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South West Sea Kayaking Meet 2010 – thanks all!

Thanks to all who came along  this weekend and participated – we had around eighty paddlers on the water. Thanks most of all to the numerous volunteers who helped run trips; the event hangs together by the thread of  your generous assistance. Everyone I spoke to (and I’ve spoken to a lot of people this weekend…) enjoyed their paddle trips with you. Thanks also to the speakers who entertained us on Saturday night and to PH Kayaks for bringing lots of toys down for folk to play with. I’ve already spoken to the Pig’s Nose Inn and passed on our thanks for letting  them use the hall.

I had actually forgotten just how attractive and unique the South Hams coast is, and I particularly enjoyed the fantastic swelly rockhopping through the reefs east of Salcombe (that I believe accounted for a few swimmers…). I’ve also met some great people, so I’ve had a great weekend myself. However the really good news is that – although I have yet to do the final sums – the  event raised well in excess of £1000 for Devon Air Ambulance and Dartmoor Rescue Group. This is a very long way past sums raised on previous meets. I will post up the final figures in the next few days.

Various photos of the event are appearing here and here. By all means add your own…

See you all at the weekend…

Just a  note to say that all is ready for the weekend. A reminder that the general information bumf is here. Some friends are already down at the campsite; apparently the sun is shining.

Tomorrow I take delivery of a  large half-barrel barbeque; this will be available for use  on Saturday evening, bring your own food  along to cook on it.

See you all on Saturday morning, or in the Pig’s Nose Inn late on Friday night…

The photo above is from our recent trip to the Shetland Isles, about which my wife Heather will be doing a talk on the Saturday night…

South West Sea Kayaking Meet – final bumf

Details about the weekend are here. Please download and read them carefully.

Look forward to seeing you all next weekend!

South West Sea Kayaking Meet 2010 – final info to follow…

We’re still holidaying up in the Shetland Isles (can you blame us?) but sadly will be catching the ferry back to Scotland tomorrow night, and then will be making the long journey south to Dorset.

I will post final instructions and details for the South West Sea Kayaking Meet on the coming Sunday, once I’m back at home. Watch this space and many thanks for your patience.

I should by now have contacted all those who have emailed me to seek a place, check your email if you hadn’t heard from me up to today.

Best wishes,

Mark R

South West Sea Kayaking Meet 2010 update

We’ve extended our Shetland trip by a few weeks; it’s simply incredible up here, landscapes and wildlife to excite the imagination. Yesterday we were rather surprised to find ourselves paddling at very close quarters with whales…a rather scary but utterly inspiring experience. I would post some Shetland photos to whet the appetite (although I was shaking  too much to operate the camera when a whale surfaced without warning within arm’s reach) but for some reason, I can’t make it work right now in this island wifi spot.

Thanks to all who have put  themselves down for the 2010 South West Sea Kayaking Meet – I will send out details in the 10 days prior to the event, once I get home from Shetland. If I haven’t replied to your email yet, don’t panic – I seem to have c1000 emails to wade through (mostly spam) and only limited time/ opportunity to answer them, but I will get back to you in due course.

There is still space for those who want to join us; get in touch as outlined in previous posts here.

Best wishes,

Mark

Furthest North

Not a great photo, is it? It needs some explanation. It was taken with a big zoom lens from the island of North Ronaldsay at the very northern tip of the Orkney Islands last summer, after Heather and I had spent several weeks kayaking there from the Scottish mainland. The hazy outline in the photo is Fair Isle, 25 miles away and further north again. Fair Isle is the southernmost of the Shetland Isles; these are basically the last bit of Britain before you hit the Arctic Ocean! The Shetland Isles are an archipelago extending north to latitudes on a par with central Norway. The most northerly point is the celebrated lighthouse at Muckle Flugga, which is of course the northernmost tip of Britain. Muckle Flugga is precisely 711 miles north of our house; and hopefully we’ll be up there ourselves, very shortly! We head north tomorrow night, catching the overnight ferry from Aberdeen on Saturday evening.

