Author: Justine

Cheryl and I have been friends for 30 years, it’s her fault that I discovered the exciting world of adventure as a little over 15 years ago she dragged me along to the Jersey canoe club. She also planned our first walking trip in Scotland and persuaded me to buy a bike so we could cycle across the Pyrenees.

She now runs Rather be Cycling, taking people biking to some exciting & interesting locations. When she excitedly said I should join one of her trips to mountain bike in Nepal this Christmas, I couldn’t resist. So here I am! I arrived a week early to do some biking with Cheryl around the foothills of Kathmandu & have had some good rides – as well as a great introduction to the friendly people.

Soon we set off on a 500km mountain bike journey from Jomsom back to Kathmandu – details here.

Yesterday’s ride!

Cheri & Turner of Kayak Ways are coming back to the UK in Spring 2013 and will be touring around giving Greenland-style rolling and paddling workshops. They’ve been touring the world sharing these skills for 7 years and are widely praised for their teaching.

They’ll be in North Wales on May 4th and 5th giving workshops. The location will be Lyn Padarn in Llanberis or the coast of Anglesey, depending on the weather. Please get in touch with cheri@kayakways.net for more information, or check out their website.

In between their teaching, we will be filming and editing the sequel to “This is the Roll“, which will cover how to learn many more of the Greenland-style rolls.

If you want to do your homework beforehand then pick up a copy of “This is the Roll” for Christmas!

There are some places where I feel relaxed, happy & energised. One of those is Bardsey island. A journey there is a wonderful combination of exciting paddle, beautiful scenery, magical destination & lovely people. It was a pleasure to share a special place and journey with Sarah Outen today.

Barry, Sarah and I were up in the dark to make the most of the short day but despite that we were having so much fun chatting to the Porter family & walking round the island that we still ended up paddling back in the dark!  We crossed the sound in the fading light and pulled up on Abadaron beach just as the last of the light faded from the sky. Sarah rolled in the surf landing – her first unplanned roll!

Rounding the Southern tip of Bardsey

A brisk walk up the hill when we should really have been paddling back already!

Moody light to Bardsey

Dusk over Bardsey Sound

There were a few exciting moments on the paddle there and back.

Happy faces on landing at Abadaron in the dark.

Our track from the day.

Do you need to drop a hint to someone special about what you’d like for Christmas?

Here’s an idea! You could try leaving the latest edition of Canoe & KayakUK magazine open on page 9? To be extra sure that your clever tactic doesn’t fall on blind eyes, you could find a permanent marker and draw a thick red circle around the review of “This is the Sea 5” on the right hand side of the page.

If an inspirational DVD is more your cup of tea – or you prefer downloads – just write www.cackletv.com in big letters underneath the article. This would work equally well etched into the frosty windscreen, scribbled onto the steamed up mirror, in letters on the fridge – or any number of inventive ‘hints’ you can think of!

OK, enough fooling around. But if you are interested in paddling DVDs, books or cards for Christmas then please ask for them at your local shop or check out our website! There are some good deals there too.

And don’t forget to turn to page 32 of CKUK mag as there’s a fascinating 6-page interview with adventurer Sarah Outen. Some of the pics were taken by a certain sea kayaking filmmaker who joined Sarah for the kayaking legs of the journey (and briefly on the bike).