Sea Kayaking
Aug. 22nd, 2018 01:50 pmLast week we were on holiday in the channel islands and we went kayaking on the sea. I'd done canoeing ages ago, a fun weekly course one summer holiday, and a couple of times since, but not recently. But it was designed for fairly clueless tourists.
It did take a little while to get used to waves, getting in the canoe without losing my beach shoes, paddle, or canoe was surprisingly tricky.
But it was really lovely, just pootling to a few neighbouring bays. The freedom of looking at the sea, and the rocks and cliffs, and just choosing a direction and going there was really beautiful.
My instincts from reading lots of Swallows and Amazons are all wrong for canoeing it seems: my instinct was always to stay way away from rock, and going between rocks and the cliff seemed really daring, even when there's quite a lot of clearance. But unlike sailing, you're much less likely to get sudden swerves, and the canoe is basically a hollow plastic log with a seat on top -- it even has holes through to let the water drain out.
We were the wrong time of year for puffins, sadly, but we did see cormorants, both flying, and in classic sinuous-neck silhouette all in a row on a rock -- a BIG rock, quite towering over us. And an oystercatcher, and possibly a black headed gull. And one of the guides thought there was a shag, but the internet says, if it has white bits, it's a cormorant, if it has a tuft, it's a shag, and if it has neither, then you just need to recognise it, so we weren't sure.
It's always obvious, but I still always get confused by it, how easy it is to get disoriented on the water when the landmarks are different: after rounding one cove, I thought I'd followed the route, but I wasn't overly sure of the way back.
It was quite Over Sea, Under Stone, although not as much as a couple of days later when we went to the underground neolithic tomb worship site.
It felt quite easy at the time, although I didn't try to maintain much of a pace, but our shoulders really, really ached for a day after.
It did take a little while to get used to waves, getting in the canoe without losing my beach shoes, paddle, or canoe was surprisingly tricky.
But it was really lovely, just pootling to a few neighbouring bays. The freedom of looking at the sea, and the rocks and cliffs, and just choosing a direction and going there was really beautiful.
My instincts from reading lots of Swallows and Amazons are all wrong for canoeing it seems: my instinct was always to stay way away from rock, and going between rocks and the cliff seemed really daring, even when there's quite a lot of clearance. But unlike sailing, you're much less likely to get sudden swerves, and the canoe is basically a hollow plastic log with a seat on top -- it even has holes through to let the water drain out.
We were the wrong time of year for puffins, sadly, but we did see cormorants, both flying, and in classic sinuous-neck silhouette all in a row on a rock -- a BIG rock, quite towering over us. And an oystercatcher, and possibly a black headed gull. And one of the guides thought there was a shag, but the internet says, if it has white bits, it's a cormorant, if it has a tuft, it's a shag, and if it has neither, then you just need to recognise it, so we weren't sure.
It's always obvious, but I still always get confused by it, how easy it is to get disoriented on the water when the landmarks are different: after rounding one cove, I thought I'd followed the route, but I wasn't overly sure of the way back.
It was quite Over Sea, Under Stone, although not as much as a couple of days later when we went to the underground neolithic tomb worship site.
It felt quite easy at the time, although I didn't try to maintain much of a pace, but our shoulders really, really ached for a day after.