recommended)
Waterproof trousers
Insulated jacket
Warm clothing for the evenings (base layers, fleeces)
Gloves/Mittens (if you feel the cold)
Sleepwear
OTHER STUFF
Camera (waterproof, remember GoPros sink without a float!)
Waterproof case for your phone if you want to take pictures
Battery pack to charge your phone / watch (or go technology free for the weekend!)
Snacks