ADVENTURE BECOMING SEA GYPSIES
erfect stillness. I drift across a reflected evening sky. Somewhere in the distance a raven gives an occasional croak, but apart from my kayak gently turning on the incoming tide of this remote Scottish loch, everything is motionless. I am entirely absorbed in my surroundings, no internal chatter, at one with the ‘now’. Hugging the shore, I pass a birch tree, a shower of golden autumn leaves and then, suddenly, the stillness is ripped apart by the startled piping of an oystercatcher. A herd of female red deer and a few fawns have raised their heads and are standing motionless and alert. One second, two, then, like a released spring the whole herd bursts into a panicked sprint across the shallow water in front of me in an explosion of spray. They carry on up, through moor-grass of a nearby hill. My hairs are standing on end and every sense is on high alert. As I slowly calm
