tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52517008208039573562024-03-05T05:37:49.974+00:00Sarah's Soggy ScenariosA light hearted insight into my paddling trips in and around Scotland - and beyond!
Soggy Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10207295072917527912noreply@blogger.comBlogger144125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-64748000661976441512019-09-04T14:27:00.000+01:002019-09-04T14:31:14.422+01:00Sea of Cortez, Dolphins, dolphins everywhere<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Day 3<br />
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Our plan for each day was to get on the water early, paddle a couple of hours, quick snack, then paddle til about noon, tarp up to shelter from the sun, then paddle again about 4pm for an hour.<br />
The wind was due to pick up later, but off we set, on the water again for 7.15, quite impressed with myself managing these early mornings!<br />
A big boat had arrived in the bay to drop kayakers off. They have a little pootle round the bay, then they are back on board to the next bay, not really my idea of fun! however the boat did have a good name - Sarah Endeavour!<br />
We had only just got out of the bay when we saw our first sealion. It didn't hang around. A little bit further on, we saw our first turtle, then our second, then third! They were popping up all over.<br />
We eventually managed to land for lunch, our first beach we had hoped to stop on had commercial camping set up on it. Huge tents are set up complete with table and chairs, folks arrive by boat, given drinks, given food, everything done for them - again that's not my idea of fun either - well maybe being given a wee tequila as soon as you land could be good! A lot of the other beaches were rough and very surfy. We couldn't get the tarp up this day due to the blustery winds, so ended up sheltering under some dodgy looking rocks! The good thing about Mexico is that the solar charger gets fully charged in next to no time. No problem with the cameras or GPS batteries. No problem keeping the radio battery charged either, just that no one listens out for the radios here.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking back out to Isla Monseratt</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our shady spot</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our dodgy rocks</td></tr>
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Back on the water fairly quickly today, not too happy under these rocks and when you're in the shade, believe it or not, it can be quite cool! After 32Km, we eventually made it to yet another wonderful beach, Punta Botella. We both had a refreshing wee swim, then went for a (very) short walk up by the cactus plants before heading back, having dinner, then watching millions of stars - so much better than telly!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of jaggy plants</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our star trail</td></tr>
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Day 4<br />
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Next morning, still up early, we had the feeling we were being watched while having our breakfast, sure enough we were, by an osprey from behind and our first turtle of the day just in front of us. Once launched, it wasn't long before we saw more turtles and dolphins. Then we spotted the first of our flying rays, landing with huge splooshes. A bit further along, we stopped to watch a huge pod of dolphins having a real feeding frenzy, with pelicans and guls all joining in and not in the least bit worried about us. We sat watching them for quite a while, however, as we still hadn't paddled very far that morning,we left them to finish devouring what was left of the fish.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Just a few of the feeding dolphins</td></tr>
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The water was lovely and flat, with just a gentle swell, we were out in the middle of nowhere, what had been a really peaceful paddle was now being interrupted by a strange noise. We couldn't see anything, no boats, no planes. It sounded like crashing waves, but it was beautiful conditions. After a bit, still trying to figure out what was creating this noise, we spotted a "hullabaloo" a good distance off in the water. It was travelling at quite some speed - straight for us! It was dolphins. We thought there were a lot of dolphins in the feeding frenzy, but that was nothing compared with what was racing at a terrific speed - still straight for us - yikes! We thought about paddling forward, but the speed they were going this would have been a waste of time. We rafted up, banged our paddles on the boat a bit to let them know we were there, just at that point, there was the smallest change in direction, not in speed, and they charged past right in front of us. The pod was about 25 - 30 deep, and possibly about 1km long, hundreds upon hundreds of them, absolutely breath taking. The noise they made and energy they gave off was unbelievable. After they passed, the waters calmed down again, just like they hadn't been there.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Only thing on this beach is our footprints!</td></tr>
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Just as well we were only paddling 22km today, all this stopping and watching. We found yet another beautiful beach at Punta Blanca where we went snorkelling with loads of fishes and octopus.<br />
Our evening entertainment was another spectacular light show. This time the water looked like it was splashing electric blue. Quite magical!<br />
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Day 5<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our destination in the background</td></tr>
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Again we watched dolphins while having our breakfast. We set off for our long crossing over to Isla San Jose. We could see it quite clearly making it look a lot closer, but with the wind against us, believe me, it wasn't close!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still in the shelter of the bay</td></tr>
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We were accompanied alot of the time by flying fish, they certainly can travel quite some distance. Away far off into the distance, we saw a large "something" breach, don't know what it was. We eventually made it over to the island, back in shallow waters we could watch shoals of Sergeant Majors and spotted our first King Angelfish. We were being followed by a pod of 6 small dolphins down the side of the island. There were lots of rocky, quite exposed beaches, but we did eventually find a lovely one. Although it was an island we were on, we didn't feel quite so isolated, there was a boat anchored further round in the bay and we had passed a few little make shift fishing shacks. I have to say, I quite liked the isolated feeling. Although we had already paddled 30km, we were having a short day. We put the tarp up and had a lazy afternoon, the morning paddle had been hard enough! There were clouds tonight, so no stars and no sunset!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking for the best tent spot!</td></tr>
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Day 6<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting eyed up by a couple of vultures</td></tr>
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We had a long lie today - bliss! No dolphins or turtles to watch while having breakfast. We went for a look at a dry river bed. There are lots of little birds, some very colourful. The whole area must be beautiful in about a months time with all the flowers about to bloom. We didn't want to go far as we hadn't taken water with us, not intending being out long. We came back down to find 2 vultures eyeing us up from the tops of 2 large cacti. After our coffee, we went in for another snorkel with pipe fish, blue tangs, more King angels and lots more Sergeant Majors.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beautiful clear waters</td></tr>
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Time to paddle again a bit sooner than we had hoped, but the weather was changing. Another VERY blowy crossing over to San Evaristo. There could have been whale breaching, sharks circling, dolphins backflipping, I was having to concentrate on the conditions. We could only get long range forecasts before we left La Paz and they had been fairly accurate. We knew the wind was due to change, it just did it a bit earlier. We pulled into San Evaristo, a little fishing village where we were told there was a "shop". We spoke to some fishermen, who were busy unloading their catch. We had hoped for just a wee bit fresh fish, but some of the fish were huge, however they did gut and fillet a couple of pieces of snappers for us.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lost in translation,this is a church not a shop!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">San Evaristo</span></td></tr>
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We then went off in search of the shop, following the fishermen's instructions,(Spanish phrase book out again!)however we ended up at a pink church! We did find the shop, it was a wooden shed, added onto the house. There were no lights - and no ice cream! They did have lots of orange juice and toilet rolls. We did get some apples and a couple of very ripe bananas, the tastiest bananas ever. They were the only folks we spoke to, other than each other, until we landed back at LaPaz!<br />
Back in the boats, we headed onto Accerife Coyote beach. A very hard 23Km today.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hairdressers wasn't open in San Evaristo!</td></tr>
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Soggy Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17793726525170203987noreply@blogger.com0Unnamed Road, Baja California Sur, Mexico24.892313944877269 -110.6972745843750124.661743944877269 -111.019998084375 25.12288394487727 -110.37455108437501tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-18159560211601078622018-07-15T23:13:00.000+01:002018-07-16T16:26:20.627+01:00Sea of Cortez, La Paz, will we ever paddle?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Having had our paddle last year surrounded by wonderful glaziers, we decided on sunnier climes for this paddle, La Paz, Mexico. After our <a href="https://sarahs-soggy-scenarios.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/gigha-via-alaska-ping-1.html">Alaska</a> trip where we flew in, paddled, then flew out again, we decided this time we would stay longer.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finding my house on the interactive map in Schipol airport</td></tr>
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Getting flights for when we wanted to go was easier than we thought it was going to be. Getting a place to stay our last week was easy, organising 2 days Scuba diving was easy, organising a days horse riding was easy, however, the main part of our time away was to go paddling - and this wasn't quite so easy, so much so, we were on the plane and I was still hoping we would actually get paddling!<br />
After a very lonnnggg flight, we eventually arrived at La Paz. It was a bit worrying to see so many police in the backs of trucks dressed head to toe in black carrying massive guns! We did eventually get used to this.We were offered breakfast at our hotel while our rooms were prepared (it was only 8am). It was great sitting in the heat watching our first Hummingbird. After we were given our rooms, we went in search of food. Armed with our trusty Spanish dictionary, off we set for the supermarket. It was surprisingly easy to get the food for our trip, with lots of small packs of all sorts of things that go into tortillas. After that it was so hot it was a necessity to get ourselves an icecream and beer!<br />
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Back at the hotel, we were shown our boats to check over, Ken's had no front bulkhead, but that seemed to be quite common for his size of boat! I was so glad we had our own BA's and paddles.<br />
Next morning, as we were trying to get kit organised, water decanted into containers, all the gubbings we were going to need for our trip, the office was STILL going over our route. We had emailed our trip plans a while back, we had rearranged them at one point to take into consideration that they didn't want us to do a 30k crossing, but they were still suggesting different routes - aaarrrggggghhhh. The taxi had arrived at 9.00am to take us to our put in and papers were still getting signed!<br />
Eventually the van was loaded with our boats, kit and 80L of water.<br />
The journey was going to take 4 hours. Once we were getting near the end of our journey, the land was changing from cactus covered deserts, to rugged mountains with sneaky peaks at the sea in between. We arrived at Playa Loretto where our driver tried to get us as close to the beach as possible, taking us over some very soft sand, getting us stuck! We speak no Spanish, he spoke no English, so with a lot of sign language, we all worked together to try to dig and work the van out - to no avail! We were stuck! There was another truck on the beach, but no-one around. After more digging in the sweltering heat (still getting no where) 3 kayakers appeared across the water. I went to speak to them and was extremely relieved to find out they were from Illinois and the truck was theirs. The van was soon pulled out, we were unloaded, the boats reloaded,we waved goodbye to our Mexican driver. It was just so good to eventually be paddling!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">WooHoo! Eventually getting paddling!</td></tr>
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We weren't paddling too far the first day (9k) as it was now getting late, it gets dark by 6pm. We found a lovely stoney beach (Sparkly Bay, my name for it, haven't a clue what the Mexicans would call it), hauled the boats in, got our new tent up(replaced after all the <a href="https://sarahs-soggy-scenarios.blogspot.com/2017/11/gigha-via-alaska-ping-2.html">pinging</a> in Alaska!) and had our first gourmet meal.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shiny new tent</td></tr>
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Then we watched our first whale just off the corner of our beach, then before too long along comes a couple of dolphins.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our first dolphin</td></tr>
