Archive for the ‘expedition’ Category

You never quite know whats going to happen on a circumnavigation which is one of the things I love about it but if anyone had told me we would end up staying in two of west corks finest hotels and going paddling with journalists from vogue then I wouldn’t have believed them. Yet here we are.

I’ve met jim kennedy briefly at symposiums in skye and jersey and knew he was a prominent kayaker who had won the devises to westminster race and been british champion in sprint kayaking but I didn’t expect him to welcome us with such broad open arms.he arranged for us to stay a night in the wonderful inchydoney spa hotel then when barry started feeling ill, he arranged for us to move to the equally impressive West Cork hotel right on the river in skibbereen. It is possible to paddle right from the hotel lobby to the open sea at baltimore..barry is still feeling a bit rough and needs to be close to a bathroom so its a luxurious way to recover. The rooms we are in are amazing with loads of space to spread out the contents of our ikea bags and an ornate free standing bath.this is our second day off paddling but weh are hopeful that barry will be well enough to start again on thursday or friday. Theres a possible weather window to get round one of the cruxes mizen head on saturday or sunday so dinners crossed that everything works out.

In the meantime roger and I went out to help jim s company, atlantic sea kayaking, to take out some Portugese journalists from magazines like vogue, and a national newspaper. I paddled a double with an attractive lady in a skirt, rights, heeled boots and designer subleases! WE all had a lot of fun! And aside from that, my body is glad of a break from thousands of paddlestrokes every day and we are getting to chat with jim and seeing a bit of the beautiful Cork countryside.its a lovely area for paddling our just sightseeing.

My trousers are straining as I try to finish the sea food platter and guiness at the luxury inchydoney lodge.it doesn’t sound like expedition paddling but it is today! Paddling legend jim kennedy of atlantic sea kayaking arranged for us to stay here for a night which was a fantastic surprise and treat.its a gorgeous lodge and spa right by a sandy beach which has a warm seawater swimming pool, friendly staff and gorgeous rooms.

we have paddled every day for the last nine days since we started the trip and we have covered just over 200 nautical miles. I feel surprisingly good,i have recovered from my bout of illness and seem back to full strength although my back is a bit stiffn and I have started to look forward to a bad weather day when we can rest and chill. On the other hand it would be great to get around one of the cruxes of the trip, mizen which is about 2 or 3 days paddle away. It looks like we are due stronger NW winds on weds so we might get stuck this side of the mizen.

The south coast had between varied in scenery but always interesting.there are a lot of stripey cliffs full of arches, caves and surprises.the most spectacular is the 100+ metre tunnel underneath Kinsale head.we knew it was there but it took a while to find the shaft of light in the distance that gave it away.very cool.

We have done a mixture of coast hugging and crossing from headland to headland.yesterday was pretty calm so we did more point to point paddling. It was also the day of the daddy long leg. Hundreds of them floated on the see surface, some alive, some upside down and past their best. Today a fresh nw wind encouraged us to stay in close.