Brittany Sea Kayaking Guide

If you are considering a kayaking trip to Brittany then this recently published guide is a must have book.  Written by two Breton paddlers it has been translated into English by Peter Bisset, a member of the Portsmouth Canoe Club.

Jammed full of useful information there are hours of reading, not only about the 60 recommended paddles but also about the wider issues of paddling in France.

If you are considering a visit to this delightful region of France, where there is huge sea kayaking potential for paddlers of all ability levels, then this book is a must have item.

Some more aerial shots

It has been a while since I posted a few aerial shots of some of the excellent sea kayaking destinations that I have flown over fairly recently.  They illustrate the advantages of keeping a camera at hand on any flights that you take.

Approaching Jersey from the west to land on the easterly runway.  The broad sweep of St Ouen's Bay is clearly visible.

When approaching from the east aircraft normally turn over the Ecrehous.  On this day it was clearly low water.

Banking just after take off from Copenhagen.  It is always surprising just how shallow some of the water is and what a large area it covers.

 Sand banks off the north coast of Holland.

 Fawley Oil terminal en route from Gatwick to Jersey.

Glaciers to the north of the Nussuaq Peninsula, west Greenland as we started our descent into Uummannaq.  A 70 minute helicopter flight north was followed by a 3 week trip south.

The west coast of Milos.  Fortunately it wasn't as windy when we had paddled this coast a few days earlier but the wind strength produced an "interesting" flight back to Athens.

After the blizzard its time to paddle

After the snow it was time to head out kayaking again and to see how the Island had been transformed in the matter of a couple of days.  Nicky and myself took advantage of the early morning sunshine to launch from St Brelade's but it was obvious that the snow was already disappearing.  It was a beautiful 90 minutes out on the water, well worth the effort of digging the car out of the snow on the drive.

Nicky at St Brelade's.  Spring tides mean long carries.

 We headed east first towards La Cotte de St Brelade.  Probably the most important archaeological site in Jersey.  

 Looking into the heart of La Cotte de St Brelade.  More than a quarter of a million artefacts have been excavated at this site, which is proving crucial to our understanding of the Palaeolithic era in northern Europe.

From here we turned west towards Pt la Moye and the granite cliffs of the south west corner of the Island.

Pt la Moye, a popular destination with fishermen, not surprisingly we had the area to ourselves today.

Once we had been able to see Corbiere, we turned and headed back towards St Brelade's.

This is a great place to explore, on Sunday we had been scrambling and wading through the cave, which is just in front of the bow of the kayak.  Today though with a sea temperature below 7 degrees we wanted to keep as dry as possible.

 Beauport.  The 8 metre raised beach is visible at the back of the bay.  It is hard to imagine that this time last year people would have been sitting on this beautiful south facing beach.  Roll on the summer.

Day 2 of the Blizzard

This really was exceptional weather event for Jersey, the heaviest ever one day snowfall for March and very strong winds.  Jersey Airport has been closed for 2 days, it is hoped to start flying tomorrow afternoon.  With many roads impassable it was just a matter of heading out doors, experiencing the moment and taking some photographs.

South coast cliffs around La Rosiere, Corbiere is just visible in the distance.

This is the descent path of the start of the Gorselands coasteering trip.

The path, like to roads, has filled up with wind blown snow making progress hard work.

The garden shed is clearly not spindrift proof.

La Moye Golf Course.  Not sure what number hole is disappearing in the snow.

Lisa and Chester on the Railway Walk.

Its not that often that the Jersey pistes come into condition.

Jersey's premier apres ski location.

 The Five Mile Road.  The snow wasn't as deep here as we were at sea level.  Not the depth of the drifts on the right.

 

 Nicky on the south coast footpath, it if wasn't for the gorse it could have been the Lakes in winter.

Frozen gorse.  It is difficult to imagine the impact the weather is having on birds such as Dartford Warblers.  The summer migrants, Wheatears and Sand Martins which appeared on the Island at the weekend must have had a shock.

 Beauport.  Spot the high tide mark.

A March Blizzard

After a weekend of kayak, at times in very pleasant conditions it was a bit of a shock today as the Island was hit by one of the most severe blizzards since 1979.  Not a day for sea kayaking but if dressed appropriately a day for experiencing the great outdoors.  Just a few of todays photographs.

 Corbiere lighthouse is out there somewhere

 Lisa and Nicky on the cliff path at Gorseland

 La Rosiere, we had been paddled here yesterday with Tower Hamlets Canoe Club

 Nicky on the path at La Pulente, St Ouen's is behind

Snow covered rocks at Petit Port.  The low water spring tide had exposed a significant width of seashore.

A foggy March day

The forecast was for fog patches drifting up from the French coast, the reality was dense for nearly 7 hours.  With visiting members of the Tower Hamlets Canoe Club the plan was to split in to groups, with one party heading towards the Ecrehous via the Dirioulles whilst another group took a more direct line to the reef.

Visibility was severely limited and although some of us had GPS's on the deck we had worked out the bearing using the traditional method of drawing tidal vectors, which gave us the bearing to follow.  It was particularly satisfying after nearly 6nm in such restricted visibility the houses of Marmotier popped up when we were only about 40 metres away.

