Will Paddle For Whisky

I was at the dentist today fitting a new crown. While in the waiting room I picked up the latest copy of National Geographic: Adventure magazine. I flipped through to the table of contents and found "Will Paddle For Whisky".  It was an article about kayak'n your way between distilleries. I'm thinking; I like to paddle, I like single malt whiskey. How cool is that? I am just north of Kentucky (me like bourbon too) and they have a distillery tour that just can't be beat - until now.

Will Paddle For Whisky
Text by Andrew Todhunter
Photographs by David Leathborough

Scotland’s Inner Hebrides are a sea kayaker’s dream and home to some of the world’s best single malts. Yet no one has ever brought them together—until now.

"Paddling hard through spray-capped swells and breaking chop in 20-mile-an-hour winds, we rounded a ragged point on the western shore of Jura and set out across the Sound of Islay. Beyond the chaotic seas, the current ripping south, we could already see a brilliant smear of white in the distance, a telltale gleam that could be only one thing in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides: the broad, whitewashed, and stenciled wall of a single malt Scotch distillery. Our guide, Tony Hammock, estimated the force of the current, took a compass bearing, and shouted out our heading. If we kept this pace, he told us, we’d fight our way to the distillery within the hour.

This was good news. We’d been kayaking hard for most of the day. Our shoulders and backs ached, and the wisdom of a late spring paddling trip in western Scotland was falling into question. But then that daub of white bobbed onto the horizon. At the end of the crossing waited more than a dry place out of the wind. There was a golden dram of single malt whisky for each of us, straight from the hand of its maker, a spirit distilled, casked, bottled, and poured less than a stone’s throw from where we’d beach our kayaks."

Click here to read the article: - Scotland Adventure Travel - National Geographic Adventure Magazine

The trip/tour designed for National Geographic was organized by Sea Freedom Kayak: http://seafreedomkayak.co.uk/

Their photo gallery of the event: Sea kayak Scotland Islay and Jura 2008

The distilleries they visited and toured were Ardbeg, Bunnahabhain, Lagavulin, and Laphroaig, (my personal favorite). A flask of one of these will make any blustery outdoor adventure more complete.

Not entirely on topic I know, but indeed a good read for your morning coffee consumption.

Enjoy...