The French Magazine ‘Canoe & Kayak‘ has published a very colourful article about our trip around “Isla Grande”, Tierra del Fuego. It’s a 10 page article that I wrote, translated into French, illustrated by lots of photos. It’s in the current issue – number 230 -I think it looks great! The magazine can be bought here. A preview clip of the Tierra Del Fuego video can be seen here.
British paddler Simon Osborne was attracted to adventure at a young age. Spurred on by a desire to raise money for leukaemia after his older brother passed away, he became the youngest person to kayak around Great Britain in his early 20s. He has since become a BCU level 5 sea kayak coach, set up his own business, Seakayak Cornwall (in partnership with Jeff Allen) and teaches sea kayaking all over the world. He also continues on his own adventures and has paddled the South Korea coastline & rowed across the Atlantic. Simon filmed many of his trips & has now put together a DVD with films of his solo circumnavigation of Ireland, and his attempt to circumnavigate Madagascar. He made two 3-month long visits to the African island with Phil Clegg the first year, and with a local paddler on his next visit.
The DVD is 64 minutes long. It’s only in PAL format, which means it won’t play in most DVD players in the North America or Japan, but if you live in one of those countries and really want to see it then it should play on your computer. It’s £14.99 & Simon is donating £2 of that to leukaemia research. Cackle TV will also make a 50p donation to leukaemia research for any DVDs bought through us. You can buy it here.
The sun shone on us in Ireland. We had some amazing weather and I can’t find enough positive words so sum up the coastline / people and wilderness that we encountered.
The stats:
43 days
6 days off ( 2 due to weather, 3 due to sickness, 1 for logistics (waiting for a tent pole)).
37 paddling days
874 nautical miles
The trip started smoothly with a ferry from North Wales to Dublin. It was strange to put a luggage tag on our kayaks and leave them in the ferry terminal in Holyhead, but they appeared safely on the luggage carousel in Dublin (don’t worry – the carousel wasn’t moving at the time!). Stena line took good care of them and made travel with the kayaks very easy.
We set off in early May in fairly strong side winds and chilly temperatures – the boys clean shaven with short hair! Sun, rain, hail, clouds – we had it all in the first few days. I found it hard to get warm and soon felt week and a bit sick at times. After a half day off and a hearty portion of fish and chips I was recovered and didn’t look back.
We met kind & hospitable people from the start & have dubbed it the ‘Hospitality circumnavigation’. People we knew, kayakers we’d never met and total strangers offered us showers, food, beds, their car, a lift to the doctors or use of a computer. I have come home with a warm feeling inside at how many lovely people there are out there.
The coastline of Ireland is amazing. Almost every day had gorgeous scenery that I’d go back and paddle. The West coast was my favourite with the swells & the plethora of offshore islands adding to the raw feel of the place.
We had some challenging days and a lot of headwinds (although mostly not that strong) but the sea still reminded us every so often who is boss.
There is so much to explore and while we took some time to look around – I’d happily go back and take twice as much time to poke around on all the lovely islands and be stormbound with a smile!
We saw thousands of birds – puffins and gannets are hard to beat though!
Unexpectedly we paddled with quite a few different people. About 6 locals joined us on the first morning, then we paddled with James for a couple of days and with Andy & Jane for almost 2 weeks. They are now in Scotland continuing their circumnavigation of Britain. Will Brown joined us for a day – it was sociable and fun!
Thanks to Barry and Roger for sharing the trip with me! Roger has put some lovely photos on his blog.
The piece of string says we are about 60 nautical miles from Dun Laoghaire where we launched our heavy kayaks 39 days ago. It’s calm outside the window with not a whitecap on the sea, and we are sitting on a comfy sofa in Annalong catching up with a friend for the afternoon. It’s often the interactions with people that I remember most about a trip so it’s always good to take time out from paddle, paddle, paddle to chat, eat, rest, eat, chat eat.
The locals are all telling us that we’ve experienced a once-in-a-lifetime period of Irish weather with winds that barely rose above force 5, not a lot of rain, a mostly low swell and quite a bit of sun. We’re not complaining, although I’m going to risk being shouted down by saying that we’ve had a lot more headwinds than tail winds – albeit manageable ones. A few times 30-40 knot winds have been forecast but the prediction has changed at the last minute and we’ve been able to get on the water almost every day – with only 2 days off due to the weather, a further 3 days off due to illnesses & 1 day to wait for a new tent pole to arrive in the post and generally hang out.
It was great fun to paddle with Andy & Jane Morton for almost 2 weeks up the west and north coasts of Ireland. They have a great attitude to their trip around Britain and Ireland – they fish as they go along and use wood to cook as often as they can. They can fit camp chairs, fishing lines, and a kelly kettle into their Aleut double. We bade them a fond farewell a few days ago in Ballycastle. We headed around Rathlin and then onwards on the tidal conveyor belt down the East coast. They headed off to Rathlin & then to Islay in Scotland the next day. You can follow their trip here. Thanks to John Ruston for hosting us all in Ballycastle and for letting us take over his house for a couple of days!
The scenery continues to be beautiful every day, although the coast is getting lower lying now on the whole.It’s busier on the water – we dodged 3 ferries while crossing Belfast lough – VHF at the ready. Some of our campspots are getting less wild – we had an evening on one of the only pieces of public grass in Donagadee, and last night we camped outside the stripy bumblebee lighthouse at St Johns. It was good to have a brief chat with Henry, who has lived there for the last 33 years since the lighthouse was automated.
It looks like Saturday and Sunday are going to blow up pretty strong but we hope we might be able to make it back to Dun Laoghaire on Sunday – if not Monday.
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