South West Sea Kayaking Meet 2010 – this is filling up nicely, but there is still plenty of space at the moment. Details are here. If you post payment to me, make sure that you also email me (because I’ll be 711 miles from home) to help me keep track of numbers. Those of you who have signedup; more info about the event to follow, of course…

Hopefully my next blog post will have some rather better photos of the Shetland Isles…

Surprise Party

Early Saturday morning … Heather realised that something was up when she drove past a friend whom she hadn’t seen for two years, close to our house. At breakfast he and many more friends turned up to join us, and as the day went on, numbers increased until we had a crowd of dozens joining us for a  BBQ and camp at a disused quarry on the local coast.

It was great to surprise Heather for her birthday, but great also to introduce the scenery, flora and fauna of our amazing local shores to many friends who hadn’t experienced it before.

South West Sea Kayaking Meet 2010

Back in 2008, we held a ‘book launch weekend’ to celebrate the arrival of ‘South West Sea Kayaking’. The weekend was  based at East Prawle in south Devon, and was a lot of fun. We did it again in 2009. Purely for want of a name, it became the South West Sea Kayaking Meet, and this appears to be becoming an annual event.

This year’s event is being held from 3rd to 5th September 2010.

- The weekend is non-profit-making (indeed I can think of one person who loses money on it, every year) and is run simply for the fun of it by volunteers. We will however raise some money for two local charities; Dartmoor Rescue Group and the Devon Air Ambulance.

- It’s an informal get-together of friends and soon-to-be friends. It’s not a Symposium or a Coaching Festival. There are no workshops or clinics. It’s just some people going paddling and getting together socially. I’ll do my best to make it all run smoothly (generously aided by volunteers) but don’t expect a tightly choreographed event. Think: ‘shambolic’.

- The weekend is aimed at folk who just want to go paddling and enjoy the wonderful south Devon coast. All abilities are welcome, but the paddling will not suit complete novices.

- On Saturday night, there will be an evening of talks in the hall attached to the wonderful Pig’s Nose Inn. The guest speakers will be invited purely because they’re entertaining and visually appealing; no Big Names and no dull-but-worthy PowerPoint lectures from Highly Respected Coaches, I’m afraid.

- PH Kayaks and Venture Kayaks are kindly supporting the weekend and will be offering a fleet demo kayaks for use on the water, each day.

- There will be a range of paddling trips on the Saturday and Sunday; there will be a choice of doing your own thing, or joining small guided groups, led by experienced volunteers. All paddlers participating accept full personal responsibility for their own safety (as frankly, you should do every time you go paddling…).

- We will be camping at Higher Farm, just along the road from the pub.

- You can eat at the pub, but previous experience has suggested that it isn’t well geared up for large numbers of paddlers descending upon it on the Saturday evening. I would suggest that you consider bringing your own food and cooking at the campsite. I will be bringing along a large group barbeque and you are welcome to cook on it. Please don’t disappear off to Kingsbridge on Saturday evening; the talks and pub get-together are the focus of the weekend.

- Everyone who would like to participate will need to donate £20; some of the money will pay for camping, anything left over will be added to the charity pot. It doesn’t matter if you are camping or not, staying one night or two, paddling one day or two, or indeed paddling or not. You will have to donate £20 if you are going to join us.

The event has room for limited numbers and will fill up on a first come, first served basis. If you are planning on coming, please confirm as soon as possible. You can do this in one of two ways…

1* Paypal £20 to mark@ukriversguidebook.co.uk and email me your details at the same time.

2* ‘Post’ a ‘cheque’ to Mark Rainsley, XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and email me your details at the same time.

Note that I will be away from home in the Shetland Isles for at least a month between now and the event; however I will have access to email.

Any questions? Email me or post them here: South West Sea Kayaking on Facebook.

I will supply more information in due course. Watch this space and also here in the weeks to come!