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By the time we are finished dinner, it is dark. We soon realise that when it starts to get dark, it gets dark fast! We also soon learn to make sure our tent is up and the dinner made while we can still see, as soon as a light is switched on, all sorts of bugs and moths come out.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXmIUZE0897YHB1SP0gSnalZPKYYPcwDKC1akpN8mmfFD7zTDXvKhxu5t77judMvzQ3_YgcpkOA65mYAXZi8WQuA3oNu-3WLg3-fgz_goobJUwJrfoH8bsd-m7DqsuyFFblbWJSku3eI/s1600/La+Paz+04.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXmIUZE0897YHB1SP0gSnalZPKYYPcwDKC1akpN8mmfFD7zTDXvKhxu5t77judMvzQ3_YgcpkOA65mYAXZi8WQuA3oNu-3WLg3-fgz_goobJUwJrfoH8bsd-m7DqsuyFFblbWJSku3eI/s320/La+Paz+04.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dinner by lamplight</td></tr>
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After this we sat in the dark amazed at the number of stars, then were treated to a light show. When the fish were jumping they were sending out luminescent splashes. We had never seen this before (read about it) and it was just magical - no photos, but magical! What a great start to our trip!<br />
Day 2.<br />
Up nice and early (yes, me up early!) even though we had been woken up during the night by the puffing of dolphins close in the bay, just settled down, then a donkey somewhere decided to start braying!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJyPvyzJP_a5qXferzivtGGBVd2f24rHk4lxF_RRIYh4Zzn0Vaf52_ZOkBeR3GojhdenU0G-t5CQ9v4OOrdsQUVWZ70yXs4skRczAcoDQ7wFutCofCVC520WXfYgv5Q-aNOngqlIQFTeA/s1600/La+Paz+05.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJyPvyzJP_a5qXferzivtGGBVd2f24rHk4lxF_RRIYh4Zzn0Vaf52_ZOkBeR3GojhdenU0G-t5CQ9v4OOrdsQUVWZ70yXs4skRczAcoDQ7wFutCofCVC520WXfYgv5Q-aNOngqlIQFTeA/s320/La+Paz+05.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first of many cracking sunrises</td></tr>
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We were treated to a beautiful sunrise. Had our breakfast and was on the water by 7.15 - am!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Early morning paddling</td></tr>
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This is unheard of from me! We were out by Window Rock by 8am. Window Rock actually looked more like an elephant.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvuwZ6U-iVaaZ8fMDsmwwdMB-VCqaFS2RHi_UpXlpnygR0B4L48gSIy65i0-4VjSQI6Y1twVoLD2NCns8raRMsV9ABCSfBctWB_bVIg6Xy-TYsHJHSXTMdU3u7pLg-xEWVzEqIxq5FJ4c/s1600/La+Paz+07.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvuwZ6U-iVaaZ8fMDsmwwdMB-VCqaFS2RHi_UpXlpnygR0B4L48gSIy65i0-4VjSQI6Y1twVoLD2NCns8raRMsV9ABCSfBctWB_bVIg6Xy-TYsHJHSXTMdU3u7pLg-xEWVzEqIxq5FJ4c/s320/La+Paz+07.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Window Rock</td></tr>
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Lots of Pelicans here and lots of Magnificent Frigate birds gliding high above us. After that, we had a 16k crossing over to Isla Monseratt. From quite a distance, we could see "a something!"This shape would appear, then disappear after a while. This went on for quite sometime before we realised it was the blow of a whale.. It was reaching about 30' into the air and took a while to dissipate. This was why we thought it was the colour of rock on the island behind it or possibly the sail from a yacht, but as we neared it we were able to time when it was likely to surface again - we just didn't know where! We didn't particularly want it surfacing under us!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwXVAaL0C60CApz6xN1ekFya9pl1K1d4Gz9z-mOKlgBCAsigGN3MatHpKVP97meReIUGO-mZPOemga1-ZdBA39GDIAdSA1DzVbEf-GjH8SMSLLFde_W7cU4EM8R-OsRAJ8q5QwnsJGVo/s1600/La+Paz+12.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="800" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKwXVAaL0C60CApz6xN1ekFya9pl1K1d4Gz9z-mOKlgBCAsigGN3MatHpKVP97meReIUGO-mZPOemga1-ZdBA39GDIAdSA1DzVbEf-GjH8SMSLLFde_W7cU4EM8R-OsRAJ8q5QwnsJGVo/s320/La+Paz+12.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
As we got even closer to the island a pod of about 30 dolphins passed in front of us, then an unidentified fin passed!!! Next thing we know, about 20m off to our left was suddenly a terrific "swoosh!" The whale had reappeared, the blow was MASSIVE and we could feel it vibrate right through us. It gently surfaced and seemed to keep going, we then realised it was a humungous Blue whale! I think we were both so excited, neither of us took photos (soon to be the story of this trip!), but just enjoyed the spectacle of this giant! Next time it surfaced it was quite some distance off heading north.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8hD0raMJ3cV03T0ihTV_NtDOnAsgQFkh5MfegtfwZnP24X80W3XlmCKedh6FKxdxXESTRhyphenhyphenu225IgT96k0t1gXR1-Uheh64A-YW5EFz5S-5KHNcIrHPeP2kXo88Rhg9B0zcp1tcDC88/s1600/La+Paz+08.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW8hD0raMJ3cV03T0ihTV_NtDOnAsgQFkh5MfegtfwZnP24X80W3XlmCKedh6FKxdxXESTRhyphenhyphenu225IgT96k0t1gXR1-Uheh64A-YW5EFz5S-5KHNcIrHPeP2kXo88Rhg9B0zcp1tcDC88/s320/La+Paz+08.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doesn't look like a 16k crossing</td></tr>
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We landed on Isla Monseratt, had a stretch of the legs and a wee wander around. It's a bit un-nerving being out in a desert with vultures circling around you - did they know something we didn't? Lots of Ospreys too.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dry river bed</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Left these shells behind, some were as big as my hand!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lovely turquoise waters</td></tr>
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We had intended camping the night here, but the forecast later was for the wind to pick up a bit so after lunch and a bit of a siesta we headed back across an increasingly bumpy 16km crossing. There ahead of us, again just where we were aiming was another blow. We kept on course keeping an eye on it. This one wasn't nearly as big as the Blue!, but probably still bigger than us! As we got close to the land, in the trough of the next (big) wave, I could see a large dark "thing" swim towards me. I did panic, thinking the whale was about to surface right under me! It did take me a few seconds to realise it wasn't the whale, but an enormous whale shark! I could have kicked myself (except I was still in my boat!) the whole point of coming paddling here was to see all sorts of wonderful things and not panic!!! The whale in the meantime had vanished - as had the whale shark! We did have another mysterious fin swim by us soon after followed by a huge pod of dolphins cutting behind us, charging through the water at a terrific rate. I was exhausted just watching all this wildlife. It was only day 2 and we had already seen the biggest whale in the world AND the biggest fish in the world - what a day it had been.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSEnqNXsub3weWX4h2i8rhjdDrLUlcNpL6dZSS3ZghtbFzDnavAgFdJlBiN0i37nA5rsbTardQZ9o6hyphenhyphenhCMjKgdKHCdJ_WaiKR_90VFNbbMuRuDzo83g7c15a8c8dtpJwQ7nWe3Vx6vkU/s1600/La+Paz+14.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSEnqNXsub3weWX4h2i8rhjdDrLUlcNpL6dZSS3ZghtbFzDnavAgFdJlBiN0i37nA5rsbTardQZ9o6hyphenhyphenhCMjKgdKHCdJ_WaiKR_90VFNbbMuRuDzo83g7c15a8c8dtpJwQ7nWe3Vx6vkU/s320/La+Paz+14.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Campsite No2</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE132S2goegRCNVDmVK8M7oQMDTYqRLucJ5rmFKuCaGXDjR2IOF-HXZdfMAI_al9AVPW_CDAQfqZcnIhJKBwwazLgYGz4-gt8Kf8IuWUElBFSkOf66xNJlR4FLIt_7SwKdMcEV-B2BVmI/s1600/P3100018.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="800" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE132S2goegRCNVDmVK8M7oQMDTYqRLucJ5rmFKuCaGXDjR2IOF-HXZdfMAI_al9AVPW_CDAQfqZcnIhJKBwwazLgYGz4-gt8Kf8IuWUElBFSkOf66xNJlR4FLIt_7SwKdMcEV-B2BVmI/s320/P3100018.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More vultures</td></tr>
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We found a lovely beach in Agua Verde, set up tent, then went for a lovely refreshing swim. We were in bed quite early. The early morning, a 37k paddle and all the days excitement had left me jiggered!Soggy Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17793726525170203987noreply@blogger.com0Isla Monserrate, Baja California Sur, Mexico25.6799317 -111.0341182999999925.6226917 -111.11479929999999 25.7371717 -110.95343729999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-17182446605611164602018-04-09T21:00:00.000+01:002018-04-09T21:00:23.977+01:00Kayakey Kid's Loch Lomond Adventure<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">Guest editor this time is the Kayakey Kid himself!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNJ4uyQPP8e9flUQHFOOBcEC4Jqv1S3yGMrdxYrIhnxPTu4E0bDk3a2zM_ih6aLNLFIZEcjhogdp2I-Z3L_Zb_sWeDLtrSmqjey0Q3ihvuWfWHqN_c4VLQuX6il8DQwCuDcsLZd1PR6yA/s1600/P2160003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNJ4uyQPP8e9flUQHFOOBcEC4Jqv1S3yGMrdxYrIhnxPTu4E0bDk3a2zM_ih6aLNLFIZEcjhogdp2I-Z3L_Zb_sWeDLtrSmqjey0Q3ihvuWfWHqN_c4VLQuX6il8DQwCuDcsLZd1PR6yA/s320/P2160003.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Kayakey Kid</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Leo Kayaking Report</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">On
Wednesday the 14<sup>th</sup> of February 2018, I was super excited as I knew I
only had one more sleep to go before I got to go to Loch Lomond with my Grandma
and Grandad to do some adventuring and my favourite kayaking. I spent ages with
my dad getting all of my equipment ready and packed away so that I could leave
bright and early on the Thursday morning. That night I went to bed super early
so I could get a great nights sleep as I knew I would need all of my energy for
what was to come.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYNsckvz2EzNK_RWhQZYvzsRUpAUQUFjdO-fl_6EnZfFHDaEg_nb8GOUTJekSxJorvIsdB1SDKkGhk3V_CoTJ67hES_7lNjZOfsQisV-s-oqU3KnoCUOQh1B-U8bD0YCPDfdMQOy138D8/s1600/P2160014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYNsckvz2EzNK_RWhQZYvzsRUpAUQUFjdO-fl_6EnZfFHDaEg_nb8GOUTJekSxJorvIsdB1SDKkGhk3V_CoTJ67hES_7lNjZOfsQisV-s-oqU3KnoCUOQh1B-U8bD0YCPDfdMQOy138D8/s320/P2160014.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On Loch Lomond with Grandad</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">On
the Thursday morning once I got to my Grandma’s house we packed the big car and
hit the road. The drive up to Loch Lomond was lovely, I liked looking at all of
the scenery that we were driving past, my favourite things to see were the
Kelpies. We finally arrived after what felt like hours in the car to a nice
Hostel that was just by the Loch. I helped unpack the car and had a quick look
around to see if my friends had arrived yet. At this point only 1 of them had
arrived and her name is Hannah. Later on Antony and Ellen arrived which was
great as there were more of us to play games like Toilet tig while all of the
adults were planning what we were all going to get up to on this great trip. I
overheard all the adults talking about us going to wallaby island, I was so
happy to hear this as I really wanted to go there.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">On
Thursday we had a nice relaxing time talking and playing games before going to
our beds. I loved staying there and I was super excited about what the next day
would bring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"><o:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL9TeLe6L6zs-9BVSvedKWlQRWD2Nj-cSwdShYMMr_JdHxMMT3u6pW-NNMj-H_WfXGywJkb91TxIM7ojC02oGBu8kJHGbQKWy4EwlsL6GSK57v25VtaidmSUj2IDAmAmLqPR9eQ0YzLgM/s1600/P2160018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL9TeLe6L6zs-9BVSvedKWlQRWD2Nj-cSwdShYMMr_JdHxMMT3u6pW-NNMj-H_WfXGywJkb91TxIM7ojC02oGBu8kJHGbQKWy4EwlsL6GSK57v25VtaidmSUj2IDAmAmLqPR9eQ0YzLgM/s320/P2160018.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Searching for Wallabies</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqlf1lyEJhNO3deyPNYtYDfnk2sNMQxwd_k-09UBMTd7GbDKvyZlvW3tF7Qo33q7clKpcHuV7A17JGJOGmMVzKLjH6yq-pB7KhJvWyeBQ7kJVRrwd4cogucf1KWz2ZuN1w5uH-LaigXRQ/s1600/P2160019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqlf1lyEJhNO3deyPNYtYDfnk2sNMQxwd_k-09UBMTd7GbDKvyZlvW3tF7Qo33q7clKpcHuV7A17JGJOGmMVzKLjH6yq-pB7KhJvWyeBQ7kJVRrwd4cogucf1KWz2ZuN1w5uH-LaigXRQ/s320/P2160019.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not finding Wallabies!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGPhYmlLxqvvpH7MrQboF8ntRDdwQxWIZt-zFJFEqlLzD8c-BUJxo_cGu2MmLPPkldr5fjvyYMg5v5MMk7Kff5TdIDROFHLeKw8sx_L4lMsWaw0PTymOfh-3TAjMyvf4XAK8-sPFc_8R0/s1600/P2163406.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGPhYmlLxqvvpH7MrQboF8ntRDdwQxWIZt-zFJFEqlLzD8c-BUJxo_cGu2MmLPPkldr5fjvyYMg5v5MMk7Kff5TdIDROFHLeKw8sx_L4lMsWaw0PTymOfh-3TAjMyvf4XAK8-sPFc_8R0/s320/P2163406.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2L3aEt8t3OV-_pIY4uyuRtHiLWm-iGAeixUqrH_qxIjEoPTerEKOESJonbgZQ5Xv2g28ORwoxzd9xVIq3T1Fz15wgUR5TmNGiy0uo-AYbGAd74VFQs-2ofukocthAUsw7z7WTdKsypks/s1600/P2163410.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2L3aEt8t3OV-_pIY4uyuRtHiLWm-iGAeixUqrH_qxIjEoPTerEKOESJonbgZQ5Xv2g28ORwoxzd9xVIq3T1Fz15wgUR5TmNGiy0uo-AYbGAd74VFQs-2ofukocthAUsw7z7WTdKsypks/s320/P2163410.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Out with Grandma</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">On
Friday morning we were up early to get all of our stuff ready and get a good
breakfast. We went to a beach, all the adults helped us get ready in our kayaks.
They pushed us off of the beach and on to the Loch. Here our adventure really
begins. I stayed close to my grandad and spoke to him whilst we paddled down
the loch. All of a sudden the winds picked up and I felt like my kayak was
about to capsize but I managed to control it with a low brace. Battling against
the winds was hard but I knew I could do it. We went over to wallaby island but
unfortunately I couldn’t see any wallabys and grandma said she thought they
might be on their holidays which made me laugh. I was a little disappointed
that I couldn’t see any wallabys but decided not to let it ruin my day. We
stopped on a beautiful beach on the island so we could have our lunch. After
everyone had finished their lunches and let it settle in their stomachs we
headed off for part two of our adventure. The adults told us we were to paddle
to the green and red buoys that were in the water so we could get an ice cream.
