Baja Sea Kayaking

It would be easy to run of adequate descriptive words to describe our sea kayaking trip to Baja this year, it was just great and if you haven't been to this area start planning, you won't regret it.  

Hopefully the photographs will stimulate your interest if you haven't visited the region before.

When heading out on a trip it always helps if the hotel where you stay the night before has a map on the wall.  We paddled south from Loreto to La Paz.

Just one of the many stunning camp sites we used as we paddled through 150 nautical miles of dramatic coastal scenery.

 At lunch time it was necessary to seek out shade as the temperature climbed into the mid to high 30's.  There was only one day when we were unable to find natural shade.

 If there was a list of great lunch spots in the world, this bay must surely be in the top 10.  Isla San Francisco.

Popping on a snorkel and looking under was full of memorable surprises.

 As well as the wildlife the geology was pretty spectacular

 From this beach it was another 6 days before we could get a mobile phone signal.  How often do paddle in areas which feel that remote.

 It was the sea kayaking we went for and it surpassed our expectations.

Sea Kayaking Memories

Whilst looking through thousands of slides last week, as I was trying to sort out a talk for a 60th birthday celebration, I came across a number of slides which brought back memories of sea kayaking over the last 30 plus years.

Also makes me think about how sea kayaking images have been lost as we have all made the switch to digital.

Holyhead Harbour at dawn towards the end of August 1980.  We are leaving for Ireland.  All was going well until 2 kayaks the same colour as ours were washed ashore under South Stack, resulting in a search being launched.  We were located by a helicopter, followed quickly by a lifeboat.  It took the edge of our trip so we returned to Holyhead.

Crossing to Bardsey in July 1981.  The hatches on my new Nordkapp were held in place by string.  My kayak was one of the first to be fitted with the new hatches, unfortunately the compound was unstable resulting in the rims collapsing inwards.  Valley were great and replaced the hatches without question.

A welcome beer in Carteret, France.  There were significant restrictions placed on kayakers who wished to paddle to France but in April 1984 we were given permission to cross from Jersey to France, by the French authorities, and here we are celebrating our passage to our nearest neighbour.

Surfing at St Ouen's in 1985.  KW7's were the craft of the day.  Still a great general purpose kayak.

Pete on a rocky beach in northern Norway, in August 1986.  We only had 2 days in 4 weeks when we were unable to paddle because of the weather.  We were heading towards Nordkapp.

Beachy Head Lighthouse in 1986.  Probably the most dramatic headland on the south coast.

Cap Frehel is one of the largest headlands in northern Brittany.  We paddled the length of the north Brittany coast back to St Malo before jumping on the ferry back to Jersey.

Its not everywhere that Osprey's nest on navigation marks.  Penobscot Bay, Maine 1995.

 An arch on Gola, off the north west coast of Ireland in 1996.  Exploring the uninhabited islands was a great way to spend a couple of weeks.

Sea Kayaking in southern Brittany

When the number 56 on the car registration becomes the most numerous you know that you are entering the Department of Morbihan, in southern Brittany and some superb sea kayaking is within your reach.

In the Gulf Of Morbihan I normally head east, following the main flow of the tide and threading my way through the myriad of islands which are contained within this "inland sea".  This day though the aim was to follow the western branch of the Gulf up to the old port of Auray, which is one of those delightful Breton villages which you feel you should visit on several occasions.  In the sunshine they look particularly attractive and we were not disappointed with our day out.

If you are heading this way be sure to get hold of the superb sea kayaking guide, which was published earlier this year.

Entering the Gulf of Morbihan, we were staying on the western shore, following the river north towards Auray.  Although we were only on neap tides in places we had about 5 knots of assistance.

Passing underneath the bridge carrying the main road from Brest to Nantes.  This 20th century concrete bridge was in complete contrast to what lay ahead.

Arriving in Auray, a delightful French port, complete with traditional French sailing craft.

 Kayaks were hauled onto the quay side whilst sea paddlers went in search of some refreshments.  It was here that Benjamin Franklin landed on the 3rd December 1776, in disguise and after a difficult crossing of the north Atlantic he was serve as the US Ambassador to France for 9 years.

 Many of the old buildings are well preserved and the town of Auray is a delightful place to pass a few hours, but the tide had turned and it was time to hitch a free ride back to Locmariaquer.

 Getting ready to leave Auray.

Back at the campsite at Locmariaquer, a great base for sea kayakers and well worth a visit.

Some more aerial photographs

I always find looking out of the window of an aircraft more interesting than most films, particularly if you also have the moving map working as well.  So here are a few more photographs taken out of the window of some of my flights, with a few classic sea kayaking areas featured.

The Isle of Dogs area of London in April 1994.  Many of the high rise buildings of Canary Wharf had yet to appear and the O2 is still 5 years away from being built.  Some photos here illustrate how much the area has changed.

The Olympic Park area in the east of London.  Heading to Scotland for a weeks sea kayaking 2013.

Beachy Head and Eastbourne.  The lighthouse is just visible in the sea.  It is probably 20 years since I paddled along this section of coast.  We were en route to warm weather kayaking in Gozo.