Cheers,

Mark R

Some further details

The campsite is at Higher Farm in East Prawle village, South Devon. It is located (I’m quoting the owners here) 50 metres past the telephone box on the same side, heading towards the sea. It’s not a big village, you won’t struggle to find the farm.

It’s a farmer’s field with limited facilities, so please don’t expect Butlins! The owners ask for quiet in the evening and dogs must be tethered.

Whether or not you are camping, the event starts at 9.00 am on Saturday morning with a briefing in the camping field. If it’s raining, I have no idea how we’ll do this, but we’ll think of something no doubt. There will also be a similar briefing on the Sunday morning.

What camera do you use…? *Updated*

***This post has seen no end of visits and associated queries. For this reason (and because I’m becoming a sad camera gear geek) I’m submitting an updated version. I still need to get around to writing a basic ‘how-to’ on paddling photography, bear with me…***

I’ve had a fair few enquiries about the equipment used for photos in the blog and in the book South West Sea Kayaking. So humour me, I’ll try to cover this stuff in a single blog post.

Basically, I now always use a digital SLR. I carry it in a Watershed Ocoee drybag with internal padding. Watershed drybags are 100% dry (if sealed properly), but not cheap. Whilst paddling, the bag lives between my knees and is quickly opened/closed for photos.

The only protection for the camera whilst in use is a rubber Camera Armor cover; this at least protects the camera from damp salty fingers. Incidentally, ignore the lens condom thing that comes with the rubber case – this is useless and looks ridiculous, it goes straight in the bin.

The photos for South West Sea Kayaking were mostly taken with a secondhand Olympus E500. It’s conveniently small and light.

Looking back over the photos from the Olympus with hindsight and a little more knowledge, the quality is clearly lacking; most notably in terms of sharpness. I think the main culprit here is the cheapo kit lenses.

I subsequently decided to go a bit more seriously down the SLR route, and spent far too much money on toys from Nikon. For the last two years I have owned a Nikon D80 (Nikon have now replaced this with the improved D90)… this is a fantastic camera which does a much better job of exposing colour and light effectively (compared to the Olympus E500), and (something of a Nikon speciality) handles low light and high ISOs very well. If I were only ever to own one ‘decent’ camera for everything, it would be this one.

Late last year, I went temporarily insane and acquired a Nikon D300s; this expensive housebrick of a camera doesn’t really do anything new that my D80 doesn’t (apart from video, which I don’t want/need), but it is a noticeable step-up in certain respects, e.g. really fast accurate focusing and blisteringly fast frame rate (7 shots per second).  The main advantage of the D300s is being able to adjust/ control pretty much everything; this is either a great bonus or the road to insanity, depending upon your viewpoint.

Like any camera geek, I have all sorts of lenses, not all of which I am entirely sure I understand what they do. However, pretty well all my on-the-water shots are taken using the awesomely versatile Nikon 18-200mm VR lens … the zoom range covers pretty well all possibilities, and the VR (image stabilisation) is obviously of benefit whilst your boat is moving up and down. Note that after I smashed/ wore out the first one (ouch), I bought a replacement which was actually the MK II…this has a useful zoom lock that prevents ‘lens’ creep; important as the lens is more vulnerable to damage when extended.

For wildlife/close-up shots, I was lucky enough to acquire a Nikon 80-400mm VR lens on eBay. This hefty lump of a lens is only really practical for use on dry land, and I’ve spent many happy hours lying on rocks and sand, pointing it at obliging seals and seabirds.

Two other lens have recently been added to my kitbag, courtesy of eBay and a flexible overdraft facility…

This monster only has a modest zoom (80-200 mm), compared to the beast above but I’m rapidly learning that it’s the highest quality bit of photography kit I own. Focusing is fast, photos are amazingly sharp and due to its fast aperture (f2.8 at 200mm for those who care…) really high shutter speeds are practical. The upshot is less wobbly pictures. Looking forward to making heavy use of this with the wildlife in the Shetland Isles. Obviously it’s not practical for use from a kayak…probably.