This made me paddle even faster than before as I really liked the idea of
getting an ice cream. We went to the beach to leave the boats and headed on the
hunt for ice cream. The first shop we went in to didn’t sell ice cream so our
hunt continued until we finally found a wee shop that had a variety of ice
cream flavours for us. I got chocolate and strawberry ice cream. After we had
finished our ice creams we headed back to the beach and jumped in to the boats
and headed to the hostel but the winds were scarier now and the adults told us
we had to cross the loch to get back to the hostel. This was hard to do and my
arms and hands were getting sore and tired, I couldn’t wait to get back and
relax. When we finally arrived back to the hostel we all got sorted and had
dinner. I was super tired and felt like I had used all of the energy in my
body.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ3fcTSgUVZSlrW0y1gQTp_V1hNbja8F131GKeinHh25pIjS59WwZunqworfEoK3nbv52zYCx7_Z5yqiBPvLBnl-F02ulnOa-rzZW1x8TTtGzxcoNlRzB7tK4yodczvWlYgb_YnZcmZBo/s1600/P2160025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQ3fcTSgUVZSlrW0y1gQTp_V1hNbja8F131GKeinHh25pIjS59WwZunqworfEoK3nbv52zYCx7_Z5yqiBPvLBnl-F02ulnOa-rzZW1x8TTtGzxcoNlRzB7tK4yodczvWlYgb_YnZcmZBo/s320/P2160025.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trained by Grandma!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXQqKaSQUhzJ9mtpHvxIro9fkFKVXgjc3obF-pCg-4hFkCDiqsJ0RzNRGfsJh46aA6RKOpSTiBvJlxecjvlHvyizxuo5oKwOki3duMbHkM38hXwA-FyVUSMzqIhEUmcG84EAU7aizw4ug/s1600/P2160026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXQqKaSQUhzJ9mtpHvxIro9fkFKVXgjc3obF-pCg-4hFkCDiqsJ0RzNRGfsJh46aA6RKOpSTiBvJlxecjvlHvyizxuo5oKwOki3duMbHkM38hXwA-FyVUSMzqIhEUmcG84EAU7aizw4ug/s320/P2160026.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDAlzY6FYQdmGY-sL1qcQ46BAw81Fnzg_trSPLYYvo57hTMx3oZRqHQbSca0miIKMR89nj2zoTa8F7135rfh-d0HTBRCXcVxSVZIMDGOa0IhkosvybfhZKrIGTZw681MtDsETqCyXb908/s1600/IMG_6891.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDAlzY6FYQdmGY-sL1qcQ46BAw81Fnzg_trSPLYYvo57hTMx3oZRqHQbSca0miIKMR89nj2zoTa8F7135rfh-d0HTBRCXcVxSVZIMDGOa0IhkosvybfhZKrIGTZw681MtDsETqCyXb908/s320/IMG_6891.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">Saturday
morning the weather was sunny but still chilly, the wind was calmer than the
night before which was good for us. This time we paddled past wallaby island
and decided we were going to paddle half of the loch. I saw a big bird in the
bright blue sky. Everyone was having a awesome time, we stopped for lunch on a
bright and beautiful beach .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpkuIPMPRSIyWHeTHxKAYr6GzMv4RAyCKePq-QTQI-A3sUtRE8m7T0TXlNjslaI8g1jVfgq5OtV8tTPRZBKw5XTxGjWthoQMrvjgah2sDipr6q04AXzUCsWqK9WG3IybPbhrUfseZ-zk0/s1600/P2170034.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpkuIPMPRSIyWHeTHxKAYr6GzMv4RAyCKePq-QTQI-A3sUtRE8m7T0TXlNjslaI8g1jVfgq5OtV8tTPRZBKw5XTxGjWthoQMrvjgah2sDipr6q04AXzUCsWqK9WG3IybPbhrUfseZ-zk0/s320/P2170034.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdTSeDRll77mwJFSg6DmrWj2qOY40Gb_ko-zTzvazPAoachO1g4p9LM41DKZoa8DgAAHS2sHJRTjF3_PSL6_huQVtkmx3frm0uMXMQySLGRg1YjJ97_ogTfvmXZ68SF3H0jj1cxR4HI1g/s1600/P2170051.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdTSeDRll77mwJFSg6DmrWj2qOY40Gb_ko-zTzvazPAoachO1g4p9LM41DKZoa8DgAAHS2sHJRTjF3_PSL6_huQVtkmx3frm0uMXMQySLGRg1YjJ97_ogTfvmXZ68SF3H0jj1cxR4HI1g/s320/P2170051.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">Once
we finished our lunch we set off to the cars, on the way I saw swans and geese
in the water. I got a bit chilly because I was in the middle of the loch. We
stopped at a yellow buoy so we can have a race. So me, Mandy, grandad, grandma
and Hannah stopped at the yellow buoy and 1….2….3 go, go, go, so the race
begins. Out of me, grandad and grandma the first person to get back gets an ice
– cream. In the lead is Hannah, in second me and third grandma but thanks to my
small boat and the waves, I came in first place. I was first on the beach so I
got an ice-cream, so did grandma and grandad. Once I got my clothes on I skimmed
stones, my high score was 5. Once I finished, I went to the car. I got a chocolate<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and strawberry ice- cream. I went to the car
and I fell asleep in the car as well. When I got back I had tea then I went to
bed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 28.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;">from</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 28.0pt; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-no-proof: yes;"> <span style="color: red;">Leo xxxx</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8NpLrWheajaagkjrbGdNTcm_NKlRCu603dbhtQ4M9NdzhvMJbGpUpPo-COEjt9tBbIedzwFaWugw0K3YKYXgV01YSyq175oRUeLx455YdKNNVykFBBAhzxQ-KyPvy5BsXWHxgUP6ZKD4/s1600/P2170054.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8NpLrWheajaagkjrbGdNTcm_NKlRCu603dbhtQ4M9NdzhvMJbGpUpPo-COEjt9tBbIedzwFaWugw0K3YKYXgV01YSyq175oRUeLx455YdKNNVykFBBAhzxQ-KyPvy5BsXWHxgUP6ZKD4/s320/P2170054.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and my Grandad!</td></tr>
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<br />Soggy Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17793726525170203987noreply@blogger.com0Loch Lomond, United Kingdom56.1113678 -4.628860199999962855.828378799999996 -5.2743071999999627 56.3943568 -3.9834131999999629tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-5152151206737751252018-02-28T13:01:00.001+00:002018-02-28T13:01:59.140+00:00Gnarly North Coast<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In October, Ken and Zoe had organised a North Coast meet up at Tongue hostel for SSKEG. I keep thinking as we are passing through Inverness that we are almost there, forgetting the fact we are really only about half way there! After driving over bleak moors dotted with magnificent stags, we did eventually arrive at the hostel, with a very welcome roaring fire!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On Rabbit Island</td></tr>
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Next morning minus Zoe, 6 of us, Lori, Antje, Alan, Fiona, Ken and myself, set off from the slipway, picked our way between sand banks and big swells before eventually making it out to Rabbit Islands. We landed here for a bit of a clamber around the lovely golden sand dunes, couldn't find any rabbits, but we did find lots of otter footprints. We carried on clockwise round the island before picking our way through the next group of islands with the crashing waves, then headed out to Eilean Nan Ron. On the sheltered side, it was great getting into caves, round we stacks, through arches, out from the shelter, it was just lumpy, bumpy, swooshy! Coming back into Tongue Bay, there was a huge white wall which looked like it ran the full width of the bay! Yikes! We kept quite far to the right, however, as we got nearer, we could see that it wasn't quite as bad as it had first looked!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Big bubble bath</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not quite the paddling we thought of!</td></tr>
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We did manage to pick our way through, eventually making it back to the slipway, back to the hostel - and back to that roaring fire and a beer!<br />
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Next day David, Alice and Ansgar joined us, though Alan had a day off. This time we set off from Ard Neackie in Loch Eriboll to the sound of large BOOMS! from the firing range nearer Cape Wrath. Weather again was a bit breezy and dreich! We cut across the loch, paddled up the west side, then pulled into a lovely little sheltered harbour at Rispond for a breather. We were hoping to carry onto Durness, however the conditions had other ideas so we headed out to Eilean Hoan for lunch, then back into Loch Eriboll and down the east side.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heading back into Loch Eriboll</td></tr>
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Back to the roaring fire and another wee beer!<br />
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Day 3, we were all out, Zoe and Mark had arrived early. We left Fiona's car at Talmine, then headed back over to Ard Neackie, sticking to the east side, we followed the coast round past Whiten Head. Magnificient cliffs and caves round here and wonderful entertainment from a frothy whirly <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sarah.mcilroy.528/videos/1739965989408015/?l=729167066203114683">tornado</a>.<br />
I have to say, it was quite nice getting back into slightly more sheltered waters! <br />
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Collected Fiona's car,went back over to Ard Neackie to collect everyone else's cars then back to the roaring fire and another wee beer!<br />
Day 4, Alice and Ansgar have abandoned us today (back to work!) everyone else headed over to Dwarwick pier to head out round Dunnet Head.<br />
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Once again the weather was somewhat breezy! After some time David did mention we were going at some rate and it was about time to turn back, which we did, then there was the hard battle back, at times feeling as though we were paddling hard and getting no where!. A wee bit more oomph and we did make headway before thankfully turning back into Dunnet Bay. There was the choice of heading further in to play in the surf, but by then most of us were a bit knackered and what with the talk of ice cream in Wick, it was a no brainer - Wick, here we come!<br />
It was a really good, committing, few days hard paddling with good company, but boy was I glad of that icecream!Soggy Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17793726525170203987noreply@blogger.com0Tongue, Lairg IV27 4XF, UK58.476147 -4.417471999999975232.954112499999994 -45.726065999999975 83.9981815 36.891122000000024tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-71323462092356102022018-02-03T23:56:00.000+00:002018-02-03T23:56:44.627+00:00Down Devon Way<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots and lots of lovely ladies</td></tr>
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I was delighted to be asked to coach at the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/524942707608110/?hc_location=group">Women's Sea Kayak Festival South Devon</a> in August. After the fun I had on <a href="https://sarahs-soggy-scenarios.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/girls-just-want-to-have-fun.html">Bute</a>, I was really looking forward to it - not so much the long drive down! However Ken was coming down with me to join in with the ever popular "Man Creche".<br />
Off we set for the long haul down south, stopping off at an "interesting" B&B, complete with a "Bluesmobile" sitting out back!<br />
We eventually made it down to Alston Farm, our home for the next few days. We pitched the tent and got nicely settled in.<br />
Next day, the festival was opening in the evening. This gave us all a day to go paddling - well what else would we do? Paul was demoing one of his boats, so we joined him with another 3 guys (I did say this was a Womens' Sea Kayak Festival?) We made our way through the very narrow, very busy Devon lanes down to Strete where we launched, then paddled east along the coast passing Blackpool - we haven't paddled that far! We stopped at Willow Cove for lunch, then continued along passing Dartmouth, then onto Berry Head with some wonderful caves before rounding the corner into the full blast of a strong headwind and up to Brixham, our get out and ice cream stop! A great first paddle down south with no photos, forgot the camera!!!!!<br />
Back at the campsite, things were getting busy, lots of lovely ladies were arriving!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunny lunch time</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Checking out the cave</td></tr>
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Next morning, everyone was divvied up into their various groups. Then the organised chaos of everyone loading boats onto masses of vans and cars ensued followed by the mass exodus all through the narrow campsite gate! I think the other campers were all agog at this, but this being a women's event, meant that it all went remarkably smoothly! (thanks to the <i>Man Creche</i> for helping with humphing!)<br />
Our group was the short day paddle heading out from Dartmouth with Zoe, Anges and umpteen ladies. We headed out down the river and into the bay, catching a few chances for rock hopping before getting out into slightly bumpier water, stopped for lunch before returning via a tiny cave entrance. This opened up into a lovely large cave, a nice finish to a lovely paddle. It was then back to the campsite and a superb dinner in the marquee.<br />
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Next day we were having a Paddle Skills workshop. After the organised chaos was once again over, our group made our way down to North Sands in Salcombe, only for most of us to meet back up. There were a few groups leaving from North Sands, it was a busy place! We had a great time going over different strokes, how to improve them and putting them to good use round the rocks, into the ever increasing wind, across the flow, then back again into the shelter of the bay again. We pulled out a bit early this day, the weather was just getting so bad, we retired to the cafe for a very large hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows - yum!<br />
It's so good getting back to the camp knowing that the tea has been made for you and tasty too! That evening we had wonderful entertainment where everyone showed 5 photos each, what a variety of trips there are to explore!<br />
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On the festivals last day the weather was glorious, thankfully the previous days mingin' weather had moved on. This days session was all about getting wet!, that should possibly have been yesterdays title! Once again well organised chaos ensued, once again we were down at North Sands along with most of the ladies - and the <i>Man Creche. </i>A superb day for generally playing, having a giggle and finishing it all off with icecream.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3qZJkuyoG1dyJHuvmGKJL22ldJzX20DOpZ7IFv8ripfFUOXG6obLbbewk69CBfrXSw2JWhgUVnufWpZsGbEZnBviT6GIRbhuphVI4X_xR7x2cMDMd-YsedYW9BBCrSiReICfNcH0X16g/s1600/North+Sands+10+WSKF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3qZJkuyoG1dyJHuvmGKJL22ldJzX20DOpZ7IFv8ripfFUOXG6obLbbewk69CBfrXSw2JWhgUVnufWpZsGbEZnBviT6GIRbhuphVI4X_xR7x2cMDMd-YsedYW9BBCrSiReICfNcH0X16g/s320/North+Sands+10+WSKF.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oooooooooh!!!!!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEharWBecQa2YIoA3Pb0gC4kEzd8cgRBivoB0by6oOXCELG50OM0M3aCw2WGUyohd3R4zC9Mxw8YZW1p37bJhyphenhyphenROIGvfVsfIBSdDTdWGLb8_lBmFDRtyLa3tW1tIgnkQJB8l3JLJ4S3e3G4/s1600/North+Sands+12+WSKF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEharWBecQa2YIoA3Pb0gC4kEzd8cgRBivoB0by6oOXCELG50OM0M3aCw2WGUyohd3R4zC9Mxw8YZW1p37bJhyphenhyphenROIGvfVsfIBSdDTdWGLb8_lBmFDRtyLa3tW1tIgnkQJB8l3JLJ4S3e3G4/s320/North+Sands+12+WSKF.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another busy beac</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIHTlip4Xjsj54KgZS9Ex3jW2HwwDK0NITZU4vE0fOlnYFch8vPpuIkmGHssAS2CqErx4cJ31I9uNFz25dvq9BzusDxRnLRRkpyQxDWVQ9Fx9uKFADRhxjhXyU5NjzgOkwMLQ_UzHrrkw/s1600/North+Sands+13+WSKF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIHTlip4Xjsj54KgZS9Ex3jW2HwwDK0NITZU4vE0fOlnYFch8vPpuIkmGHssAS2CqErx4cJ31I9uNFz25dvq9BzusDxRnLRRkpyQxDWVQ9Fx9uKFADRhxjhXyU5NjzgOkwMLQ_UzHrrkw/s320/North+Sands+13+WSKF.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loving your boat</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibwh9K6XYMYsm_0rT8yvS59UpDf-5atTmzIv0SPidZthqJ-Ynev6lzmMgo6mMyF_MsM5-HVTB7BlnGYoysW7z8d7jZ57OjCf3CGbYYf7q2LkiEfQ9zqItpruviDrVNKmXZlpTQjOhMf1E/s1600/North+Sands+14+WSKF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibwh9K6XYMYsm_0rT8yvS59UpDf-5atTmzIv0SPidZthqJ-Ynev6lzmMgo6mMyF_MsM5-HVTB7BlnGYoysW7z8d7jZ57OjCf3CGbYYf7q2LkiEfQ9zqItpruviDrVNKmXZlpTQjOhMf1E/s320/North+Sands+14+WSKF.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kate's balancing act</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbgsWmz1MDDDtDa40Ws9stBH095yOc-jS4v8N2SG_MajuvFNs8X9gh_O3M4AkAiY3N8UhxX1ZQ6P3-tOZK6sKx9jLJNbwdZcTLHyihHn-ZOZn6ys7uLEHVfC5FCdd5vmb2gpWOyDkxDgU/s1600/North+Sands+15+WSKF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbgsWmz1MDDDtDa40Ws9stBH095yOc-jS4v8N2SG_MajuvFNs8X9gh_O3M4AkAiY3N8UhxX1ZQ6P3-tOZK6sKx9jLJNbwdZcTLHyihHn-ZOZn6ys7uLEHVfC5FCdd5vmb2gpWOyDkxDgU/s320/North+Sands+15+WSKF.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smiley Eryl</td></tr>
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A great day to finish the festival off with, here's an <a href="https://www.britishcanoeing.org.uk/news/2017/womens-sea-kayak-festival-a-review/">independent view</a> on it.<br />
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The festival was over, but we were staying down a bit longer so next day Jo, Anges, Ken and I wound our way through more very busy, narrow Devon lanes eventually arriving at Lannacombe. We made our way along, through the rocks with Anges explaining about the different seaweeds and which ones taste nice. We stopped at Start Point, where the Channel meets the Ocean, had our lunch below the lighthouse, then made our way back. Superb place to finish, a fresh water stream was running down to the beach, perfect chance to rinse our kit, then off for a lovely icecream in Kingsbridge.<br />
Next day we decided we would have a day being tourists in Plymouth which meant we had to have cream teas! Very tasty!<br />
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Next day it was time to start the long haul back up the road, but not before we had a wee detour round by Peter Tavy in Dartmoor to collect a wee Grandchild sized river boat. As the seller turned the boat over to let us see, there was a tiny grass snake slithering around - a wee snake for a wee boat!<br />
We eventually made it back to Scotland having a detour round by Easdale for another weekends paddle with Andy and Co out through the Corryvreckan to the Garvellachs and Belnahua.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlAVz_yAhaYTWxxB8yMLBrys03fMP_3P3w5OKiWT9UNTbwSByd9nl4krzZ-do9o3cz9mtL_4OiqT6lNC2CDIPpudybHtWWi37Yos834WrunOoFTtezcVRCwVl03giSNyxZORefM8LimJE/s1600/Easdale+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlAVz_yAhaYTWxxB8yMLBrys03fMP_3P3w5OKiWT9UNTbwSByd9nl4krzZ-do9o3cz9mtL_4OiqT6lNC2CDIPpudybHtWWi37Yos834WrunOoFTtezcVRCwVl03giSNyxZORefM8LimJE/s320/Easdale+1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Night paddle?</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUDq8jLKxbOOHb75-duszVAj8rjUIAxDjOdyDcV-95JPqpJ_9Gn8VoUP0HDSIF7VkpAMNZbOxGPzI4GD8FofjdwrFGhwvgo5qfkJG4KX8xEPsWYNZxBuUsItGRCsxj4fN51ULtcTnHUiY/s1600/Garvellachs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUDq8jLKxbOOHb75-duszVAj8rjUIAxDjOdyDcV-95JPqpJ_9Gn8VoUP0HDSIF7VkpAMNZbOxGPzI4GD8FofjdwrFGhwvgo5qfkJG4KX8xEPsWYNZxBuUsItGRCsxj4fN51ULtcTnHUiY/s320/Garvellachs.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Approaching Garvellachs</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nice to see you, to see you nice!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrip5CB87SdenmXhnTB3gGu-uwkFlNCXhYqc8KkbiV9Pmu8CJakm6HI5DxaAxNVZrpMI1gAltcPDurxEySnb-4xnqnAy0lmxDxw-YGxQ7a3JJzkmjoZ9pGWsac75E8WF99MuxLz3Qzmw4/s1600/Mink.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="1346" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrip5CB87SdenmXhnTB3gGu-uwkFlNCXhYqc8KkbiV9Pmu8CJakm6HI5DxaAxNVZrpMI1gAltcPDurxEySnb-4xnqnAy0lmxDxw-YGxQ7a3JJzkmjoZ9pGWsac75E8WF99MuxLz3Qzmw4/s320/Mink.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mink</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijDQkQKvE_x0zRxiL-6vrN8OwTvCTnv32v8HTsTDoTnxx1a0b3FtlQptYq_DYhNoZhfg_BSUgvtxu4sGcSJHj7oxlnSwychVtjFG1t63FsCsfRNAjpKF4WDdUZ1auSB_HsG5A-5bFrIPw/s1600/P8262722.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijDQkQKvE_x0zRxiL-6vrN8OwTvCTnv32v8HTsTDoTnxx1a0b3FtlQptYq_DYhNoZhfg_BSUgvtxu4sGcSJHj7oxlnSwychVtjFG1t63FsCsfRNAjpKF4WDdUZ1auSB_HsG5A-5bFrIPw/s320/P8262722.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Approaching Corryvreckan</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhniMw8QtOC9YMRetkQu0wUs0YHvZ66Im6d9VPahlUy8NnQEvLkrHgdm2qzF4yJgiGdfbSqCA9qFsTe2wRYtSv5glhqnv_Jt3sGnAKcTuZLDjQSxNpXxN5uUKYo6B-x451mIKJvbEl8YUw/s1600/Corryvreckan+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhniMw8QtOC9YMRetkQu0wUs0YHvZ66Im6d9VPahlUy8NnQEvLkrHgdm2qzF4yJgiGdfbSqCA9qFsTe2wRYtSv5glhqnv_Jt3sGnAKcTuZLDjQSxNpXxN5uUKYo6B-x451mIKJvbEl8YUw/s320/Corryvreckan+2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coming through the Corryvreckan</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Luing</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn_JbmN6qt652ywyJtqboKP1SzG1ROEH5FrBb4wX87TTpOMy51r51JDzHGsVxVfy1z1V7odTtHFt79uiNs_3ZZ23R3xckif20Z1sUyvvkIVOmKR9lYPrNnqjawu-eOWWV04OeWP93g-Jk/s1600/Scarba.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn_JbmN6qt652ywyJtqboKP1SzG1ROEH5FrBb4wX87TTpOMy51r51JDzHGsVxVfy1z1V7odTtHFt79uiNs_3ZZ23R3xckif20Z1sUyvvkIVOmKR9lYPrNnqjawu-eOWWV04OeWP93g-Jk/s320/Scarba.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scarba</td></tr>
