Good weather clinging on in new Zealand as we head towards winter , so got the kids out on the lake today.
Those spring sky's in Scotland look amazing matt .
They are - last couple of days have been amazing.
Nice little paddle on the local loop.
You start on the river Leam, paddle to the confluence with the river Avon, then up steep steps onto the Aqueduct that carries the Grand Union canal. Up that a few miles until it draws alongside the river Leam, then paddle downstream to the start again.
Just over 7 miles.
Quick spin with my dad at the helm and the dog. Who started in the middle but demanded to sit up front, after filling the midship with spew, which really isn't that comfortable
That loop with the aqueduct looks cool. I love an aqueduct. Would it be suitable for a SUP?
Had a good first paddle of the year last year. Took the kids on Loch Shieldaig nr Torridon for their first mini sea paddle. Daughter is very fond of otters at the moment and started moaning about 3 minutes in that she hand't seen one. Right on cue one otter playing about near the boat, followed by a whole squad of Common seals that followed us around getting right up close to the boat. Just to top it off we got a great view of the sea eagle on the return leg. She was blown away by it such a cool and very lucky trip.
For balance we did a 2hr wildlife boat trip later in the week on somewhat rough seas and saw absolutely nothing!
Shieldaig is brilliant - did you happen to pick up my nice new Samsung phone which is on the bottom between island and hire place?
@joshvegas - the dogs face is classic!
First outing of the yea for us, as usual we just wheeled the canoe a few hundred yards to the local canal for a quick out and back trip, but this time we did spot of litter picking
Made it quite hard work for me as I often had to back oars swiftly to pick up something spotted last minute. A good workout.
I had a litter experience last week. I was paddling under a bridge on The Bridgewater canal and found some younger teenagers trying to retrieve 6 full black bin bags from the canal. They had seen a car pull up on the bridge and dump the rubbish in the water.
I used my kayak to collect the bags and the kids stacked the rubbish at the back of the towpath. An email to Peel Holdings got the rubish dealt with.
What impressed me was that the kids actually cared about the environment when faced with deliberate fly tipping and actually tried to sort out the situation on their own initiative.
Great see @NBT collecting litter 🙂
She was reasonably happy after she got to sit in her safe place, looking over the gunnels at the bow wave.
That is good Bruce....
Canoe camping trip to Loch Duntelchaig with my son Tom last weekend. It's our local Loch close to Inverness.
His first time in the back of the boat in charge of the steering.
Home for the night.
View from my sleeping bag (minus my legs of course.)
Sail back to the pick up point.
Quality father / son time.
Lovely!
I'm rather excited for a change of boats in 10 days time - I need to get back out and paddle more...
Paddling a sea kayak with Sealions, dolphins and penguins yesterday afternoon. In the Falklands, it was wonderful to be so close to these animals.
I’ll try and post some pictures or videos
Very nice boat, I now have serious boat envy.
Aye, it's a long time coming. I've only moved it twice, but soooo nice to pick up Royalex not SP3...
Last week on Ullswater with my son. Took the Neris. Had a cracking paddle, was raining but no wind so the lake was like silk.
^ I think your Instagram page is private?
Ah yes. I'd forgotten that. Got fed up of excessive spam. I'll have to find somewhere to host the pictures.
First paddle on Loch Chon.
Chuffing cold.
Great brew up and sausage fry up on one of the islands.
Nice little paddle down the Wye for the other half's birthday.
Love the Wye, despite it being relatively popular.
@Matt_outandabout, looks immaculate! Nice one P16?
Does this work?
Edit. Nope. I have no idea how to put photos on this site anymore.
@malgrey - yep, barely used P16 on Royalex that's been stored indoors and never used on moving water.
It needs some name stickers removing and properly fitting out.
Came with a trolley, multiple new BA's, paddles, kneeling mats, third seat....all barely used.
Happy days.
@supersessions9-2 - you need to put the Google photo link into Labnol and convert to display.
https://www.labnol.org/embed/google/photos/
@malgrey – yep, barely used P16 on Royalex that’s been stored indoors and never used on moving water.
It needs some name stickers removing and properly fitting out.
Got a trolley, multiple new BA’s, paddles, kneeling mats, third seat….all barely used.
Happy days.
Excellent.
I've seen a P16 on the Ocean, well a sea loch, in a sudden F5. There was an element of Pioneering going on, as the bailer blew away and it was the first time I was genuinely worried for my companions as we headed for safety! So the name could work, sort of!
😆
I'm hoping for none of that, so the name is going..
Loch chon looks Ike a nice wee explore I have just splashed out on some new sup paddles that convert to to kayak paddles for those days that are a bit blowy or for a change of pace.
Took doggo out on thriepmuir. I have learned a number of things:
A 20kilogram dog on the smaller and narrower board is significantly harder.
When she gets bored she will jump off and abandon me to the Headwind.
Me falling off doesn't mean she's going in too just that she will look down on me and the fact all her treats are ruined.
Loch chon looks Ike a nice wee explore
It is - we were disappointed in how much goose poopage the islands all had, and the fact that two of the lochshore campers had outboard engine inflatables... 🙁
I am keen to explore more of Katrine - we were discussing teaming up and doing a shuttle on the ferry - canoe one way, lock the boats up and steam back 🙂
Thanks for adding my pic. Hers another just before setting off.
And thanks for explaining how to do the image thing.
A lovely day on the Teith.
Well, it rained overnight. Other rivers were not rising as fast. So we went back to the Teith again....
https://photos.app.goo.gl/kYukQ2G15MLmC77u8
Great evening for a paddle around to Tobermory Lighthouse, catch the wake of the Kilchoan ferry and finish off with a lap of the bay with porpoises for company
Lovely.
I am quite envious of people who live in places with nice local paddling.
Training on the canal for me tomorrow 🙁
Only just noticed this thread!
Few pics from Loch Tummel tail end of last year. Bert loving life as usual!
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It's the Garry (Invernesshire) Matt, hoping to take the prospector down later but I doubt it will end well😬
Took a trip down a new section of my local ditch, the Gwendraeth Fawr. Plenty of post-industrial bridges that were set too close to the water to paddle under, which made for some awkward portages. Glad I took a kayak not my canoe because there were some squeezes around fallen trees too.
Any other fans of ditch boating on STW?
Any other fans of ditch boating on STW?
Yeah me!
Continuing with my paddling of the whole of Shakespeare's Avon today with a section starting from Rugby.
Really changeable quality with some horrible tree portages and litter-jams.
Man I hate litter... 😞
Early portage
Wildlife
Concrete Jungle
Rugby cement works
Horrendous litter jam I had to climb over
Neigh bother
Looks like a good adventure! Shame about the litter but it's nice to be able to get to places that almost no-one else will (mostly because it's a ballache to get there😅)
A few from last weekend. Bubbenhall to Warwick on the Avon.
I've got one more section to paddle and I've paddled the whole 108 miles of the river then(the paddleable bits at least)
Limbo weir
Electric fence portage. Got me 4 times!!! 😳
Stoneleigh. The rough end.
