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The email from Cheryl’s mother simply read “Are you still in one piece, Justine?”

I can only imagine she was wondering why I was taking part in a 3-day 200km off-road loop of the lake district on my mountain bike, after I punctured my lung the last time I mountain biked with her daughter!

Yesterday evening, I could happily reply to Brenda that I am still in 1 piece, with a big grin on my face. An accident doesn’t stop me enjoying something – although I was careful! I love journeying through wild and beautiful places, whether that’s by kayak, bike or on foot so I was really excited when Cheryl invited me to pedal “the Lakeland Loop” on a “girls trip”. The 3 day trip would wind it’s way around a lot of the Lake District, climbing over 3 or 4 passes a day & staying off-road wherever possible.

Don’t think that this must be easy if a bunch of girls can do it! The other lasses were fit, feisty & great fun! We biked for 8 hours a day, got wet feet within 30 minutes of starting, climbed 7,000 metres with burning thighs & descended 7,000 metres with big smiles. The terrain varied from wide grassy tracks, forestry roads, technical single track, squidgy bog & everything in between. We were fuelled by yummy cakes, teas & sandwiches at pubs & cafes, while home-made flapjacks, Nakd bars, Clif bars & happy laughter kept us going in between! At the end of a long day, we stayed in a YHA at Wasdale and a great B & B at Croswaite.

Cheryl runs a cycling holiday company called “Rather be Cycling” with her partner Gavin & this is one of the routes that they take people on commercially. Gavin kindly met us at the end of every day with a bag of clothes, & he fixed any creeks or squeaks on our bikes. If you fancy a challenging & beautiful bike tour then I can recommend this one – it’s brilliant fun! Here are the Lakeland loop details.

If you prefer to go further afield, “Rather be Cycling” also run mountain biking trips in Nepal, Kazakhstan & Europe, & classic road bike trips in the Alps & Morocco. Read more here  or follow them on facebook.

Sorry for the slightly pretentious title of this blog… but it had a bit of a ring to it & it certainly felt pretty hard by hour 7!

I love paddling to Bardsey but usually go from the closest point on the Welsh mainland so I can have more time on the island catching up with the Porter family & enjoying the beauty of the place. On Saturday I decided to combine a flying visit with some ‘fitness training’& a journey along a part of the coastline I don’t know well. I launched my Rapier at Morfa Nefyn 16 nautical miles north of the island and headed south along some an increasingly impressive coastline. Gorgeous pockets of sandy beach were tucked in-between low cliffs. As I got closer to the end of the LLyn the cliffs got bigger and more impressive & the beaches less frequent.

If I’d got up earlier, the tides would have been with me most of the way to Bardsey  (and back), but it was a bit of a last minute decision so by the time I launched at 10am, I knew I only had an hour or so with the tide, then it would be flooding against me, and flooding out of the Sound. The forecast was for SE winds force 4, so I hoped I’d have shelter down the coast, and then I could decide whether to cross to Bardsey across the more exposed Sound when I got there. But the wind was more Easterly along the coast, which helped push me to the SW on the way down (but would be hard work on the way back). I’ve been paddling the Rapier in the Menai Straits in the currents quite a bit recently so I felt perfectly comfortable in the waves, although stopping to eat/ drink/ take photos is harder.

I waved to a couple of guys fishing on what looked like kayaks – but were actually pedallos! And I met a guy in a yellow Atlantic kayak who has just come from Porth Oer (Whistling Sands) whose first words to me were “You are paddling against the flow”! He was right but if I stayed in close to the cliffs I could often find an eddy. I reached the Sound and got my first view of Bardsey after 3 hours & 14 nautical miles. Fortunately there was very little swell so the waves in the Sound weren’t very big, although the fast flowing water racing around Braich y Pwll headland was a bit intimidating to look at. I took a short breather, followed by a deep breath and ferry glided the Rapier into the flow. It was neap tides and I was in a fast kayak so I decided to try ferry gliding across to the island from here (as opposed to paddling up the eddy on the mainland side first). I headed East and was fairly easily making progress upstream at 3.5knots on the GPS. A few breaking waves closer to the island got me a bit wet but not too bad. I reached the tiny island 1km off the North end of Bardsey and took another short breather in the eddy behind this, to the surprise of 4 seals lounging in the sun. From here the tide was with me to the NW tip of Bardsey & down the West side. I landed on the beach 2/3 way down the island after 3hours 45 mins & 16 miles.

I knew I should get back on the water soon as the tide up the Llyn would turn against me shortly but I couldn’t resist spending a couple of hours catching up with the Porters. I finally launched at 3.45pm & headed back. The waves were a bit bigger in the Sound but the tide was partly with me and I flew across at 5.5-6knots. This speed continued for about a mile up the coast of the Llyn until within 5 minutes I was doing 3-3.5 knots. I realised the tide was no longer helping and headed into shore. The rest of the way back was hard work with the wind and tide against me. I was so glad I had a GPS as that motivated me to try a bit harder, and influenced whether I cut across a bay or crawled around the coastline to try to stay out of the wind and tide. I was very glad to land back at Morpha Nefyn just after 8 o’clock – 4 hours 25 mins on the way back over a slightly longer 17 nautical mile route. Overall average speed was 4 knots, which I was quite pleased with considering it was more against the elements, than with them.