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We did eventually come back home!<br />
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<br />Soggy Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17793726525170203987noreply@blogger.com0Salcombe, UK50.23758 -3.769790999999941150.196954 -3.8504719999999413 50.278206000000004 -3.6891099999999408tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-57731783159944756812018-01-09T22:50:00.000+00:002019-09-04T18:10:29.496+01:00Gigha - via Alaska - Ping 4So back in Scotland, what was the first thing we were going to do? well, collect the car - and <a href="https://sarahs-soggy-scenarios.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/">boats</a>! Then what? - go paddling!<br />
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Before Alaska had been finalised, we had organised a camping trip out to Gigha with FCAG and rather than cancelling it, we decided to carry on with it, after all we were on that side of the country, we had all our camping kit with us (might be a bit smelly though!) and we had all our paddling kit (probably equally smelly!).<br />
Off the plane and into the supermarket to stock up on nosh, then it's off to Tayinloan to meet up with John, Barry and Young Trevor. It seemed a good idea at the time to say we would carry on with this trip but now that we were driving over to the west, having sat on a plane for hours, the tiredness was now beginning to hit home. We took it in turns to drive and snooze, before we arrived in time to have coffee and cake in the wee tearoom.<br />
We did eventually muster up enough energy to pack the boats and get launched a couple of hours later than planned.<br />
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4km later, we were over at Gigha (God's Island). We were heading anti clockwise following the coast round. Once we were rounding the north tip, we were beginning to get a bit of clapotis, John was off, paddling like a Duracell bunny to get through it, Barry paddling with sheer determination, Young Trevor paddling through everything just as he always does, no matter the conditions, whilst Ken and I seemed to plod through half asleep! We eventually made it round Eilean Garbh and into the little sandy bay. I was so looking forward to my bed!!<br />
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Next morning we were greeted by some of the locals who seemed to take a real interest in Trevors tent!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Locals taking up kayaking?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John waiting for high tide?</td></tr>
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The weather today could only be described as mingin' ! Heading over West Tarbert Bay was blowy!<br />
We made our way round the coast taking a break just below Achamore Farm. The weather just wasn't improving!<br />
This was John and Barry's first stint at wild camping and the weather certainly wasn't dampening their enthusiasm.<br />
By the time we had reached the south of the island, the weather was eventually drying up, the wind was still there though. We picked our way over to Cara Island to camp the second night.<br />
We were just getting the tents up when "Ping!" yes it had happened yet again - except it wasn't our pole this time, but Trevor's.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cara Island</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Could be a tropical island!</td></tr>
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The evening was lovely and dry.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cara locals</td></tr>
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Next morning our plan had been to carry on round Cara, however once at the south end, the look on Barry's face told me he wasn't too happy with the conditions, so we back tracked up the shelter of the island and back across to Gigha and up to Ardminish bay. We made our way up to The Boathouse as it had advertised Gigha icecream - yum! Once we got there, the staff were less than enthusiastic and only sold the Gigha icecream in their restaurant, their cones only had "Mackies" a bit dissappointing!<br />
It was then time to head the 4km back to Tayinloan, a long car journey home - then my own bed again - bliss!<br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0Isle of Gigha, United Kingdom55.684469099999987 -5.749072299999966255.541255099999987 -6.0717957999999665 55.827683099999987 -5.4263487999999658tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-655604335521631262017-11-25T20:49:00.000+00:002017-11-25T21:06:21.128+00:00Gigha - via Alaska - Ping 3Having survived another night, well, what was left of it, without getting washed away, we emerged from our tents to an eerie light. The water was so still, no wind, misty, other than the spit of land we were on, someone had come along in the early hours and stolen Alaska!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paddling to where?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Land beginning to emerge</td></tr>
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By the time we were getting to the tip of Pakenham Point, we were just beginning to see the opposite side, about 5 miles away, emerging. Off we set, again watched by lots of otters. Once we reached the opposite side, we hauled out on a beach for a quick snack then turned into Esther Passage and made our way to Waterfall Cove.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Surveying the depth of damp</td></tr>
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As soon as we landed, there in the mud was a large bear print! Out of all the areas we stayed, this was the place I was most wary of. It was a large open meadow, actually it was a large open marsh! As we were looking around, wary to go off on my own, Ken spotted a lemming running along a wee track, there were other prints as well and dollops of poo of varying varieties! All around us was the whistling of Marmots (they do say not to use a whistle if you are lost as this sounds like a Marmot to bears, having heard them, I can understand, why advertise yourself as bear nosh?)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dressed for dinner</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Doing the dishes</td></tr>
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By the time we had set up camp (fairly close together!) and set up the tarp, I had settled down a bit and realised what a pretty, if slightly damp, campsite this was. There were numerous wild flowers everywhere, a lovely fresh water river (another bath for some!) and more humming birds. The views were stunning.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Simply stunning</td></tr>
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Next morning we were headed on down Esther Passage, having a break on the south of Esther Island where we watched the fishing boats starting to head up the bays and rivers for the salmon. The amount and size of salmon that was jumping all around us was quite amazing. We could almost take off our spray decks and have them jumping in! It was no use Ken dropping a line for fishing. Apart from the fact he doesn't catch a lot! the salmon aren't feeding at this time, they are just hell bent on getting up the rivers.<br />
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We had another large open crossing to Perry Island, passing little interesting named islands, Egg Rock, Fool Island and Bald Head Chris Island! Once again out in the open, the surrounding views were astonishing. We really could see for miles, all around and even the snowy tops of the highest mountain ranges I have ever seen - fantastic!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Perry Island</td></tr>
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Coming near the bay at Perry, our first sea lions were spotted. Once inside the beautiful bay, we picked our camp sites. Once again it looked like a large beach! We set up camp when "Ping!" yes, it had happened again! Our tent was now more sleeves and duct tape than anything else! We set up the "kitchen" high on the rocks. It was then time for a swim for Fiona and myself, surprisingly refreshing. Before bed, we lifted various items onto the next rock up. Elaine who had a lovely waterfront view spent a fair bit of the night listening to lapping water. Just as well the kayaks had been tied up as they were floating, as was the tarp bag which was never recovered. Had we not lifted our items onto the next rock, a lot more would have been floating - the tides really are a fair size and we were now past springs!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunbathing time</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beautiful clear waters</td></tr>
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Day 7 was a fairly gentle one. The sun was once again out, so much so that at our lunch spot, a bit of sunbathing was done, or in Dave's case a bit of a snooze. This was also where we spotted a large humpback away off near Nellie Juan sound, before it flicked it's fluke and disappeared. We then carried on round Perry Island to Tipping point. Yet another stunning view, yet another large pebbly beach. Time for another swim, this time Elaine and Susan joined Fiona and myself - still no blokes out swimming!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beach babe? Ha!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Interesting fashion - midge jacket and shorts!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Very late evening sun</td></tr>
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Although we were sitting in glorious evening sun (quite late on too), the forecast was changing. It was decided that we should have an early start next day, turn tail and run or in our case paddle!<br />
Up early, we started off with another 5 mile crossing over to the corner of Culross Island, skipping round the top with a couple of smaller crossings with the conditions getting a bit damper and a bit breezier!<br />
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This was when navigation went a bit pear shaped. Having another open crossing and being slightly on and slightly off the map I was surprised we had covered our next crossing so quickly and couldn't quite figure which glazier was high up at our side. Anyway with a couple of strong willed folks who hadn't listened to my previous map queries (I was correct at that time) in the lead at this point, we carried on. We had considered stopping for the night a few miles short of Whittier as we wouldn't be getting collected til the following day anyway, however David was now beginning to suffer quite a bit from the cold, so it was decided to bash on to Whittier a day early. It was at this point we discovered we were in the completely wrong ffiord!!! Thank goodness we didn't stop the night in a place that wasn't where we thought we were as the weather really was pretty well mingin' by now, by the next day we would have been pretty well stuffed! So more layers on David, some warm drinks and off we set back tracking. Bonus was we saw a bit of commotion in the water, it was a large sea lion leaping around feeding. Once back into the correct ffiord we were blown at a descent pace back.<br />
We made it into Whittier and accepted gratefully the offer from a local of a hand up to the campsite with our kit in the back of his truck. Out of all the campsites we had stayed in, the town site was by far the worst! Chemical toilets, fair enough they were clean. No water, fair enough, pipes would freeze, but the site was covered in dog poo!!! Yuck!<br />
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Next day, weather foul, we had a whole day to kill in Whittier! I kept my paddling trousers and wellies on - it was that wet! After breakfast, Ken and I wandered back down the road, under the tunnel and back to the kayaks to sort them out, then headed over to the Swiftwater cafe for steaming hot chowder and a beer - heaven!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moving house</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Never too cold or wet for ice cream</td></tr>
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The rain was by now flooding the campsite (washing away poo?) so we uprooted our tents and moved them under the "shelter" then spent the evening in the bar, somewhere warm and dry to sit.<br />
That night, Sue and Elaine were sure they heard snuffling and footprints round the tents!!!!<br />
Next day, Levi came back and collected us. Back in Hope we sorted out kit, got it dried, the sun was out again, repacked it, returned everyone's tent sleeves, then had a wander into "town". Again lots of bear prints in the mud and warning notices about a distressed bear and cub in the area but no sightings.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hope main street</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It was a tiring trip!</td></tr>
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Next morning we all piled back in the minibus, back to Anchorage, then back to Scotland!</div>
A few lessons learnt. Take pulleys to make hoisting bags easier. Appreciate wild camping sites in Scotland. Speak up, no matter what about navigation.<br />
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But WOW! what a great trip we had. Would I go again? - in a flash!<br />
.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0Perry Island, Alaska, USA60.6973597 -147.915990460.5730372 -148.2387139 60.8216822 -147.5932669tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-75157344065785634132017-11-02T23:35:00.001+00:002017-11-03T09:30:27.574+00:00Gigha - via Alaska - Ping 2<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zeigler Cove</td></tr>
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Well after our rather chaotic day and a bit before, it was so good just to sink into bed. I even forgot we were in bear country! Next morning, we found that Paul has stayed up til high tide, watching how close the water came in.<br />
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Breakfast eaten, lunch and snacks organised, otters watched, we were ready for another days paddling, aiming for Hobo bay, that's not to say we looked like Hobos, well not yet! As we got on the water we were watched by another couple of Bald Eagles, just 2 of approx 20 that day!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking up College Fiord</td></tr>
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Getting the hang of the sheer vastness of the area took a bit of getting used to, the air seemed so clear and no rubbish, well apart from a rusty old truck on a beach in the middle of absolutely no where! There were quite alot of granite mines in the past here. Lots of whale "splooshes" far off.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hobo Bay</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Or just Hobo's?</td></tr>
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Having made it to Hobo Bay and after lots more humming and hoeing about how far up the tide would come, we eventually camped for the evening and listened to "Ping!", yes our tent pole had snapped - again! Scrounging a sleeve, we got that sorted and taped up and settled for the evening.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Passing Harrison Lagoon</td></tr>
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Next morning, we were going to be heading up into the glacier area which we had been looking at for so long. When we stopped for lunch, Ken decided on a spot of fishing, managing to catch an ugly brute, an Alaskan rockfish!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ken fishing</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ugly brute!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Approaching Point Doran</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cascade Glacier</td></tr>
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We were now being met by "bergy bits", small chunks of ice. Turning the corner gave us the chance to really feel as though we were out in the wilds. The whole area seemed so peaceful, except now and again there would be a big rumble, another chunk of ice falling off one of the many glaciers in this fiord. The water had turned an almost tropical colour, beautiful blue, but cloudy with sediment. It really was a stunning area.<br />
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We had hoped to camp beside a tidal flat about 5 miles up from the start of the Harriman Fiord, however once we arrived, we found that someone else was camping there. This was a commercial group who had set up here. They had been brought in with a water taxi, had their tents put up for them, while they go off for a wee paddle. The mess they left was shocking. Having admired the cleanliness of the area earlier, this place had rubbish lying around which could quite easily blow away, with bags of open food, in an area known for bears! We carried on a little bit further, but there were more campers - who would have thought, out in the wilds, there would be other folks! so on we paddled and found a lovely beach - all to ourselves.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beach looks huge, not huge enough!</td></tr>
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Once again the tide line was checked, once again there was going to be a lack of beach, however there was a bit of a dip behind the beach which we settles on. Had it been the next day, when we were full on springs, I'm not so sure that patch would have stayed dry! We even had baths at this sight, well some of us had a dip in the river - very refreshing!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glacial waters</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Up and close</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me 'n' He and Harriman</td></tr>
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Next morning, off we set, further up the Harriman Fiord. There weren't so many Bald Eagles in this area and still no bear sightings, but a tiny Rufous Hummingbird was spotted. Again the clarity of the air was surprising, making it hard to judge distance. The Harriman Glacier looked to be within touching distance from our camp, but was still easily 7 miles away. We eventually made it up to what we thought was a safe distance, then saw a tiny boat further up. This boat wasn't that tiny, just still far off, so we jumped back in the kayaks to get a bit closer. We were actually able to get out the boats round the corner a bit from the glacier and walk over to it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Mob</td></tr>
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Quite a magnificent sight and absolutely enormous! - and noisy, with chunks falling continuously. Back in the boats, we cut across the bay and headed back down the other side, passing Surprise Glacier, quite an active one!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spot the boat!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matches my boat!</td></tr>
