ron-t kayaking blog
02 June 2016 ............ Falls of Lora
I took advantage of the good weather combined with the early June Spring tides to have a go at the Falls of Lora on the flood tide - it was a lovely evening, and it was good fun playing around, however I didn`t really get much decent surfing.
I can`t say I was surprised - on that day it was only a 3.5 metre high tide in Oban, and the Falls of Lora really need a high tide of about 3.7 metres before the waves get going.
However there was one feature which was a bit challenging - just to the northeast of the bridge there is a raised round plateau of rock covered in seaweed - it is maybe about 20 metres across.
Because of the low loch level this was exposed and dry, and there was quite a strong current coming under the bridge, meeting this plateau and piling up above it to form a distinct ridge, then splitting into two streams.
On the one side of it the current dropped down by a good 600mm or so, and produced some small but powerful whirlies that flowed down the side of the rock - they were fairly evil, and I got caught up in them twice, and both times was flipped.
On the first occasion I was near the end of the whirlies, and rolled up okay without too much hassle.
On the second occasion I was right up at the head of the whirlies - I thought I had managed to sprint across the stream between the whirlies, but one got me, flipped me over, and would not let go. I could not get the boat up, and it wasn`t until I had been carried right down the stream beyond the whirlies that I could get the boat up. It must have been amazing to see if anyone was watching - my total inability to roll back up again.
It was a good evening - good fun, despite the lack of surfing.
If you are not familiar with the Falls of Lora, they are situated about a kilometre from the mouth of Loch Etive, just up from the bridge - the bridge was originally built for the railway, but was taken over as a road bridge sometime around the late 60`s or early 70`s.
It is a very scenic area, this is looking eastwards through the bridge down ( or up ? ) Loch Etive, and away at the back the biggest mountain on the right is Ben Cruachan.
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