Justine’s Blog

We’re home in Wales after a packed & fun 3 weeks away. The last 9 days paddling in Newfoundland was a fantastic chance to get to know a bit more of the island, which has a knack of sneaking into your heart the more time you spend there. Alun and I had originally intended to go for a self-sufficient camping trip and explore one area in detail. However, we were filming for the sequel to ‘This is the Sea’ and the Tourism department in Newfoundland agreed to give us some financial support in the form of a hire car and a couple of internal flights so we could head straight for some of Newfoundland’s kayaking hotspots – and there are many to chose from! On the first day back, we kayaked out to Witless Bay Nature Reserve with Richard Alexander, a local kayaking instructor and very nice man. We were almost instantly paddling around small islands amongst thousands and thousands of birds – puffins, kittiwakes, guillemots (called Murres in Newfoundland) and the odd razorbill. It was a bit like being at home, but I’ve never seen so many birds in one place – some friends of mine described paddling under a cliff in Iceland as being in a ‘blizzard of birds’ and I think it must have been similar. The only difference in Newfoundland is that in a few weeks time Witless Bay will also be full of humpback whales – every year they come for the same reason the birds are there….lots and lots of fish.

The next day we drove south west for a couple of hours to ‘Cape St Mary’, a huge gannet colony in an incredible position. About fourteen thousand gannets are nesting on one big sea stack, which is almost close enough to the mainland to jump to. We drove down on a beautiful sunny day but as we approached the coast we saw that someone had plastered a thick layer of fog on the cliffs – fairly typical in Newfoundland we were learning. We walked along the cliffs towards the colony in about 30 metres visibility and the sound of gannets chattering and squabbling echoed in our ears long before we saw them. Suddenly a white stack appeared just in front of us and I realised we were looking slightly down on a prime piece of gannet real-estate, birds were shoulder to shoulder on every available bit of space making the whole stack look white. Several hundred other gannets swarmed overhead in seemingly random directions and it sounded like everyone was talking at once. It was an incredible experience, even more amazing because the nearest gannets were only about 5 metres away and they all seemed completely oblivious to our presence. We sat mesmerised for 2 hours, watching preening sessions between pairs and fights between neighbours (a hazard of living within pecking distance of 2 or 3 other nest sites). We learnt that the flights had a pattern and saw at close quarters how the birds turned, stalled and landed by their tiny nests. A few carried twigs or green tatters of old fishing nets as new material.

The fog shifted slightly and at times we could see the sea at the bottom of the stack, but mostly the sky around remained a grey murk and the white rock of gannets shone out like a lone beacon. We had hoped to paddle around to the colony by sea but reluctantly decided that there was little point in attempting the 12km paddle along steep cliffs if we couldn’t see anything. We’d been told that the wind was shifting from the SW (which always brings fog) to the West or NW (which brings clear weather) but after 3 hours of waiting it was getting too late to start the paddle. We decided to drive back 10km to a pretty fishing village called ‘Branch’ which was out of the fog and do a short paddle around there. When we returned to the Cape, it looked like it might be clearing and we opted to stay in nearby Placentia that night and cross our fingers for good weather the next morning.

When the dawn broke we weren’t disappointed – clear skies and sun beckoned us southwards and we enjoyed views of cliffs and storm beaches that had been cloaked by fog the day before. At the fishing village of “St Brides’, we pulled our kayaks through squidgy seaweed and launched into an almost flat calm sea. We’d been warned that Cape St Mary’s can be wild and stormy with big swells and strong tides, but today it was a beautiful mellow place to be – probably just as well with a 12 km paddle along steep cliffs ahead of us. The scenery was very dramatic; red and black layers of rock, splatterings of yellow lichen and some really interesting geology. We came around a corner and thought we spotted a dramatic thin waterfall several hundred metres high, but as we got closer we realised that it was a vertical white layer of quartz which had been eroded more than the surrounding rock – it was the best non-waterfall that I’ve ever seen!

As we approached the gannet colony the sound of birds echoed all around us, and they were everywhere. Rafts of hundreds of guillemots took flight as we approached them, the splatter of their bodies crashing on the water being replaced by the quick shwoosh of tiny wings against air. A little higher, Kittiwakes moved in gangs, squawking in unison and flying a little slower. Above them again were the gannets soaring in circles on a never-ending circuit for nest material and food. A few came a little closer to have a look at us and then went back to their daily business. It was amazing how the different birds all lived so close together in what seemed like peaceful co-existence. They all live in their isolated colonies – guillemots at the bottom of the cliff, kittiwakes in the middle and gannets on the sea stack with a bit of overspill onto the upper part of the mainland cliffs. They narrowly avoid each other on their flight paths and presumably feed on slightly different food.