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If you couldn't see the glaciers, you would still know they were around, apart from the colour of the water, the air changed. Between glaciers, it was really quite warm, as you neared the glaciers, the air got decidedly chilly.<br />
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We stopped for lunch just down a bit, not too peaceful. There was an American Oystercatcher claiming this beach as his. They are just like our Oystercatchers but bigger (of course!), all black and just as noisy!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trying to make icecream!</td></tr>
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Our next stop was Point Doran, then across Barry Arm, being accompanied by more otters.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My favourite otter pic!</td></tr>
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The Bald eagles were also returning to us. We eventually made it to Pakenham Point. A very thin stretch of land being guarded by 2 magnificent Bald Eagles.<br />
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Once again, the tide line was examined, once again we were camping on the thin, if not slightly overgrown stretch of grass. We were very late having dinner, it had been a long days paddling, 42k, but as the light never completely went, it didn't feel like a midnight feast instead of just dinner. We were watching the water levels carefully tonight as this was springs and boy, did the water rise! See the photos!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After midnight, tide still coming in!</td></tr>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0Valdez, AK 99686, USA61.086068880607954 -148.1737149562500260.098974880607955 -150.75550195625001 62.073162880607953 -145.59192795625003tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-78395371006860640102017-10-31T15:21:00.000+00:002017-10-31T15:30:45.462+00:00Gigha - via Alaska - Ping 1<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Up high, way up high!</td></tr>
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It seemed ages ago when David said Alaska! and I said Oooh!<br />
After some to-ing and fro-ing, the time had come to head for the airport. Bags packed, car loaded and boats on the roof - yes, boats were on the roof and yes, we were going to Alaska! and no, we were not paddling the whole way!<br />
Our group of 8, David, Paul, Graham, Susan, Elaine, Fiona, Ken and myself met up for the flight over.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Out shopping</td></tr>
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We were met at the airport by <a href="http://www.turnagainkayak.com/" target="_blank">Turnagain Kayaks</a>' Levi, he then took us to REI to buy our gas, then onto the supermarket for 10 days food. That would be all well and good, except, buying food in a strange supermarket at the equivalent of 4am in the morning, having been on the go since the crack of dawn the previous morning is no fun. We did eventually emerge, managed to find a pizza for tea - or was it breakfast, possibly supper - who knows? After we'd been driving for a while we passed a huge moose with a young one - our first Alaskan wildlife! A little further along, there was a black bear wandering along the road, next thing we turned off the road. We had arrived in Hope at our chalet for the night, right next to the bear!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A gathering of Ikea bags!</td></tr>
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Now it was time to unpack everything, just to repack it all for paddling. I spent a while re bagging food into meals and portions. Last thing I wanted was to run out of food miles from civilisation! Don't think Ken would have been too chuffed either!<br />
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We eventually made our way to bed, knackered but completely out of sync with local time. Surprisingly I managed up the next morning as usual (which means - feed me and give me coffee!). All the bags were loaded into the trailer. We had picked our boats (mine was a Cetus, happy with that), brought our own BA's and paddles and we were ready for our adventure.<br />
It was quite a distance to get from Hope up to Whittier, the journey included an interesting tunnel. The 2.5 mile Whittier tunnel is shared with trains, with cars driving along the tracks, but is just single tracked so it's run on a timetable, there would be nothing worse than meeting a train head on!<br />
Eventually all boats were loaded, just one last thing to do before setting off. Whittier is a tiny end of the line town, with not alot there, however, there was an extremely good icecream shop so that's where we headed!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Icecream!!! Yum!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me 'n' He</td></tr>
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Fully filled with icecream, off we set. The weather was a bit overcast, but not cold, perfect paddling weather! It was great being out with snowcapped mountains all around and the Learnard Glacier behind us on one side and Whittier glacier on the other.<br />
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We made our way out to Decision Point, passing the first of many bald eagles, before cutting over to Pigot Point where we spent our first night. We were greeted here by the first of our sea otters - lovely!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An otter or two</td></tr>
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We were soon to find out that getting campsites was not going to be as easy as in Scotland. We were travelling in spring tides, so by the time that was taken into consideration, there wasn't much/no beach above the tide line. There was just a small strip of grass before extremely dense vegetation. The area is a rainforest, the trees were all thickly covered in moss.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even the trees have fur coats</td></tr>
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We camped on the thin grass strip when there was a "ping". One of our tent poles had snapped!!! New sleeve over the pole, all was well again. We then went to try tying our food bags up to keep them away from bears. We were soon to find that was easier said than done! Nothing quite like being on a learning curve! Pulleys would have been handy! So tents up, boats parked neatly along the grass verge, it was time for dinner, it was really late by now and what with time differences, I was dead beat and couldn't be bothered cooking, so out came our first dried meal, it was also our last, don't know how Paul lasted on them for every meal.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Neat parking</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-14357328656375999352017-10-27T22:41:00.000+01:002017-10-27T22:41:17.800+01:00Magical Loch CoruiskThe locals seem to be complaining about too many folks on Skye. Well last May we added to that with a club trip up to the island.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A quick dip with the Fairies</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feeling on top of the world</td></tr>
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Ken and I went up a bit earlier giving us the chance to go up and see the Fairy Pools along with everyone else on Skye that day! We also had the chance to have a clamber up Blaven, quite spectacular!<br />
All this before the other paddlers arrived. Once they did and were all set up with their tents we had a quick evening trip out from Kyleakin, round the corner and in to see the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-36537234" target="_blank">Leopard Man</a>'s bothy.<br />
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Next morning, well it wouldn't be a trip to Skye without a wee visit to Kylerhea. We spent the day playing there before a group of us paddled back to Kyleakin.<br />
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Our next day was one of my best trips, a trip out from Elgol. </div>
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It's not my first trip from here, I've been a few times now. For most of the group it was their first trip. We eventually got on the water and set off along the coast, playing in the rocks as we went. One of the ladies eventually asked what the chances of seeing an otter was. My answer, pretty slim, considering there were 10 of us all chatting away. Next thing we know, a few yards out, there was an otter. It disappeared fairly quickly, however on the other side of us was another otter. I reckon they were both quite young as they didn't seem at all afraid of us. This second one climbed out with a huge fish, sat on a rock and proceeded to devour it. It was not giving up this fish for anyone, not even 10 sea kayakers, all delighted to be watching this at such close quarters.<br />
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We carried on across Loch Scavaig and into the heart of the Cuillins. We had decided to go a wee bit further, so hauled the boats out, then working together, lugged them up to Loch Coruisk, further than I seem to remember it being, possibly as I wasn't humphing a boat last time! Once up on Loch Coruisk, we paddled even further into the Cuillins. Paddling up there seemed to make it even more magical. We stopped for lunch, well almost tea! at the far end next to the crystal clear water coming down from the mountains.<br />
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Once back at the top of the Scavaig river, we decided to float the boats back down to the sea. That was quite interesting! The wind had picked up just enough to give us a gentle swell to surf all the way back to Elgol. A rather excellent days paddling!<br />
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Next morning was a tad drizzly, 6 of us set out from Plockton for a fairly gentle plod back down to Kyleakin before the long drive back home.<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0B8083, Isle of Skye IV49 9AX, UK57.192284355904249 -6.0724639062500556.096045855904251 -8.65425090625005 58.288522855904247 -3.4906769062500502tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-1642289126156010602017-09-09T18:32:00.000+01:002017-09-09T18:32:32.061+01:00May in April!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In April, I organised a trip out to the Isle of May for SSKEG. 10 of us set off from Anstruther for the 8k crossing before arriving at the island. We had arranged to meet up on the island with some of the Lothian club who had paddled over from North Berwick, so all in all, the island was a very busy place that day! Lots of birds on the cliffs, but not many Puffins.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not even set on monochrome</td></tr>
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All finished off with fish and chips from the "Wee Chippy", then icecream for pudding!<br />
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Later in April we were up at the CVC at Glenmore. Day 1, I had a great day out in "Sonic Too" on the Spey. Day 2 was spent up at Sandend having a whale of a time playing in the surf - fantastic!<br />
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Hard at work splashing!</div>
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At the start of the tunnel<br />
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In June, our juniors had a great time suggesting and organising a canal trip. The only thing the "oldies" did was drive and supervise. The put in was at Falkirk, just next to the viaduct, a great opportunity to splash the cars driving below! Then along the canal, through the 630 meter tunnel before stopping for lunch. We eventually made it to Polmont where some very weary paddlers were glad to see the cars again.<br />
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In the tunnel</div>
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Lunchtime</div>
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Sleepy paddler!</div>
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0Isle of May, United Kingdom56.183333299999987 -2.5666667000000416-14.074303700000016 -167.80104170000004 90 162.66770829999996tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-55991543201521935312017-09-07T17:00:00.000+01:002017-09-07T17:00:06.255+01:00Turkey Basher time<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inch Gnome</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Waiting to cross the shipping lane</td></tr>
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Well after lots of hard work, plastering, papering and painting just about anything that sat still for more than 10 mins, it was time to get some fresh air, so the end of December we headed out for our annual Turkey Basher trip, this time out from Silver Sands, past Inch Gnome and out to Oxcars for a wee play, then back to Inchcolm for lunch before heading back to have a quick dip in the bay. Great for working off excess chocolate!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oxcars</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inchcolm Abbey</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can only be described as refreshing!<br />
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As for the house, it's great having the garage now rebuilt, somewhere cosy for the boats!<br />
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2017<br />
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Our next escape from the painting was our New Years Day paddle out from Pathhead on a beautiful cold, sunny day. Heading east past Dysart and stopping for nosh at West Wemyss before returning.<br />
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Passing the old Frances Mine<br />
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West Wemyss nosh stop</div>
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Big boats, little boats<br />
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Now that Christmas and New Year are over, we're back to creating more stoor! Upstairs this time</div>
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A tiny bit of space left, just for paddling kit!</div>
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Getting used to upheaval.<br />
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Time to escape again!<br />
It's Loch Rannoch time again. Weather was a bit chilly, sometimes just too chilly for paddling!<br />
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But not too chilly for a swim!<br />
From there we headed up to Thurso where we met up with Andy, Ansgar and Alice for a weekend of paddling. Due to the somewhat breezy conditions, we only had a short, eventful paddle near Dunnet Head<br />
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Chilly put in<br />
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Blustery Pentland Firth<br />
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Back home, things are still stoory!<br />
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We brought in spring with a trip out to Loch Lomond where we were lucky enough to see the Wallaby again.</div>
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Group sailing</div>
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A lovely sunny trip, then back to a lovely sunny kitchen. It's been alot of work and dust, but the house is eventually beginning to take shape</div>
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0Unnamed Road, Burntisland KY3 9RP, UK56.0300748938799 -3.115387852343701555.888088893879896 -3.4381113523437015 56.1720608938799 -2.7926643523437016tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-79935829709008457722017-08-11T22:43:00.000+01:002017-08-11T22:43:42.088+01:00Girls just want to have fun!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
In August I was honoured to be asked to coach at the <a href="http://womensseakayakfestival.co.uk/" target="_blank">WSKF</a> on Bute.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting to grips with balance</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Round the Burnt Islands</td></tr>
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I had 4 lovely ladies needing an introduction to seakayaking. What a thoroughly enjoyable weekend I had, all the more so as one of the ladies was battling cancer at the time and her determination was awe inspiring. I must have done OK as I have been asked to the Devon one this year.</div>
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Back home, we now have no shower and very little kitchen. The garage still doesn't want to come down. Time to head off again!</div>
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This time 5 of us, Andy, Ansgar, Alice, Ken and myself, headed off to Lewis and Harris.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shiants sunset</td></tr>
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Our first night was a flat calm trip out to the Shiants, that saw Andy sleeping fully clothed with one eye open most of the night due to the fact there wasn't much beach and the tide was fairly high! With a bit of a strong breeze forecast, we didn't want to hang around too long so after playing in and out the rocks at Galtachan, we cut straight back to the lighthouse at Rubha Uisinis and up to Leumrabhagh.</div>
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We then decided to camp outside the hostel at Reinigeadal as the weather was forecast to get really breezy. We managed a lovely trip out round Scalpay, a very fast, one way trip/surf the full length of Loch Seaforth and a walk over the hills to Tarbert for a swim, just to find the pool was closed due to lifeguard shortage!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pt3D9yw1s_8/WY4bl2idRaI/AAAAAAAAE7M/UJUKmFh3rosburJ9L3GZtk5P8HfAF1I8gCLcBGAs/s1600/Lewis%2B2-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pt3D9yw1s_8/WY4bl2idRaI/AAAAAAAAE7M/UJUKmFh3rosburJ9L3GZtk5P8HfAF1I8gCLcBGAs/s320/Lewis%2B2-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Garenin Blach House</td></tr>
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We spent the next few days over at Garenin where we stayed in a Black House hostel, I would highly recommend it if you are in the area. From there we had trips out from Miaghaig, passing the "<a href="https://sarahs-soggy-scenarios.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/murtys-mob.html" target="_blank">Cuma</a>", no-one was home. and round the inside of Great Bernera, another trip out from Carlabhagh round by a stormy Craigearn and back in through a massive jacuzzi.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c75BTXwJGTw/WY4cMB-HmkI/AAAAAAAAE7g/5jfefiDeOpQOSwGCW4SSgzSAGH6bJ1W7gCLcBGAs/s1600/Lewis%2B5-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c75BTXwJGTw/WY4cMB-HmkI/AAAAAAAAE7g/5jfefiDeOpQOSwGCW4SSgzSAGH6bJ1W7gCLcBGAs/s320/Lewis%2B5-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sheltering from the "breeze"</td></tr>
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Unfortunately due to the drafty conditions, we were kept well away from all the outer beaches. The last of our time up in the Hebrides was spent storm watching!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still a wee gap on the floor for our kit!</td></tr>
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Even less kitchen now, but beginning to get new windows. Garage is eventually down to the foundations!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Warmer waters</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0H-MqWcZazg/WY4fQkdt9NI/AAAAAAAAE8I/qdbZY86wqWAzth9IET9NMl_E60eclDKtQCLcBGAs/s1600/Gran%2BCanaria%2B4-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0H-MqWcZazg/WY4fQkdt9NI/AAAAAAAAE8I/qdbZY86wqWAzth9IET9NMl_E60eclDKtQCLcBGAs/s320/Gran%2BCanaria%2B4-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Colourful waters!</td></tr>
