Author: Justine

Almost 3 years after taking on the wild surf and unpredictable weather of New Zealand’s South island, Barry and I feel ready for another challenging trip in a wild and beautiful area of the world. Neither of us have ever kayaked in South America before but we both feel a pull towards the narrow channels of Chilean Patagonia, where we can gaze up at ice-clad mountains and maybe watch glaciers carving into the sea. We recently became aware that there is an island down there at the tip of the world, about the size of Ireland, with a tantalising mix of history, culture, wildlife, natural beauty and challenging conditions. “Tierra del Fuego” is part Chilean and part Argentinian, part steep sided channels and part exposed coastline. It’s a place where you can get 4 seasons in one day and where the wind doesn’t rest for long.

As far as we know, no-one has kayaked around Tierra del Fuego before, although Argentinian paddlers Agustin Garcia Albarido, Luis Garcia Albarido & Diego Lamas kayaked down the exposed east coast of Tierra del Fuego earlier this year as part of their incredible cycling and kayaking trip down the entire coast of Argentina. Marcus Demuth & Biff Wruszek paddled 2/3 of the way around La Isla Grande last year before being storm-bound for about 12 days in a row. They were running low on food and time and were evacuated by helicopter. We don’t mind if anyone has, or does, kayak around before us but we are looking forward to visiting this incredible area that has the ability to bring me up in goosebumps at just the thought of it!

We plan to fly to Tierra del Fuego in early January 2011 and will allow 2 and a half months for the 1,000 mile journey. This might sound like a lot of time, but we know we will have to satisfy the Chilean & Argentinean Armada’s that we have the correct experience and equipment before we can set off, and we know we will be weather-bound a lot of the time, waiting for the incessant winds to abate enough to go paddling.

Our Valley Nordkapps are already on their way to Punta Arenas by container ship and we are busy trying to secure the various permissions we need to kayak in Argentinean and Chilean waters, orgainse our kit, study the charts and the pilot & read up about the area. As always with these trips, there are lots of people behind the scenes who are already offering us help and support. Despite the fact we’ve only told a few friends that we are going to TDF so far, I’ve had emails from several people I don’t know offering help and advice. In particular, thank you very much to Marcus Demuth for sending us his charts and for always being helpful with information and contacts. Thanks also to local paddlers Kiko from Punta Arenas, & Marcelo & Monica from Rio Grande for their invaluable help in our correspondence with the authorities.

There is a bit more information on my website.

There are a few more chances to see some films from “This is canoeing” over the next month or so. “Dougie Down the Pet” is a finalist at the Kendal Mountain Film Festival on 20-21st November and will be showing several times over the weekend. Also at Kendal, proving that a grand adventure can be had locally, “Rannoch Moor” is showing on the Friday night as part of the Wildwater Evening. I’ll be there for the whole weekend and I’ll have some DVDs for sale at a reduced price.

The whitewater antics of Paul Mason, Mark Scriver & Andrew Westwood are on show at the Mountain & Adventure Film Festival in Graz, Austria from 9th-13th November in the film “The Moose”.

“The Moose” and “The Mountain River” are showing at the International Festival of Outdoor Films at 24 locations around the Czech Republic until the end of the year.

Click on the names of the films to watch a preview clip, or here is the preview to “Dougie Down the Pet”, if you haven’t seen it. Many people have told me this is their favourite film on the DVD.

You can buy “This is Canoeing” or “This is the Sea 1-4” at the Cackle TV Store, or at many good outdoor shops. In the UK/ Europe / Australasia store I also have a few copies of “The Canoe Movie” left.

The UK Storm Gathering in Northumberland last weekend was a great, fun & friendly event. It was my first time paddling in the area and I was really excited to kayak to the Farne islands & see what the coastline had to offer. NE England is not typically at the top of a seakayakers ‘hit list’ but it’s well worth a visit. I find islands hard to resist anyway and I enjoyed the rugged wild feel of the Farne islands       –

enhanced by a Force 3/4 wind and a healthy swell!  We paddled around most of the islands and had lunch at Longstone Lighthouse, surrounded by hundreds of seals. In July, there are thousands of nesting birds here and I hope to come back and visit one Summer. The end of the day was spent surfing some great fun, friendly waves at our take out beach.

On Sunday we paddled a pretty section of coast from Berwick to Eyemouth, exploring lots of sandstone caves.

The symposium was organised by Ollie Jay who runs guided trips in the area. His company website is here. Jim Krawiecki is putting the finishing touches on a seakayaking guidebook to the North of England and he gave us a preview of some of the photos on the Saturday night. The book will be available from Pesda Press early  next year.

I just returned from a great week of kayaking in Menorca with Sarah Outen. How nice to be in short sleeves in late October! Menorca is a great location for kayaking with limestone cliffs peppered with caves on the south coast, and a colourful smorgasbord of red, grey, white and brown rocks on the north coast. At about 170km around it’s very feasible to paddle around it in a week (although the weather is very changeable at this time of year). We paddled sections of the north, south and east coast in flat calm and howling storm, and we kayaked 20 nautical miles across to Mallorca. I’ll write more next week with a few more pictures but I wanted to put up a few pics to give a taste of the island before heading to the UK Storm Gathering in Northumberland…in about 5 minutes!

Thanks to M.Teresa & Carols from “Menorca en Kayak” for being brillnant hosts, driving us around the island, and sending us weather forecasts. Thanks to Eva, who put us up when we weren’t camping – and as you can see the view from her house isn’t too bad!