We watched for a while in admiration, filmed the birds from this new perspective and turned back for the ride home. It was calm enough for us to land on a small cobbly beach for lunch and as we enjoyed our sandwiches a minke whale cruised on by…. what a great place!

After that trip and a bit of filming with Linda Bartlett, we flew up to the northernmost tip of Newfoundland where we were very well looked after at Quirpoon lighthouse and where we had the pleasure of kayaking with icebergs (well, iceberg!) and whales. More on that another day soon….. and I’ll also post some photos from Newfoundland and Lake Michigan in the next week or two. In the meantime, you can see some photos and a write-up of the trip we did to the Manitou Islands and the symposium on Derrick Mayolith’s website…

http://www.kayakwisconsin.net/kayaking-pictures.html

http://www.kayakwisconsin.net/2005/06/rugged-western-shores.html

until the next time!
Justine

hello from Chicago – a pit stop between kayaking and filming on the Great Lakes and Newfoundland. It’s really exciting to be ‘on the road’ meeting fun people and kayaking in new places. Just over a week ago I was the guest speaker at the Newfoundland and Labrador Kayak Club’s ‘retreat’, an annual gathering of sea kayakers and river paddlers. Alun and I were very well looked after by the locals, and we were given a ‘screeching ceremony’, where we were made to eat and drink all sorts of funny things, kiss a cod & speak in a funny language…. all wearing a bright yellow so-wester hat. I gave a presentation about ‘my adventures’ and gave a few classes and presentations and on the last day we had a real treat and were taken down “Pipers Hole”, a grade 3 river by Geoff, Betsy, Louise, Ryan, Dave & Gary. I was petrified at the start because I haven’t done that many rivers but I loved it – the scenery was wonderful, there were a few fun waves to surf on and my river sense isn’t quite as bad as I thought it was! To top it off, on the drive back we saw 2 moose on the road.

After that we flew to Chicago and some of the local Lake Michigan paddlers took us on a 3 day trip out to the Manitou islands. That was a lot of fun – it was beautifully flat calm on the first day with tropical looking turcoise water (and I stress tropical LOOKING water as the temperature brought you back to reality!). The shore of the lake there is dramatic , with massive sand dunes several hundred metres high and lots of trees on the top of them. The sand is glacial till from the last ice age and there isn’t a rock in sight. The islands are hilly dunes aswell and no-one lives there so we had them pretty much to ourselves. The 2nd and 3rd days were windier and we contended with a head wind, a following sea and a side wind as we explored South Manitou island’s stand of virgin cedar trees, and an impressive looking shipwreck that has been colonised by cormorants. The sight of it is only overshadowed by the smell of it! We met lots of interesting people and did some filming for the sequel to ‘This is the Sea’, which is due out this Autumn (or Fall). I also filmed a feature on Doug Vandoren who is a traditional ‘Greenland style’ kayaker who is a great advocate of the traditional blade and boat in all conditions – he believes that several thousand years of evolution of kayaking in Greenland can’t be wrong and thinks we can learn a lot from trying to understand their style. When I saw him surfing waves I had to agree that he could perform easily as well as someone in a modern fibreglass boat and ‘Euro’ blades. We mounted my minicamera system on his kayak and he did a range of rolls. You can see the motion of his body and paddle under the water so I’m excited to put that in the next DVD.

We’ve just returned from the 3day West Michigan Coastal Kayakers Association Symposium where I was the guest speaker, and where we met some more lovely people. The event is held on a sheltered lake near Muskegon and about 200 beginners and intermediate paddlers attended. It was a great location for teaching skills and everyone seemed to get a lot out of it. I instructed in a few classes on the first day without telling people I was the guest speaker. In a women’s clinic I went through the theory of how I pee from a kayak and one lady asked me if I had ever used the technique. “A few times” I said. The next day after my talk about some of the expeditions that I have done she was laughing about asking me that question.

Tomorrow we are going back to Newfoundland for 9 days to do some filming of some of the hotspots and to enjoy the scenery. We hope to go out to a massive gannet colony and go up to Quirpoon lighthouse on the Northern peninsula where our fingers are crossed for some iceberg sightings.