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Time for some warm water! A wee trip to Gran Canaria was in order.</div>
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Kitchen units are now in, still no shower. Garage is beginning to be rebuilt!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-10zbtP_rrO4/WY4gL2KCWeI/AAAAAAAAE8Y/9HF6v-1pECgfHEcYk5XcQwocvXoaaz47gCLcBGAs/s1600/20160810-IMG_4814.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-10zbtP_rrO4/WY4gL2KCWeI/AAAAAAAAE8Y/9HF6v-1pECgfHEcYk5XcQwocvXoaaz47gCLcBGAs/s320/20160810-IMG_4814.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spot the paddling kit on the line!</td></tr>
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Time to get away again! </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-No6l4yS98I4/WY4gtiywnTI/AAAAAAAAE8g/l0X7lpDDHK4SzodL3S_MYI3SzFR-7ZiiACLcBGAs/s1600/Torridon%2B2-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-No6l4yS98I4/WY4gtiywnTI/AAAAAAAAE8g/l0X7lpDDHK4SzodL3S_MYI3SzFR-7ZiiACLcBGAs/s320/Torridon%2B2-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arddaroch</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ice cream stop</td></tr>
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Off to Torridon for a weekend with LSKC this time. We had great trips out on Loch Sheildaig, managing an icecream at the hotel there. Next day, we had a mass paddle out from Arddaroch, passing Kishorn island, round to the coral beach then in to Plockton for icecream. As good a weekend for socialising as it is for paddling!</div>
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As for the house, garage is getting there, heating is in and the decorating is just beginning (my job!) Guess I'll need to stay at home a bit now!</div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0B8060, Isle of Lewis HS2, UK58.073520521904392 -6.625673174858093355.971647021904388 -11.811220174858093 60.175394021904395 -1.4401261748580936tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-45969889020364511522017-08-02T22:58:00.000+01:002017-08-02T22:58:46.624+01:00A visit to Old Harry, Just what the Doc ordered!It's not often that Ken and I get the chance to paddle just the two of us together so after Jersey we decided having come so far to spend a bit more time down south. Of course it helped having our own boats with us so our first day out was to visit "Old Harry". We put in at Swanage Bay, headed out along the wonderful white cliffs of the Jurassic coast. In and out of caves, arches and pinnacles before reaching Old Harry, quite a spectacular coastline. We then returned the same way with our get out right beside an icecream booth! 2 scoops of ginger icecream to finish off the day - yum!<br />
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After a few "dry" days we visited Port Issac, home to Doc Martin, such a pretty area, it would have been such a shame not to paddle it!</div>
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Back home, it was good to see that the builders had done some work! Demolishing walls, garage, hauling out windows, chimney down, nothing but stoor everywhere! Time to go paddling again!</div>
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In July, 6 of us, David, Paul, Colin, Martin, Ken and I met up for breakfast at Tescos in Oban before heading over to Ellenabeich to start our weeks trip round Jura. Boats loaded, off we went - slightly against the flow! Now anybody who knows the area knows this is going to be hard - it was! However we had to leave at this time to help us a bit later. After getting out my boat to haul it through a bit of a flow against me while cutting through the rocks, things started getting easier and we made it down to the bothy at the bottom of Scarba. Next morning after the mist cleared, we had a beautiful paddle across the Gulf of Corryvreckan to Jura. The tide was going with us (thankfully!), the sea was flat calm and we just flew down the east coast of Jura whilst watching a Minke a short distance off. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lussa Bay, Jura</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;"> After stopping for lunch in Lussa Bay, we made it down to Craighouse where we camped infront of the hotel. Only a couple of days into the trip, but still wonderful to get a lovely hot shower, then over to the hotel for dinner and a pint! Next morning the weather had changed! We passed a couple of young sea eagles as the tail wind blew us round the bottom to Rubha na traille, then a bit of a battle past Brosdale Island. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Good drying day</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Corpach Bay, Jura</td></tr>
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We stopped off on the beach opposite for lunch, then a strong battle up the sound of Islay. The tide was with us, the wind certainly wasn't! We eventually made it up to the lovely beaches at Rubh'a'bhaillien. It was good just to flake out on my bed that night, just as well as the midgies were hell there! So 3 days into our week long trip and we were about 3/4 of the way there. Next morning, with empty boats , we had a wee trip up Loch Tarbert, up through the narrows, with our lunch stop at the lovely Cruib Lodge Bothy. Next morning, boats once again loaded, we had a shortish paddle up to Corpach Bay, what a stunning area with a fantastic waterfall that was just calling to be turned into a shower. It was bracing, but boy did I feel good after that shower! Another shortish day when we made our way up to Gleann Beag, stopping off at Glen Garrisdale bothy on the way.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The boys playing in the flow of Corryvreckan</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;"> From Gleann Beag, we made our way across the Corryvreckan again to the Garvellachs for lunch, then onto Belnahua where the "boys" had their own stone skimming contest!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arty Farty!</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: center;"> Our last day took us round Fladda before zooming back to Ellenabeich with a lovely tail wind and of course an ice cream!</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kayakey Kid rock hopping!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Out with Grandma and Grandad</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A real seakayaker, complete with silly hat!</td></tr>
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As we arrived back home on a Saturday and with the boats still being on the car, it seemed a shame not to make the most of that by going out again, so on the Sunday, we collected the Kayakey Kid, headed down to Seafield, paddled past all the seals,round to Kinghorn, to his Great Grans for strawberry tarts. As we were about to leave to come home, a huge pod of dolphins passed by - what a fantastic trip and right on our doorstep! Kayakey Kid now thinks all sea trips are like this!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seal watching at Seafield</td></tr>
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Back home, the house is still upside down. The garage has now started being knocked, it was just too wee for boats!</div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0Jura, Isle of Jura PA60, UK55.904179799999987 -5.941420900000025555.332392299999988 -7.2378074000000261 56.475967299999986 -4.645034400000025tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-36412209886364190812017-06-11T22:21:00.000+01:002017-06-11T22:21:02.731+01:00Jersey JauntsHaving not been on my blog for so long, I had decided to update it a wee bit when I came across this post - in draft! So rather than dump it, I'm posting, albeit nearly 10 months late!<br />
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Having eventually got the house sort of emptied and the car all packed, we were off!<br />
After a <i>long, long </i>drive, we eventually arrived in Poole, parked up in the ferry carpark and closed our eyes. When we surfaced a couple of hours later, another 2 cars had appeared, obviously having the same idea as us, driving down overnight. It was Lori and Antje, Anne and Alan all down from Scotland as well.<br />
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Thankfully the ferry crossing this year was less eventful than <a href="http://sarahs-soggy-scenarios.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/jersey-eventually.html" target="_blank">2 years ago</a>. They were a bit surprised and unprepared for so many kayaks boarding and not desperately helpful with it!<br />
Our first paddle of the symposium was a day trip round the north of the island with Natalie, Mikeal and Eric. It was also great meeting up with <a href="http://sarahs-soggy-scenarios.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/jersey-something-fishy.html" target="_blank">Doris and Felix</a> again. We were putting in at St Catherine's with it's massive breakwater, then heading round the coast to Greve de Lecq for lunch. We had the chance to explore lots of caves, cuts, a waterfall and a gloup.<br />
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After lunch we were now heading round the west side of Jersey, past my "<a href="http://sarahs-soggy-scenarios.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/jersey-ooops.html" target="_blank">incident gap</a>", past Stinky bay along the long bay at L'Etacq and Le Braye then round to Corbierre, our get out. A lovely paddle covering some of the island we missed the last time.<br />
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When we go to symposiums, I always think it's good to take the chance of trying new activities, as does Ken - but quite why I let him talk me into this days activities, I'm not too sure.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ooh!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oooh!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ooooh!</td></tr>
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Cliffs and Caves! We made our way over to the next bay at St Brelade where we were kitted out with wetsuits, helmets and double sit on tops. A sit on top is bad enough, a double is worse, a double shared with Ken is worse yet! However off we went, across to the cliffs, where we jumped off the boats, clambered up the rocks and looked over the edge. Now I realise we were starting small, but to me this was big! Kevin gave us our instructions on how to jump, then proceeded to do a demo making it look so easy! When it came to my turn, I realised, I don't mind swimming around in swooshy, frothy water, I don't mind clambering up all sorts of rocks, but it's that bit, where your feet leave solid ground that I'm not happy doing! I did do a couple, but other than that, I would clamber up for a look, but that was enough. I was full of admiration to those who could just "take that step!" As for the caves part of the trip, the tide was out too far, so really it was just cliffs! Having chickened out of some of the jumps, I did still have a great day!<br />
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Day three, we were out Rock Gardening. This is likely to be the only type of gardening Ken is ever likely to do! Once again we were down at Corbierre Lighthouse. It really is a stunning location for paddling! This time Gordon split us up into smaller groups, my one being led by fellow Scot, Callum. We were practising timing - not my strong point!, then taking turns leading our wee groups round the rocks.<br />
What was really surprising here was how many daft folks listen to the siren, the warning that the tide is about to cover the causeway, yet they still risk running across so they don't get wet feet!<br />
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In the afternoon we were down at St Brelade again. This time with a good Scottish turnout! Janet, Sandy, Alan, Anne, Lorri, Antje, Ken and myself all having a good giggle on the SUP's. We all had a great time, but I can't see the point on standing on one of those when you can have a nice seat in a kayak!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of good wet fun!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A SUP chain</td></tr>
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This sunny afternoon was rounded off in the best way possible. Sitting on the beach eating icecream, before heading back to the hotel for a lovely cold beer!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wheeee</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One more go!</td></tr>
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Day 4, surf's up! down at Le Braye. What a great time, always do with the surf. Don't know if I'll ever be really good at it, but who cares, it's fun! After that, we all piled into El Tico for eats.<br />
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Time for Tour de Rozel, the tiderace, next. This is a very fast bit of water zooming through between the headland and a rock. There just seemed to be kayaks going in all sorts of directions, all at great speed. Getting out was exhilarating, just don't like so many boats close together. After an exhausting morning, we had pleasant, dry afternoon at the Orchid foundation.<br />
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Day 6, Ken obviously hadn't had enough zooming water the day before, so headed out to the tour again. Antje and I opted for a more gentle paddle, before going shopping in damp neoprenes for BBQ food for the evening BBQ at Greve de Lecq.<br />
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Unfortunately, we were now on our last day. There was a walk organised, however Ken, Julie and I went for a wee paddle out from St Brelade, round to Corbierre and back again.<br />
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A nice gentle paddle finished off a fantastic week, out with good friends, just fine!<br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0Channel Islands49.176747505377143 -2.227380371093772749.009884505377144 -2.5514768710937727 49.343610505377143 -1.9032838710937727tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-21810558286919046572016-06-12T17:49:00.000+01:002016-06-12T19:35:37.506+01:00How to destress my way!Well, I have to say, it's absolutely ages since I have visited my blog! There have been various reasons for this, mainly, since retiring I have very little time to myself now!<br />
The last few months have been a bit stressfull. Amongst other things we were wanting to do some alterations on our house, so set about getting an architect, well one that would actually do the work! Easier said than done. The plans were eventually drawn up and put in to the council, planning permission wasn't <i>too </i>bad to get, however getting a building warrant was a different ball game. Change of architect (the one that actually wanted the work!) eventually the warrant came through.<br />
To keep sane during all this time, we found that locking the door, packing the car and going off paddling was the best destress we could get and as we seemed to have had more than our fair share of hassle, we have managed to probably have more than our fair share of paddling!<br />
Since Orkney, I've managed to fit in my 4* OC training, not sure I'll ever be up to scratch for the assessment!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">OC rescue practise<br />
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Next was a special paddle. I took the Kayakey Kid for his first sea "trip" in his own boat. He was delighted to be visited by a seal. </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A very happy Kayakey Kid</td></tr>
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We've had a wonderful weekend paddling from Easdale, battling the currents, through the Corryvreckan, battling the wind, through the Cuan sounds, generally a bumpy, refreshing, but great time weekend!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The bridge over the Atlantic</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It was an exhausting trip!</td></tr>
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A weekend up on Skye doing rescue scenarios ended up with me only having half a set of spare splits - not happy! Tried to contact Celtic paddles to see if I could buy a replacement half, didn't even get a reply!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me 'n' He having fun</td></tr>
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Then there was the Scottish open canoe symposium up at Glenmore - more paddling up at Knockando, great weekend!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More OC rescues</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More fun</td></tr>
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Next we were up at Ratagan with the Lothian club, out round by Plockton, then a play down at Kylerhea. Another excellent weekend!<br />
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After the, we needed a wee warm up off in Florida. We did manage out in the Everglades for some paddling, however, there had been a lot of rain just before we arrived, as a result there were masses of hungry mozzies. We also managed to get a bit of diving down on the Keys with Turtles, Nurse shark, Barracuda, lots more. Fantastic holiday.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A couple of our paddling companions</td></tr>
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Coming back from the lovely heat of Florida, we went straight up to be final sweepers for the Tay Descent. I have decided this is about the most soul destroying job of the Descent. We left after everyone, including the racers. We paddle the full course of 23 miles to make sure no one has been left behind or injured and never saw any other paddlers at all.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glad to have finished!</td></tr>
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It didn't seem long before we were now into the New Year which of course meant our New Year's day paddle. It was certainly breezy enough to blow away even the most stubborn of cobwebs, but good to be out again.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our New Year's day jaunt</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Out again on the 2nd, Inchcolm this time.</span><br />
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Still January, up at St Andrews this time where I managed to have a battle with a barnacle covered rock, the rock won!<br />
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February was pretty much taken up with our son's wedding, there are certain times even we don't go paddling!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not a drysuit in sight! With No.3 Grandchild</td></tr>
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In March we had a beautiful days paddling on Loch Lomond, stopped for lunch on Inchconnachan, spotted a Wallaby, then on to Luss for what else, but icecream!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loch Lomond Wallaby</td></tr>
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The following weekend was a SSKEG trip up on the Moray coast with Zoe. Big and bumpy conditions meant we couldn't get close in to the shoreline. Day 2 saw us having a great time with a surf session.<br />
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Into April with another SSKEG trip, our one this time, out to the May Isle, unfortunately a bit too early for the Puffins to have landed.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rounding the May</td></tr>
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Next weekend we had fun under the Forth Bridge playing in the faster flows with "An introduction to moving water" session.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Even more rescue practise!</td></tr>
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The following weekend, we were back up at Ratagan, seeing the Leopard man's bothy, then stopping at Eilean Donan for icecream, where they thoughtfully put up a "wet floor" sign behind us!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside the Leopard man's bothy</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eilean Donan for ice cream</td></tr>
