Paddling into a place in history
AT AROUND 6am on Thursday May 12 three adventurers set off to paddle the full 150km of the Argyll Sea Kayak Trail which spans the coastline of Argyll and Bute.
The route has been accomplished in its entirety by a number of paddlers to date but this group accomplished a double first - they completed the trail on stand-up paddle-boards and Dean Dunbar was the first registered blind paddler to complete the trail.
The team was made up of Ian Cormack from Glasgow, who runs SUP Ecosse; Allistair Swinsco from Carlisle, who runs Northwest Paddleboards; and registered blind paddler Dean Dunbar from Blairgowrie, who is an inspirational public speaker.
The team members are all highly experienced paddlers and completed the 150km trip in just under four days.
The trio started the trail from Ganavan at Oban last Thursday, and arrived in Helensburgh on the afternoon of Sunday.
The challenge was originally thrown down by Oban stand-up paddle boarder Cathy Winterton. She was planning to be part of the team but unfortunately, due to family commitments, had to pull out.
Dean said: ‘I was first told about this route last year, and since then I’ve been waiting to get started.
‘I’d like to thank Argyll and Bute Council, which has been of great support during the planning of this trip.’
As well as the water team, there were two support vehicles on land throughout the trip, being driven by Rhona Dunbar (and Stumpy the dog) and Alison Rennie.