Why did two young guys come to my beach at 6 am, climbed up a dune and watched me launching? Were they too shy to talk to me? Not sure what young men are doing at 6 am at a beach?

This was an almost sunny day! And dry, thank goodness. But my choice of path was sub-optimal regarding the tides, but pleasant though! I surely like to paddle inside islands wherever possible. I took the inner path of this archipelago between Aran Island, but starting at very low tide only slowly got enough water into the channel. And you may think the tide runs up north? Not here between the islands, this seem to be the eddy way, and it was a fresh headwind all morning…but still it was a magic channel, to paddle slowly between all those quite high rocks covered fully under sea weed, and every second rock had a seal resting – well, until I came to disturb them, sorry, guys!

To round the last headland between Inishinny Island was not possible, no water yet. Just short detour back, no big deal. But going inside Cruit Island, right under the bridge, should be possible about 1,5 hrs before high tide? Well, maybe I should have asked someone…I could pass under the bridge, but had to face then about 500 m dry sand in all directions. I did not opt to go back and around this time, rather sat down conveniently and waited for almost half an hour for the water to come while reading my Kindle. It was sunny at least! For the last 200 m I got too impatient and dragged the heavy kayak over the wet sand. Sure, I also could have unloaded and drag the whole way instead of waiting…?

The rest of the paddle to aptly named “Bloody Foreland” headland was no big deal with side wind, and despite I had heavy lower body cramps all day (fucking women’s issues, same like yesterday, other women sit on the couch with a hot water bottle and don’t go to work those days…) I liked to round this headland with supposing strong current. This time the eddy came just in the right direction for me, far offshore was a heavy tidal race going, close inside I could quickly paddle around in relatively calm water.

Inishbofin Island was my goal, I did not trust the rocky beach on the western side, and paddled into the sheltered sandy nice eastern one for a great campsite. Two locals were collecting sea weed to eat (?), and showed me a natural well on the beach. The water was not too bad, almost no salt, just a bit of sea weed taste…