Today was our last day on the water, we woke up on our paradise beach to find a crime had been comitted Stan was dead !! Stan was the latrine trowel an inquest later found that in an act of cruelty Len had snapped him in two his plea was that the ground was hard but the jury found him guilty of trowelcide of the 1st degree.

We had an early start as the forecast was for the wind to blow from the North again which would mean another hard paddle, much to our delight and suprise the wind came from the south which meant that we could sail for most of the way.  We covered the final 20km in about 4 hours and though we tried to arouse the monster with the Nessie dance she didnt appear.

The journey back to Ghyll Head took about 6 hours seeing the centre provided a mix of emotions it marked the end of the road journey which was great but also brought home the reality that our Expedition was coming to an end. The whole team agree that this has been a pretty special experience staff included, hopefully its one that will not be forgotton.

For those of you that have been reading the blog thanks for your interest and stay tuned as we have four hours worth of video and a few hundred photos to edit and get online which will hopefully give you a better idea of what we have been through.

Today was a big day, 8 hours of paddling against the wind on Loch Ness. We woke up about 6.30 to a still Loch. We made the mistake of listening to the advice of some local sailors who told us the wind would be from the south, it did eventually but only after we had stopped for camp.

The groups morale was kept high by a combination of piracy and singing. Highlights of the day was the glorious sunshine and the amazing beach camp we are staying at. Song of the day was Monster by The Automatic. Tomorrow Loch Ness part 2.

Some of us had a great sleep last night and we all had lie in. After the mellow start we set off to paddle the River Oich which was at a great level not to high to cause us problems but high enough to create some exciting rapids.

We had no swimmers much to the disapointment of everyone. Song of the day was I will survive by Gloria Gaynor. Loch Ness tomorrow !!

We have just had an amazing day paddling and sailing down Loch Lochy and Loch Oich. We have had mix of rain and sunshine.

 Highlights of the day were Tyrell spotting fairies which turned out to be dragon flies and the lock keeper letting us through Laggan Lock , saving us an hours carrying. On the water musical entertainment was provided by Jacinta and Thomas. Tomorrow we are hoping the river will be high enough for some whitewater action.

We got up this morning about 7.30 after being kept up late by Tyrell and James . After having a full cooked breakfast we dismantled the camp , packed the van and set of for the canal.

We finally got on the water at midday. The weather has been great it has been sunny during the day with a nice breeze pushing us along. The canoeing was really nice we paddled about 9km today which is a nice warm up for the 25km trip tomorrow.

 Tyrell and Thomas cooked up an amazing mexican tortilla dish for dinner, after this a few of us went back on to the water for some skills training. It has just started to rain so everyone has good to bed ready for the big day tomorrow.

 After a long tortuous journey (7 hours), we have arrived in Scotland most of which Domonic managed to sleep through.

 Dom and Carly prepared dinner, we fed well ,the midges are feeding just as well off us ! We are going to have an early night ready for tomorrow . Check back tomorrow for the next installment

On Saturday the 22nd July eight year 10-11 students from Manchester Academy, Abraham Moss and Our Ladys High will take part in this years Great Glen expedition, this trip involves them paddling across Scotland along the length of the Caledonian Canal. Though its called a canal its not some quiet stretch of water inhabited by narrow boats, it was built in 1847 and was designed to allow sea going vessels to cross from one side of Scotland to the other. The canal goes from Fort William to Inverness and covers 60 miles of water including three lochs, Ness, Oich and Lochy as well as providing access to a number of whitewater rivers.

Most of the students have been in a canoe only once, none of them have ever paddled this sort of distance. As well as learning how to paddle the students will have to get to grips with creating a catamarn out of their canoes which we will hoepfully be able to sail down some of the big lochs. The trip is going to be no luxury holiday as they are going to be camping  wild most nights and having to prepare and cook meals for the whole team.

The students taking part are

• James Palmer (Our Lady's)
• Thomas Robinson (Manchester Academy)
• Tyrell Henry (Manchester Academy)
• Dominic Clark (The Barlow RCHS)
• Jade Moynihan (Abraham Moss)
• Jacinta Jeffrey (Manchester Academy)
• Carly Andrews (Abraham Moss)
• Adam Graham (Wright Robinson)

There are four staff accompanying the students John, Jill and Len from the centre and Diane Metcalfe from Grange school. 

We are hoping to try some new technology on the trip as well as taking photos using our digital cameras we will be recording events on video, and reception allowing will be updating this section of the website from our smartphone.  Each evening the students will create a log of the day and upload it to this Blog allowing you the visitor to get an idea of what they are going through.

(Disclaimer we havent actually tested the reception on the canal yet so this could all go very pearshaped )

Our first update will be Saturday evening.