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Still in April, we were up at Glenmore again for the CVC, this time I took up my river kayak and ended up on the middle Findhorn, then had a fabulous surf session the next day up at Sandend.<br />
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Time to warm up again, so off to Tenerife, no paddling, but we did get out diving, lots of Turtles and rays.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me 'n' he again </td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Going up!</td></tr>
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So as you can see, we've had an extremely stressful few months! However, now that the building warrant has come through, the real stress begins! House has to be cleared again, quite how we have managed to fill it with so much junk already, I'll never know - we're never at home! At the end of May, the builders were starting. First off, walls were getting knocked down, so what did we do? We went paddling! This time to the Jersey seakayak symposium!<br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0Scotland, UK56.490671199999987 -4.202645800000027547.764661199999985 -24.856942800000027 65.216681199999982 16.451651199999972tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-53959608589576546972016-01-19T12:35:00.001+00:002016-01-19T13:57:13.764+00:00P9050291<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rMnellBptdw" width="480"></iframe><br />
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Great fun on the loch playing Jenga, last year during warmer weather!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-44214374604697255482015-09-30T10:54:00.000+01:002015-09-30T10:54:58.778+01:00Orkney 15 - and that's just the icecream!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f7goLJksh9E/VgunusLJaQI/AAAAAAAAEnE/wxv9MWFmdew/s1600/Orkney%2B1%2B%25281%2Bof%2B1%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-f7goLJksh9E/VgunusLJaQI/AAAAAAAAEnE/wxv9MWFmdew/s320/Orkney%2B1%2B%25281%2Bof%2B1%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tightly parked kayaks</td></tr>
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I was really looking forward to our journey up to the Orkney symposium for various reasons. I've never been there before, I'd be meeting up with lots of friends again and I could hardly go all that way and not try their ice cream!<br />
We arrived in plenty of time to catch the ferry from Gills Bay over to St Margaret's Hope, along with umpteen other cars with kayaks.<br />
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After setting up camp, Ben took us out for a quick tour round by the <a href="http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/westmainland/stennessstones/" target="_blank">Stones of Stenness</a> then up to the <a href="http://www.orkneyjar.com/history/brodgar/" target="_blank">Ring of Brodgar</a>. Really interesting places.<br />
It was now time for the first most important part of the symposium, our free pint of extremely tasty local beer!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of caves</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of cuts</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lots of arches</td></tr>
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Next morning kayak laden cars were dispersed to various locations. Our choice was for a rock hopping session with Kim Bull. Off we set back down the road to Kirkhouse to start our session. Kim started us off nice and gently, gradually building things up. The coastline down on South Ronaldsay is wonderful with lots geos and cuts. Lots of bits for getting close to the rocks in swooshing swells! We didn't go far before lunch, but had lots of fun getting there.<br />
On the way back was when Hubby Dear AKA Ken, found out not to mess with Alice! Having pinched her paddles, he was rewarded with a good strong shove - polo style. As he said when he came back up "I didn't expect a girl to shove so hard!"<br />
It was then back to the rugby club for beer, showers, dinner, more beers - in that order!<br />
Next morning was rough water handling with Roger from Anglesey. The venue this time was Hoy Sound. We did eventually find our way there after going up an down various wee tracks! The flow looked OK when we went in to practise rescues and towing, but that soon changed! It started to fair pick up. We went in to have a paddle through. We seemed to go up, up, up then up even further, before eventually coming down the other side at great speed. It was the biggest race I'd been in and was a bit relieved when we came off. On the other hand I couldn't wait to get back on again. It was exhilarating!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Old man" the rock not Alice!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Group selfie!</td></tr>
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Next day the five of us, Ken, Ben, Ansgar, Alice and myself were moving on. Tents packed, kayaks loaded, we were heading over to Birsay, stopping off at Bay of Skaill to check the conditions. The wind had been blowing a hooley, but was due to die down. We got the tents sorted out, then made our way back to Bay of Skaill, just hoping that the tent would still be there when we got back and not blown away! Considering the wind, the conditions were lovely allowing the 5 of us to get into all sorts of nooks and crannies and giving us our only sighting of The Old Man. We eventually made our way into Birsay Bay at about 10pm, not that we had paddled far, just we were having far too much fun to be bothered coming in. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wee boats, big cliffs</td></tr>
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Next day, the forecast was once again correct, it was blowing a really big hooley, so much so, we never got out paddling. Instead we had a day being tourists! <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was before the tastings!</td></tr>
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Saying as we are all quite fond of a wee whiff of whisky(<a href="http://sarahs-soggy-scenarios.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/whisky-on-islay-whod-have-thought-of.html" target="_blank"> see Islay</a>!) we couldn't exactly go all the way up to Orkney without checking out a distillery, we'd just missed a tour, so off we went in search of the source of Orkney Ice Cream! Helps that Ansgar knows Dennis who was kind enough to show us round, then let us into a huge freezer - full of icecream!! Yummy Toffee swirl!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the icecream cold store!</td></tr>
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Next, we made our way back to Scapa distillery for our tour there and a tasting afterwards. After that, it was off to Stromness where later in the afternoon we found a shop selling enormous scoops of Orkney icecream - rum and raisin AND fudge! Yum! You can never have too much!<br />
Another bonus, got back to the tent and it was still standing!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lovely clear water</td></tr>
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Next morning, the 5 of us headed down to Evie where we were hoping to have a play in the race in Eynhallow Sound, however they weren't really coming out to play much, so we paddled up and round the island of Eynhallow before heading over to Rousay where we had lunch and a look round the Broch and the burial chamber. It was still too early to call it a day, so rather than go back to the car, we carried on round the north coast, past masses of geos and into loads of huge caves. We eventually made our way back to Skipi geo, where we had a long walk in wet boots back to the tents to get changed before collecting the cars again. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">OK, maybe I have had too much icecream!</td></tr>
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On the Thursday, we were moving on again, leaving behind the luxury of hot showers! We had decided on Taracliff Bay in amongst the beautiful dunes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Keek a boo</td></tr>
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Once set up, we were off paddling again. This time the five of us were meeting up with other paddlers to have a wee jaunt round the <a href="http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/eastmainland/churchill/index.html" target="_blank">Churchill barriers</a> and the block ships. After a wee break on Burray, we all headed back to Rose Ness, then back to Taracliff Bay. Another lovely paddle, another late tea!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mmm! think I could manage a few more icecreams!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tea</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Gloup</td></tr>
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Friday had us leaving from Taracliff, round to Newark bay then crossing over to Horse of Copinsay, with everyone touching it quickly to "claim" another island. There were lots of young seals in the area. After that, we made our way over to, then round Copinsay stopping for lunch, then climbing the hill up to the lighthouse, where we watched the race between the 2 islands pick up, trying to decide which way it was running! We were about to find out! By the time we got back down to our boats, it was pretty much running right across Copinsay Pass, great fun! Having done all this paddling it was still fairly early, so as with most of our plans for the week, we altered our route again to take in Tankerness, but not before Ken had managed to catch a couple of Coley, at least we would be having tea.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I'll grow into it</td></tr>
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Ansgar headed back to get the van, leaving us with strict instructions of keeping well in coming round Mull Head! This was another fantastic coastline, the best part being The Gloup, it's huge and having got new head torches which could light up a football pitch, we carried on through to the back of the cave. There was another fantastic cave to explore before we came to Mull Head. The tide wasn't going fast, but definitely fast enough for us to have to put in a bit of effort to get round the corner! <br />
I have to say, I was glad when we arrived back at Northquoy and Ansgar's van. It was quite a decent length of paddle and another late tea - with fish.<br />
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Now Saturday and our last full day on Orkney. This days paddle was starting off in Deer Sound, then round Tankerness, before a long hard paddle into a bit of a breeze and back to the shipwreck of the Juniata in Inganess Bay. <br />
After a hot shower (sheer luxury!) in Kirkwall, we were meeting up with other paddlers for a farewell Indian meal. What a good night we had, even if we did have to be asked to leave! It was late!<br />
Alice and Ansgar left that night to head over to Stromness for the ferry first thing in the morning.<br />
Sunday morning was stunning, beautifully sunny and such a shame to be leaving! It was a bit strange packing up the tent instead of fighting into smelly paddling kit.<br />
We left Ben sitting in the sunshine, while we made our way down to St Margaret's Hope for the ferry. <br />
Do you know? They don't sell Orkney Ice cream down there!<br />
What a fantastic weeks paddling we've had, a great coastline, with great company and scrummy icecream!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All done!</td></tr>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-65546842346612576882015-07-13T20:13:00.000+01:002015-07-13T20:13:25.690+01:00Scuba do bah do!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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The good thing about our trip up to Barra being cut short due to stinky weather and striking ferrymen, was that we had a weekend with nothing to do! Such a weekend is almost unheard of - OK, we have masses of wet, salty kit to sort out, but that doesn't really count.<br />
So I suggested to Hubby dear that we pop along to the swimming pool on the Friday evening to brush up our scuba skills. We are really only holiday divers, so it's like starting from scratch everytime and I would like to improve one day!<br />
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So along we went and had a great time just pootling around the pool. Mark, the big boss!, suggested our next step would be to do our drysuit diver. We had done our open diver abroad where no drysuits were required. It just so happened they were going out the next day, so before I had the chance to talk myself out of it, we said we'd be there!<br />
Next morning, we met up down at Burntisland's <a href="http://www.divebunker.co.uk/" target="_blank">Divebunker</a>, donned hot drysuits on a beautifully hot, sunny day. We were going to be boil in the bags! After the short walk to the jetty, all looking rather fetching in our mega thick neoprene get ups, we jumped on board the RIB. We weren't going far, just along to the Vows, off Kirkcaldy. We had read up our drysuit book the night before, now it was going to be time to put it all into practise.<br />
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Lots of new things happened that day. I'd always stepped off a boat up until then, this time we were rolling in backwards. So far so good. I always have a bit of phaffing at the top, til I get my breathing right, this time I got down OK, another tick. We then went through all the balancing, equalising things, then off for a wee swim. The visibility was pretty poor, but it was still great being down. <br />
We needed 2 dives to complete our drysuit diver, so next day we were out again. Again it was back to the Vows. It wasn't such a hot day, but the visibility was much better.<br />
Again I got down fine and went off for a wee swim. Lots of crabs, sea urchins and starfish, little flounders and lots of large soft corals and anemones and a lovely dinky little swimming Queen scallop.<br />
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My first diving weekend in Scotland, I thoroughly enjoyed it and looking forward to my next dive.<br />
So although this hasn't been a kayaking scenario, it was still a soggy one!<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0United Kingdom56.09348964103782 -3.130533884113560856.022638141037817 -3.2918953841135608 56.164341141037823 -2.9691723841135609tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-85976288611911947762015-07-12T22:09:00.000+01:002015-07-12T22:09:41.937+01:00The FINish of Mingulay<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coming up the west of Pabbay</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David being skooshed</td></tr>
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We'd had fantastic weather for our trip round the bottom, however, the forecast for today was mingin'. Our plan was to make our way to the top of Mingulay on the east, then across and up the west coast of Pabbay. As we came to the top of Mingulay, while we were watching yet another basking shark, David shouted out that there were more fins - a large pod of Risso dolphins, how special is that? What a display they gave us of tail slapping and breaching, they looked like they were having a great old time! Just as they went out of sight, through the fast flow came more fins, porpoises this time. Sharks, Risso's and porpoises, all before we'd actually left Mingulay! Wow, David had organised this trip well!<br />
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We carried on past Pabbay and onto Sandray for lunch, a cold, wet lunch. It was getting so miserable, we were starting to think of a plan B. We cut over to the east coast of Vatersay, passing another pod of dolphins, Bottlenose this time, and had another breather on our first beach. We decided to paddle over to Castlebay, where there was a ferry due in at 6pm. While we were checking on the ferry, that was the first of us finding out about the ferry work to rule. The ferry was coming in, but not leaving until 7am!<br />
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David now turned into a "Luvvy" being interviewed by STV news about what he thought of the work to rule, unfortunately, they didn't use it. We still decided to go for the ferry, the weather was getting worse. We pitched the tents in Castlebay and spent a rather enjoyable evening in the pub!<br />
What a fantastic trip we'd had and I'm glad we finished early, rather than carrying on through really cold, miserable, windy, wet weather. We certainly had seen masses, basking sharks, golden eagles, basking sharks, sea eagles, basking sharks, puffins, basking sharks, risso dolphins, basking sharks, minkes, basking sharks, porpoises, basking sharks, bottlenose, basking sharks and basking sharks! 33 Basking sharks and 5 and a half (the dead one) minkes! not bad for a few days away.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1st in line for the ferry</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David modelling Sandies new bag!</td></tr>
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Back in Oban, there was only one way to finish off a paddling trip - with a double icecream of course!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1United Kingdom56.830227427857231 -7.616375819010272656.79547992785723 -7.6970568190102728 56.864974927857233 -7.5356948190102724tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-8347324986557555722015-07-11T22:18:00.000+01:002015-07-11T22:53:16.843+01:00No. 97 Mingulay<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mingulay</td></tr>
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Although we had seen lots of Razorbills and Guillemots, we had only seen a couple of my favourites - Puffins. David had promised to get me a Puffin - a real one, so I was fair chuffed when we approached the bay on Mingulay to see hundreds of them busily flying in and out, swooping past each other. How they avoid collisions, I'll never know! <br />
We were also escorted to the beach by masses of inquisitive seals. The sea was so clear we could watch them swimming underneath us.<br />
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We set up the tents then went for a clamber up the hill (just clocked up another bar of chocolate!). The land just suddenly disappears with massive shear cliffs, giving me the heeby jeebies when Chris and Jonathon insisted on getting close to the edge for photos!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Basking in the bay</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1 or 2 seals</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Where we're heading</td></tr>
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Next morning, out in the bay was another basking shark. It's a bit surreal, lying in bed, watching a shark so close in! There were about 60 seals still hauled out on the beach, either very wary of the cruising shark or from sheer exhaustion after singing and partying all night long!<br />
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It was a lovely morning when we set off with empty boats aiming to do a figure of 8 round Berneray. We carried on round the bottom of Mingulay, past the arch of Gearuim Beag then crossed over to the huge cliffs of Berneray. Having empty boats and cracking conditions, we were able to explore all sorts of nooks and crannies. <br />
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We made our way round the south of the island til we got to the pier where we hauled the boats out at high tide, had some lunch then went for yet another clamber (another chocolate earned!) up to Barra Head lighthouse. It was up here David reckons he saw a Minke, no one else did!, but we did see another basking shark swim up the channel.<br />
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We then crossed over by the arch again and up the west coast of Mingulay and onto more magnificent caves. A bit further on and through more arches - this place is amazing!<br />