Tara rwan

I’ve decided to give everyone a sneak preview of footage from the first all-female circumnavigation of Tasmania by seakayak. The whole 850mile journey will be featured in the sequel to ‘This is the Sea’ but so far I’ve just edited a few snipets for slide presentations. This is one of them and shows how constant headwinds persuaded us to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning to try to be on the water at first light and make the most of a short weather window between about 5.30am and 7 or 8 o’clock.This day, once the wind picks up we cross the mouth of the large river that comes out of Launceston. The wind was against the current and kicked up some fun waves.

Trys, Gemma and I succesfully completed the circumnavigation 4 months ago, but in some ways it feels like a previous life. It’s quite nice to be starting to edit the trip and bring back memories of good ( and a few bad) times.

The link above takes you to a page with a choice of quicktime movie or WMV file. (or click here)

Leave a comment and let me know what you think?

Last weekend was the seakayaking symposium in Anglesey, North Wales. There was rain, wind, sea mist and mud, but everyone was smiling because there were also big waves which is what most people come to Anglesey for. Yesterday afternoon was the highlight for me, when I went to my favourite tidal race play spot with Ginni Callahan, Axel Schoevers, Steve and Pete. As we left Porthdafarch Beach our kayaks rose and crashed down over 7 or 8 lines of small surf – enough to give you a face full of water a couple of times. When there is surf on Porthdafarch, you know that Penrhyn Mawr will be exciting, and I it was with a mixture of excitement and apprehension that I rounded the corner where the tidal race comes into view. Even from 500 metres away we could see the lines of white horses crashing down – the waves would be BIG. We paddled through the main race with the tide and our kayaks went up and down, up and down on perhaps 6 metre high waves curling towards us. We tried to break out to the right behind a rock where there is usually a flat eddy, but today the sea was all over the place, and it was hard to make out where the eddy started. Everywhere was a rollercoaster. The biggest waves were in the middle of the main channel and looked pretty scary.

I hesitated and watched them for a while – were they just big or were they crashing down powerfully? I was searching for big waves without the big impact! Steve was already in there, pointing upstream and paddling hard to catch a ride. His 3metre long kayak looked pretty small, but if he was in there then I wasn’t going to sit and watch any longer! I had my deck-mounted camera on the front of the kayak and I pointed it forwards as I tried to catch a wave. I don’t think I look behind me very often when I’m surfing, I feel the waves coming as the back of my kayak lifts underneath me and if it feels like a steep wave then I paddle hard to try to drop down the face for a good ride. The back of my kayak was lifting and I dug in with my paddle and leant forward as I accelerated downhill onto the wave. The kayak was at an intimidatingly steep angle and I was looking down at the trough waiting for the impact. It didn’t come for a while as the wave pulled me back up the face almost as quickly as I shot down it – the ride lasted for an exhilarating few seconds and then suddenly my bow sunk into the trough right up to the cockpit. I half expected to be unbalanced and maybe even capsize but I was lucky and my bow easily slid back out from under the water. Now I really was grinning! Ginni, Axel and Steve were all surfing happily and I tried to follow them for a while with the camera on to capture that feeling of being in a big tidal race. I haven’t checked the footage yet but I think I got Ginni being turned 180 degrees by a wave. Pete had a brief swim but Ginni rescued him quickly. Steve tried to tow Ginni and Pete into the eddy, but first of all his towline clip came off and the second time it broke altogether! I was really usefully filming it all! A bit later, I got out onto the rocks and got some good shots of the others surfing. You can see the results when the sequel to ‘This is the Sea’ is out – hopefully in September.

I’ve already written more than I intended to… over all it was a fun weekend and great to see old friends like Hadas Feldman, who was giving a talk about her circumnavigation of Japan with Jeff Allen, and meet new people like Sean Morley, who paddled around Great Britain, Ireland and all the outlying islands last year ( including a 40 mile crossing to St Kilda). Sean is a very skilful paddler who paddled in the junior racing world championships, and can do impressive tricks in a wave ski. Alun and I did some filming with him rockhopping in parliament house cave in a racing boat with a rudder!! That will be in the next DVD as well.

Enough typing…… I have to give a talk about my Tasmania expedition tonight at Anglesey Sea and Surf Centre, so I better go and prepare it!