The Scottish island of Mull has reminded me that you don’t have to travel far and wide to find fantastic kayaking & beautiful scenery. A month ago, Sarah Outen and I agreed to go paddling in Scotland for a week or so with the very loose aim of kayaking around Mull (or whatever else we fancied). We started in Oban, since that involved less driving & Colin McWilliams from Oban Sea Kayak Guides kindly allowed us to leave our car at his and Gill’s house. We had the added bonus of being able to launch from right outside his door.

I’ve had 2 fleeting visits to Mull in the past but didn’t know that much about the island. My preparation consisted of gathering up my kit,buying food,  printing off the Oban tide times & glancing at the chart and OS maps of the area -kindly lent to me by Roger Chandler from ‘Coastal Spirit‘. Roger guided some kayakers around Mull in April and his maps were handily labelled up with the relevant tidal information & some suggested campspots. Thanks Roger!

We saw the word ‘otters’ next to one campspot on Mull, not far from Oban and that was enough to convince us to spend our first night there. The first wildlife we encountered were not otters, but the famous Scottish midges. There was very little wind and they flocked to welcome their visitors. In actual fact this was to be the worst midge-ing we had as every other campspot had at least a breeze through it & we were remained mostly void of itchy red spots.

The next morning, Sarah excitedly pointed to a much cuter view – 2 otters playing around in the middle of the bay. An hour later, while paddling along impressive rocky buttresses, she spotted a white tailed eagle, regally looking down on us from a dead tree. We were able to drift quite close which was very exciting. I realised that I was traveling with a top wildlife spotter & requested more, more, more! The next day, she saw a basking shark (one of 3 we saw on the trip) & a group of bottle nose dolphins.

The South side of the Ross of Mull was gorgeous with different rocks producing varied scenery. Lava flows gave rise to dramatic layered cliffs, while towards Iona lower-lying reddish granite was weathered like elephant hide. We camped on a golden sandy beach, rimmed by clear turquoise water & were given some mackerel by a family on holiday.

I was really hoping to paddle out to Staffa & the Treshnish isles, but a force 5-6 westerly wind stopped us on the day we hoped to make the crossings. Instead we paddled from Inch Kenneth to Gometra, where we found a bothy that we didn’t know anything about. What a bonus!

The following day, the wind was still against us, but weaker than forecast and we made a dash for Staffa, paddling under a full rainbow. At the island, I was excited to see the amazing basaltic columnar joints and Fingal’s Cave! Puffins, black guillemots, fulmars & shags buzzed around us, although most of them of finished nesting by now.

We camped on Lunga – in a gully half way down to island rather than the more usual spot on the North tip, so we could shelter from the NW winds. We started exploring the south end of the island, but were dive bombed by arctic skuas, so we decided to head north instead! We were too late in the season to see any nesting puffins (which the island is famous for), but saw plenty of black rabbits and black slugs!

Next stop was the colourful houses in Tobermory  where we had a welcome shower (7 minutes of bliss for £2 at the harbour!), munched on fish and chips, visited the pub & spent a bit of money in the gift shops.

From Tobermory, we were on the home straight and paddled back to Oban in two half days. Our last evening was spent on a lovely beach roasting marshmallows over the fire & supping a beer that was brewed on Mull.

I’d reccomend a paddle around all – or part – of Mull to anyone! It’s a great place.

We enjoyed a full range of British Summer weather at the Bute Kayak festival! And some fantastic paddling in a very pretty area.

The evening when I arrived and the first day were gloriously warm and sunny, with gorgeous views towards the spiky peaks of Arran. Day 2 was fairly windy and misty with a bit of drizzle. Day 3 was calm but very very wet – not heavy rain but the sort of light & persistent rain that seeps into everything! Despite the damp on the last day, I think the 30 participants and the coaches all left with smiles on their faces.

There were some skills session on offer – manoeuvring, rescues & towing, Greenland style rolling & forward paddling. I was accompanying folks on a 2-day circumnavigation of Bute, which is a pretty sporty 30km per day. I was really impressed with the pluckiness of everyone, especially on the 2nd day when the last 15km were into quite a strong headwind. People who hadn’t been in a kayak for over 2 years paddled for 5 hours & reached their chosen destination, still smiling! Today a group of us paddled from Bute around Little Cumbrae island (and back via Millport on Cumbrae). The sea round the bottom end of Little Cumbrae was lively and we saw lots of seals & birds. We had dreamt of ice cream at Millport, but settled instead for steaming mugs of soup, hot chocolate and tea!

Each evening we ate delicious meals at the Ettrick Bay tearooms (where we camped). I can really recommend their huge and tasty cakes! I gave a talk about paddling in Tierra del Fuego, Sarah Outen gave her first talk about her looping the globe adventure since her and her rowing boat were hit by a typhoon in the Pacific. Alice & Sally gave talks about women’s clothing & navigation.

It was a great friendly event. Thanks to Roddy, Sally & Alice for organising it. I enjoyed working with Kate Duffus & Morag Brown & paddling in some beautiful spots with fun people.  I didn’t work with Carol Lang, but it’s always good to see her too! You can read a few comments about what the participants thought here.

Ooh, and I have a lovely new kayak! My custom Atlantic LV was designed by Jason at Valley Seakayaks, based on some suggestions from me. It was a very pleasant surprise when I opened the wrapper on Friday and saw the green glittery shapes on the hull! The Atlantic LV & Atlantic are great kayaks which until recently only came in a few standard colours. You can now order them with custom colours (for a comparable price to the Valley kayaks), or you can grab yourself a very competitively priced quality sea kayak by buying one in standard colours.

Now I am in Oban with Sarah Outen. Tomorrow, we paddle across to the isle of Mull for a week or so of paddling adventures. I’m excited!