We were soon turning the top corner cutting through the narrow gap at Solon Mor, before heading south on the east side again, seeing more sharks on the way.<br />
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Chris and Ken hung around out in the bay dangling fishing lines, while I had a peaceful nosey into the wee coves and rocks in the bay. 5 minutes later, Chris and Ken had given up having caught nowt! Just as well I'd brought tea - butternut squash risotto - yum!<br />
Back on dry land, looking out to sea again, out in the bay we had a Minke spouting, next, it breached - what a sight!<br />
After tea it was Puffin time! <br />
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We all clambered (again!) up to the Puffins, where David spent most of the evening with his arms deep down Puffin burrows. Lots of photos were taken of these comical, happy chappies. It was wonderful sitting on the rocks with them sweeping in and out, all at top speed. One landing so close to Hubby dear, it almost landed on him! The highlight though, was David catching a Puffin to ring it, No 97!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No. 97</td></tr>
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After Puffin time it was bonfire time. We'd salvaged a couple of bits of wood from Pabbay, along with a couple of bits we found on Mingulay gave us enough to toast our marshmallows and sandwich them in between choccy digestives.<br />
What a way to end what must have been one of my best days paddling. I've been privileged enough to paddle in some lovely places both in Scotland and abroad, but this trip is up near the very top. It had everything, beautiful beaches, stunning cliffs, caves and arches along with an abundance of wildlife.<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2Outer Hebrides, UK56.812104058639356 -7.627492653367653556.777338058639359 -7.7081736533676537 56.846870058639354 -7.5468116533676532tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-42728828564815707242015-07-06T15:06:00.001+01:002015-07-11T20:38:39.649+01:00Basking on Barra<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was so chuffed a couple of months back when David sent a mail round asking if we'd like to go for a wee paddle round Barra. We had tried , <a href="http://sarahs-soggy-scenarios.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/plans-theyre-just-made-to-be-altered.html" target="_blank">unsuccessfully</a>, to get up there a couple of years back and never really quite got round to doing it since.<br />
On the Friday evening, 5 of us, David, Jonathon, Chris, Hubby dear-AKA Ken and my good self, met up in Oban, emptied the cars, filled the boats, then Jonathon and I set off for the carpark, except we couldn't find the free long term one. Someone said there was one away along the other end of Oban. Off we zoomed only to find it wasn't, time was running out! Back we zoomed, eventually finding it with about 5 mins til the boat leaves. Jonathon started running, with me yelling that I don't do jogging, true enough, it wasn't jogging, it was sprinting. We had however timed it just nicely, the other 3 were just taking the last of the kayaks onto the ferry.<br />
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Once we arrived in Castlebay, we had a short paddle over to our first campsite on one of Vattersay's beautiful beaches.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Team work</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Vatersay</td></tr>
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Next morning off we set, out round the corner and almost straight away spotted our first basking shark. We hung about while it swam around us, so close it managed to bump into Ken's boat. About another 2 paddle strokes further on and basking shark No 2 was spotted!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bracing for shark collision!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shark crossing No 2</td></tr>
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We made our way over to the lovely dunes on Sandray for a breather and to watch a Golden Eagle soaring over head. David was doing really well organising all these sights - 1st morning, 2 basking sharks and a golden eagle, could he keep it up?<br />
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After our breather, we made our way down the East coast to have a look at the crossing over to Pabbay, where we decided to pull in til the flow had died down.<br />
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We about turned to have a look at the lovely sandy beach at the other end of the dunes we had just left. The surf was a bit on the HUGE side! Ken went in to have a look and was almost wiped out with the size of the waves. It was at that point, we decided just to head back round to the first beach! On the way we passed our first Minke whale, unfortunately it was washed up on the rocks well and truly dead!<br />
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After a relaxing lunch in the sunshine surrounded by masses of wild Primroses, off we set again for the crossing over to Pabbay and yet another stunningly beautiful beach.<br />
After pitching the tent and having a gourmet dinner - curry, Hubby dear and I set off for a wee walk up the hill. The views from the top were breathtaking.<br />
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We weren't the only campers on Pabbay, there were also about 10 tents with climbers tackling the sea cliffs. What was a bit disturbing was how they went about their morning "rituals!" The beach on Pabbay is a wide expanse of pristine, white, super soft sand with rocks either end and plenty of dunes. So why would they want, in full view of everyone, to squat half way along the beach, with nothing at all to hide whatever dignity they cared to have to do "their business" then to use their shovel to ping it into the sea!!!!!<br />
The tidal conditions weren't going to be favourable to us that morning with large white horses thundering across the sea so we opted for a late start. Instead we went for another clamber over the hills. Hill climbing and sprinting! that should mean an extra bar of chocolate!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">David, dreaming up more basking sharks</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Feeling on top of the world.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Why the terns were glad to sea the back of us!<br />
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Leaving Pabbay</td></tr>
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Eventually we were ready to make the crossing down to Mingulay and thank goodness we did wait. Although the sea had died down, the swell was still quite big. The crossing wasn't far, but as we got nearer Mingulay, the waves really picked up with the way it was swooshing round the end. Our fully laden boats were fairly getting tossed around, I have to say I was more than relieved when we turned into the shelter of the bay. We were welcomed to Mingulay by a young Sea eagle and yet another beautiful beach, thankfully with no dumping climbers!<br />
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<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0United Kingdom56.943733000017779 -7.519555232358811756.805416500017778 -7.8422787323588121 57.082049500017781 -7.1968317323588114tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-78169453540211522582015-06-28T22:11:00.000+01:002015-06-28T22:13:45.159+01:00Aunty Betty - Hmmm!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our SSKEG group of the day</td></tr>
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A couple of weeks back Ian was good enough to organise a trip out from Stonehaven for <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/149487588591944/?fref=ts" target="_blank">SSKEG</a>. The previous trip from Montrose had to be cancelled due to our rather breezy weather so I was extra pleased this trip was going ahead. Although I'm from the East coast, I don't often seem to get the opportunity to paddle this area.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Massive caves</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Awesome arches!</td></tr>
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7 of us met up at Stonehaven harbour on a beautiful sunny morning. We paddled out from the harbour and headed south. The coast line round here is so different from our Fife coastline, lots of caves and cliffs.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Big caves</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Long caves</td></tr>
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The last bay must have been my favourite, friendly inquisitive seals and a freshwater shower. <br />
We headed back after this, a whole 4km down the coast - that's how interesting the caves and cliffs are!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fresh water showers</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our friendly seal above</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And below!</td></tr>
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Just as well we started back then, the head wind had really picked up and it was quite a slog getting back. We were cheered up with the appearance of a pod of dolphins.<br />
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This was all rewarded by the most extravagant icecream cone ever! I would highly recommend a visit to Aunty Betty's, whether you've been out for a strenuous paddle or a gentle daunder!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Now that's what I call an ice cream!!!!</td></tr>
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A huge thanks to Ian and SSKEG for organising this trip, I'm already looking forward to the next one up there!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, UK56.963660999999988 -2.20928800000001556.929030499999989 -2.2899690000000152 56.998291499999986 -2.1286070000000148tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-67462464119912717122015-06-18T10:56:00.000+01:002015-06-18T10:56:38.558+01:00 Knoydart 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In case I forget who I am</td></tr>
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Once again it seems ages since I visited this page, it's not been due to lack of paddling - quite the opposite possibly!<br />
Since the last time, I've been off having a great old time up at a very blustery "Big Bash" at Onich with LSKC.<br />
We had our annual night time paddle/Easter egg hunt - a lovely evening for it!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Fiona Shaw Ainslie</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Fiona Shaw Ainslie</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Fiona Shaw Ainslie</td></tr>
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Then there was the CVC up at Glenmore - as always a great weekend, great company, great food, great cake - oh and lots of learning! 1st day was WWSR, spent hurtling down white water minus our boats - think I'm probably better doing it that way than in my boat! 2nd day was improving kayak coaching, then onto the event management thing.<br />
The beginning of May had us having a wet rescue session and in between all this, there's been the usual club pool and loch sessions.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was a bigger beach when we started</td></tr>
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It now seems taken for granted that I'll organise a weekend camping trip for the end of May, this year was no different with Knoydart being the destination of choice!<br />
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We started off with 13 on the list, however in the long run a group of 9 met up at Mallaig in time for a chippy before stuffing all the kit into our boats just as the beach disappeared under high tide at 8pm.<br />
Heading out from the harbour, our destination "didn't look too far away!". Unfortunately, not everyone was sitting comfy in the slightly bumpy water and before long we had a wee incident to sort out. That duly done, off we set again. Our pace wasn't too fast, so the "not to far away!" destination took quite a time to get there. <br />
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We were staying the first night at the campsite at Inverie, but as we hadn't been before and the fact it was getting fairly dark, it took a while to find it. There were a few knackered paddlers by this stage, so we literally hauled the boats up and camped right behind them.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Can you hear the groans?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ah!That's better!</td></tr>
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Next morning our plan had been to tidy away the tents and head round to my cousin's at Samadalan, however, the forecast wasn't playing fair, the wind was forecast to increase the next day. We left the tents at the campsite, still to paddle round, but to return back to Inverie. As we passed Mary's Point the waves were getting a wee bit bigger and again our pace wasn't too fast. Those who relaxed their grip enough even spotted the eagles flying beside us.<br />
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We hauled into Doune bay to have lunch, deciding at that point just to phone Eilidh instead of carrying on round to Samadalan, before about turning and heading back to Inverie.<br />
Once again we had a few knackered paddlers, so much so that some of them didn't really notice teatime, in fact some of them didn't even realise that some of us had headed over to the pub, thanks to the Pit and Eilidh taxi!<br />
Next morning the aforementioned knackered paddlers eventually emerged from the cocoons of their sleeping bags - or was it just that they were probably blown out of bed - yes, the wind had arrived!<br />
We all met in the wee hut on the campsite and decided that a dry day (in this rain?) was needed. Eilidh had come back over and was giving us ideas as to where we could go and a few stories of the area.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No Young Trevor, it's not firewood!</td></tr>
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We all got ready, me in my 2 piece suit (packamacs) and reclaimed holey wellies which were borrowed from the reuse box on the campsite. Hubby dear in his cheap mismatched Asda bag socks and Graeme in his expensive matching bags for life Asda socks! Judging by some of the looks we got, we must have looked a right motley bunch!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another wee squall heading in</td></tr>
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We had a wee walk through the village, dragging Dan past the pub - it had only just opened!, however we did keep him company on the way back, well it was warm and dry inside and this was it turned out, the coldest and wettest May on Knoydart since the records started. We sauntered back to the campsite, now in the sun via the Knoydart in a Knutshell walk. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fetching footwear</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A new pal?</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The motley crew</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Those 2 kept following us!</td></tr>
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Next morning the fore casted better weather had arrived! Hurrah! The camp was packed up. Eilidh and Pit arrived with their kayaks planning to paddle over to Mallaig then get the ferry back. <br />
All loaded and on the water, we hadn't even got out of the bay when Pit spotted an otter, happily diving and munching, not really in a hurry to get away from us.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My holey wellies</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inverie deep sea diver</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eilidh and Pit</td></tr>
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We cut across Loch Nevis keeping out of the wind as long as possible before making our way along the coastline to Mallaig. There was a bit of a mad dash paddle at the end to make sure Eilidh and Pit were there in time for the ferry back.<br />
Back on dry land, after the kit was sorted, one of the most important tasks of the weekend was still to be done -icecream!<br />
Another great weekend, weather could have been better, but on the plus side, we weren't bothered by the midges! It was also great getting out with Eilidh and Pit, hopefully we'll get back up again later in the year - when it's warm and sunny!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CVunbhi_kjg/VYKLxDk7CKI/AAAAAAAAESY/TIOX_2-b_aw/s1600/Mallaig%2B36a%2B%25281%2Bof%2B1%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CVunbhi_kjg/VYKLxDk7CKI/AAAAAAAAESY/TIOX_2-b_aw/s320/Mallaig%2B36a%2B%25281%2Bof%2B1%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Think Janice was pleased to survive her first trip away</td></tr>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5251700820803957356.post-57932394956856511862015-04-13T15:54:00.000+01:002015-04-13T16:00:22.016+01:00Playtime with the lifeboat<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the end where the whisky is kept!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Like my new drysuit?</td></tr>
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We were lucky enough to have another practise session with Kinghorn lifeboat recently. <a href="http://sarahs-soggy-scenarios.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/damsel-in-distress.html" target="_blank">First time</a>, the weather was lovely and calm, but as it was evening, we had a dimming light to work with.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Times we could use a kayak trolley like that!</td></tr>
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This time the weather was a bit different - very blustery!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still looking lovely and flat</td></tr>
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As this was Dan's first trip down to the station, we were given a tour and had all the ins and outs of the lifeboat explained to us. It was then outside to show the lifeboat crew the kind of equipment we carry when we're out paddling. A few secret scenarios were then discussed away from the lifeboat crew. It was then time to launch. As I said, it was Dan's first time at the station, but only about his 2nd time out on the sea (plenty loch and pool practise). We launched out through a decent swell (you don't get that in pool practise!) then headed out into the "shelter" of the Hummel rocks. This is where Dan "had to" be towed away from the rocks with a contact tow as he couldn't paddle due to a reaction to a jellyfish sting. He was then rescued. <br />
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We had a rescue with an unconscious paddler. With the swell we were now in, it made it a lot harder and probably more realistic. Our unconscious paddler, unsurprisingly Dan again, is no wee dainty thing! This alone can cause problems, getting him out the boat without snapping his legs! However after a few bits of discussion and suggestions, it was successful. <br />
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Needless to say, when it was getting really blustery, the camera didn't come out!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Taken from the Lifeboat</td></tr>
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We then had a rafted rescue with Niall lounging along our boats having "lost" his.</div>
Another couple of rescues and it was time to head back for lunch and a bit of a debrief, what went well, what we could try next time, etc.<br />
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A really good and interesting mornings paddling and looking forward to our next session with the lifeboat - so long as it's only practising!<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2Kinghorn, Fife, UK56.071231 -3.174328999999943356.053504499999995 -3.2146694999999434 56.0889575 -3.1339884999999432