Having spent a week in Torridon with friends, concentrating on landscape photography, I was now making my way home, but with a slight diversion to spend a couple of days in Glen Affric. 

As is often the case, I left the west coast under heavy rain clouds and arrived east of the watershed in much nicer weather. After quickly setting up in the camping pod I had booked, I drove up Glen Affric for a paddle on my favourite bit of one of my favourite lochs. 

The car park by the narrows on Loch Beinn a’Mheadhoin is a great place. For a landscape photographer it offers a little bit of everything – woodland detail, still and moving water, reflections, big views, options for sunrise and sunset – but I was here to paddle today. 

For the paddler, it is also pretty good! A very short portage from the truck lead to an easy put in from a shingle beach. This section of the loch is the most interesting to my mind, with narrow channels heading off in one direction, a sometimes-island and a short crossing to big views up to the top of the loch. 

The low-angled light of an autumn afternoon nicely picked out a single birch tree on the island.

I decided to head through the narrows first but paused to explore the outflow of the Allt na h-Imrich as it tumbled into the loch. 

I headed east, a slight tail wind pushing me along

A scots pine basked in the sunshine on the shore, its bottle green needles contrasting with the surrounding birch. 

Soon I reached a communicating strait leading south to the other channel through the narrows. 

Sometimes this is too shallow to paddle, or even completely dry, but today I could guide the canoe through without a problem. 

A brief rain shower passed over, not worth taking shelter or even putting on a cag, but I did get to enjoy a rainbow. 

I turned back on myself, heading west up the blind channel. Once more, the high water levels let me travel further than is often the case, right up to the start of the shoreline vegetation. Often there is an expanse of peaty mud exposed, but today just a few stumps protruded. 

On the south shore, dense Caledonian wildwood climbed the hillside. This place always feels so remote, though in fact it is only a short paddle from the put-in, and there is an easy track running along the south bank. 

I returned to the north channel to retrace by route. Afternoon was edging towards evening now, the sun low in the sky. Warm light brightened the gold of the birches. 

I spent a few minutes finding a more abstract image before moving on. 

One of the things I enjoy about this route is the sudden changes in mood and scenery. Approaching the west end of the channels, the hills around Loch Affric become visible over the trees and you move from forest to mountain fastness in your mind. Cnap na Stri had received a dusting of snow while I had enjoyed the rainbow. 

Sunlight raked across the flanks of Beinn nan Sparra, the water picking up an almost impossible blue from the sky above. 

I was level with the egress now, but there was still some light left in the afternoon, so I explored round the island. The north bank bathed in the warm light of an autumnal late afternoon.

With the island as a breakwater, the water was a mirror. 

Again, I was able to paddle into places that are often dry. In the curve of the temporary bay, I drifted, draining the last dregs of the day before guiding my boat back to the beach.

It was just a couple of hours on the water, but such a joy to revisit.