It was a memorable days sea kayaking although somewhat disappointing for our English visitors that they were unable to see the views of the reef.  At least it gives them an excuse, if they need one, to return.

As usual lunch was at the bench but it was no lying around in the sun today.  Text communication with my daughter revealed that about 6 miles away she was basking in warm spring sunshine.

 Looking north along the tombolo.

Looking north through the houses.

Above shows the view towards Maitre Ile, whilst the view below is a photo taken from the same location on a slightly more pleasant day.

Oskar Speck

Almost unheard of in most sea kayaking circles Oskar Speck must rank as one the greatest paddlers of all time.  He was born in Hamburg in 1907 and like many other Germans he was the victim of the economic depression, which gripped the country in the early 1930's.  He lost his job, when the factory he worked at closed down, so he decided to undertake a kayak journey, hoping to find work in Cyprus.   

On the 13th February 1932 he launched at Ulm on the Danube.  He was paddling a 5.5 metre two-man kayak built by Pioneer.  He followed the course of The Danube before entering the Aegean Sea.  Paddling via a number of Greek islands he reached the Turkish coast before crossing to Cyprus, but by now he had given up thoughts of working on the Mediterranean isle.  From there he crossed to Syria, in two days, before taking his kayak apart and catching a bus to the Euphrates.  From there it was along the Iranian coast before heading for India.  In Madras he took delivery of his third kayak.  In 1936 he arrived in Burma before following the coast of Thailand and Malaysia.  He partly financed his expedition by giving lectures along the way.

His fourth kayak came into use in Singapore.  From there he wandered through the islands of the Indonesian archipelago, to reach Papua New Guinea he had to complete a 110 kilometre open crossing.  He crossed to Thursday Island, off Australia, on 20th September 1939, after having paddled over 55,000 kilometres. 

Unfortunately the Second World War had just been declared and as Speck was a German he was arrested.  He spent the next 7 years of his life in an internment camp!  Some reward for having paddled so far and endured a huge number of incidents including pirates, sharks, storms etc.  He died in 1995 at the age of 88, still in Australia having run an opal dealing business, in the years following the end of hostilities.  One of the great unsung heroes of 20th century kayaking.

The magazine of the New South Wales Sea Kayak Club contains far more information about this amazing adventure. 

It would be interesting to know what distances some of the more active sea kayakers of recent years have covered, and how it compares to the distances paddled by the pioneering kayakers of the early to middle years of the 20th Century.  Do you know what your lifetime total is?

Sunday Morning Session

Not surprisingly it was another grey morning, where has the sun gone this month?  In contrast to the last few days the wind had swung around to the north west but the temperature was still struggling to rise above 2 degrees.  In these conditions Ouaisne offered the most interesting kayaking conditions for the Jersey Canoe Club Sunday morning session.

Between Pt le Fret and Portelet the cliffs are fairly steep and some have been developed for rock climbing.  Today there were two Peregrines soaring above the headland.  Always a spectacular sight.

Portelet Bay has its small island, Ile au Guerdain, often referred to, inaccurately, as Janvrin's Tomb.  Philippe Janvrin, a St Brelade's sea captain, had been dead for ninety years when the tower was built, although it is true to say that he was initially buried here as his body was not allowed to be brought ashore.

 Les Fours Buoy with Noirmont headland behind.   It is off the south coast of Jersey and all maritime traffic heading towards St Helier passes between the buoy and the headland behind.  If you didn't know your cardinal marks you could be caught out here.

 Some of the Jersey Canoe Club group around Les Fours Buoy with the south west coast of the island behind.

 Noirmont Tower which serves as a lighthouse, with a visible range of 13 miles.  Construction was started in 1810 and finished 4 years later, part of extensive fortifications to help defend the island from French invasion.  It is rare that sea conditions, in this area, are as calm as they were today

St Brelade's Bay

It was another bitterly cold day although the majority of yesterdays snowfall had disappeared.  There were just a few patches on some of the cliffs and beaches.  I decided to have a quick tour of the sights of St Brelade's Bay.  A bit of fresh air and exercise but the temperature was still hovering between 1 and 2 degrees so I decided to make it a fairly brisk paddle.  

In common with so many days this year low grey cloud seemed to suck the colour out of the landscape.  I don't actually think I have kayaked under blue skies or in sunshine so far this year.

 Approaching La Cotte de St Brelade, one of the major archaeological sites in Jersey.  Take a look here for further information

Snow lying on the beach is pretty rare in Jersey.

Pt Le Fret is often an ominous looking headland, and today with the low grey cloud was no exception.  The remnants of an Atlantic swell were dissipating their energy on the surrounding rocks so I took a slightly wider track than normal.

From Pt Le Fret it was possible to look east towards Noirmont but today my journey involved heading west.

From Pt Le Fret I headed offshore and west towards Corbiere.  The north easterly wind and ebbing tide certainly assisted my progress.  According to my GPS, I peaked at 7.7 knots although I noticed that I went above 7 knots on several occasions.

St Brelade's Bay looked quite distant and as I moved away from the shelter of the land the surface of the water became a bit more lively.  I saw 2 fishing boats but apart from those I had the sea to myself.

      

Beauport as it looks in the summer and as it looked today.