 Clouds over the English Channel as we start our descent into Jersey.  July 2013

 Taking off from Jersey April 2013.  St Aubin's Harbour and Fort are clearly visible.  The large headland is Noirmont, where a entertaining tidal race develops just after high water.

 Arriving over the eastern shore of the Baja Peninsula in March 2013, at the start of a truly memorable 10 days sea kayaking.

 Final approach over St Ouen's Bay in September 2012.  A day with no surf.

 

Looking north from a light aircraft off the south coast of Jersey in May 1990.  The obvious chimney was at the desalination plant, but has since been demolished.  The large white building to the left of the chimney is the Highlands Hotel where next summers Symposium is going to be based.  The large bay is St Ouen's whilst the island in the distance is Sark.

Hurst Castle Spit, towards the western end of the Solent, taken in August 2012 whilst flying home.  Every time I fly over the Isle of Wight area I think that I really must kayak there more often.  My last visit was in 1983, perhaps 2014 will be the year that changes.

Baja - a special campsite

Baja, Mexico as a sea kayaking destination first entered my consciousness in November 1983.  Derek Hutchinson showed me some photographs at the BCU Coaching Conference that month and I was intrigued.  It only took me 30 years to achieve my ambition to visit this Mexican sea paddling destination.  I certainly wasn't disappointed with the variety of sea kayaking that I discovered in the Sea of Cortez.

 Nicky paddling along the eastern coast of Isla Danzante.  This delightful little island is not that far offshore and a circumnavigation would be a very pleasant day trip, but our ambitions lay further offshore.

 Punta Baja, the most southern point of Isla Carmen.  The two palm trees are instantly recognizable in numerous sea kayaking photographs.  This day we had the point to ourselves.  A memorable place to camp.

 There were a significant number of Pelican's in the area, in addition to other bird life.

 As the sunset behind the Baja Peninsula the dramatic landscape was a perfect backdrop as we ate our evening meal.

 We quickly tuned into the rhythm of the day.  Up before dawn so that we could avoid paddling in the heat of the day.

 Breakfast, with part of the day's route behind.

  We thought that our journey south may have been slowed down by strong winds, but on days like this, the miles just flew past.  Nicky is just preparing to cross back to the Baja Peninsula

Spar Cave - Skye

I can't quite believe that after 15 years of visiting Skye to go sea kayaking and paddling in this specific area on numerous occasions, it wasn't until May this year that I actually stopped off at Spar Cave and managed to explore its inner recesses.  It was a fascinating place to visiting and well worth the effort.

It was one of the paddles at this years very successful Scottish Sea Kayak Symposium and it was whilst crossing over to Boreraig for lunch that I think I finally decided to help run another Symposium in Jersey in 2014.

Actually finding the inlet wasn't straight forward and a gentle swell meant that landing was more entertaining than some of us had hoped for.

Looking towards the Cave.  Apparently when Sir Walter Scott visited the cave in 1814 he had to climb over the wall, which is just visible at the top of the green slope.  On the right hand side can be seen the gap, which it is now possible to walk through.  This supposedly, appeared as a result of a passing boat firing a cannon.

There are two cave entrances, it is the left hand one which is the one that is of interest.

Initially the floor of the cave is very muddy but this turns into a steep slope covered in calcium carbonate, which is quite spectacular and has surprisingly good friction, for climbing up.  Many of the spectacular rock formations, both stalagmites and stalactites, where taken by Victorian trophy hunters.

Some of the smaller rock formations have managed to survive intact.

After the excitement of Spar Cave we crossed to the north shore of Loch Eishort to have lunch at Boreraig.  Allowing plenty of time to explore the ruins and to find the ammonites.
  Unfortunately one of the group also decided to dislocate their finger, which resulted in rather more excitement than we had planned for at the end of the day, but that's another story.

Gozo Sea Kayaking

After a couple of kayaking visits to Gozo I still hadn't managed to paddle the south west corner of the island, from Xlendi around to the Azure Window.  It just seemed that whenever we were on the island the wind was just a bit to strong from the wrong direction so we were pretty pleased when a window in the weather appeared on one of the final days that we were there.

We weren't disappointed.

Dramatic vertical cliffs, with virtually no places to get off the water.  The nearest land to out left is Algeria whilst straight ahead is Tunisia.  It is easy forget just how far south Malta and Gozo are.

 The Inland Sea, access to the open water is through the obvious cave.  We popped in for a an ice cream and a quick swim.

 Paddling under the Azure Window, not a totally relaxing experience because since a previous visit a fairly substantial area of rock had fallen into the sea and we hoping that there wasn't a repeat performance.

 Lunch was on the rocks close to Fungus Rock.  Malta Fungus was discovered growing on the rock and believed that it had medicinal properties.  The rock was decreed out of bounds in 1746, with a guard posted there to protect the plant.

At the back of the bay close to Fungus Rock there is cave with two entrances.  The tunnel joining the two is particularly tight but there are some superb deposits on the rocks.

Heading back to Xlendi, it was only a short paddle but was full of contrasts.