The other new toy is a macro (i.e. close-up) lens. It’s clearly a very high quality bit of gear, but there is a definite knack to macro photography that I need to work on; in particular, depth of field is a major factor to take consideration of and also any hint of wind (i.e. being outdoors) completely screws your pictures. Watch this space, hopefully I’ll learn more about how to use it.

Final item in my bag worth mentioning is actually virtually indispensable. I’ve played around with various tripods, monopods and suchlike; mostly they are a pain, awkward and slow to assemble and use. If you’re going to photograph wildlife on dry land, you really must get yourself one of these…looks daft but is amazingly useful. They come in two sizes, the bigger size is better but is only just practical to carry by sea kayak. Makes a great pillow, though!

Hopefully that’s useful, for those who want to know the technical side of things. At some point I might find time to pen something about how I take photos, but I admittedly know a lot more about buying toys than using them …

PS If you feel a sudden desire  to buy any of this gear for yourself, please use the links on this page – I get a small commission, enabling me to waste even more money on camera gear!

PPS Did you read this article expecting to be told what to buy? Well, if you have a moderate pile of money to spend, want to begin to take professional quality photos and want to be as versatile as possible, it’s simple – buy the Nikon D90 and the 18-200VR lens. Job done. However, don’t blame me if you eventually find yourself addicted to buying more and more expensive and arcane gear…

 

Don’t try this at home…

…namely, camping on a cliff ledge in an unstable and crumbling limestone quarry, accessible only via a slightly dubious scramble. It made for a pleasant and undisturbed night’s sleep however, and it also enabled me to wave my newest eBay acquisition at some bemused seagulls in the morning. Our love affair with the Isle of Purbeck continues; even after a decade living here, we keep finding new spots to explore.

In other news…

*The South West Sea Kayak Meet 2010 looks set to go ahead on 4th-5th September in East Prawle, South Devon. I hope to post up more details and joining instructions very soon.

*In three weeks’ time, we’ll be on a ship to the Shetland Isles, a wild archipelago forming Britain’s most northerly outpost. It’s a ‘working’ trip of three or more weeks, in which we intend to get some writing and photography done for our book. However, we might just manage to squeeze in a tiny amount of sea kayaking, amongst all the hard work…

*Some local teenagers who’ve just got into paddling are planning and training for an ambitious open crossing for charity. Consider supporting them

All good.

My Fave Trip

A few months ago, Canoe Kayak UK magazine published a sea kayaking supplement, including a section where ‘Britain’s best sea paddlers’ described their favourite sea paddle. I was also invited to contribute. Below is the bit that I submitted about my local coast…

The Isle of Purbeck (Dorset, England)

Author: Until Mark Rainsley came to Dorset for a job interview in 1994, he hadn’t even heard of the Isle of Purbeck and (as a single-minded whitewater paddler) assumed that sea paddling was a mind-numbingly dull pursuit best left to paddlers with unfortunate facial hair and dubious social skills. He needed the money however, so purely by accident he found himself living amongst some of the finest coastal scenery anywhere. It wasn’t long before he acquired a sea kayak, got out exploring and began to realise how wrong he’d been…

Why it’s my favourite: I am lucky enough to live slap-bang in the middle of the Isle of Purbeck. This is the finest section of coast within the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, which was created on account of its outstanding geological diversity and beauty. The Isle isn’t really an Isle, but is actually a peninsula with water on three sides. Heading south and west from Studland Beach near Poole, paddlers can explore over 20 miles of amazing cliffs, secluded beaches and surging tidal rapids. The sea stacks of Old Harry Rocks form a taster of things to come, before the resort of Swanage is reached. After bouncing through the tide races at Peveril Point and Durlston Head, miles of sheer limestone cliffs present the most committing section of the Isle. They culminate in the huge tide races off St Albans Head, where the paddler feels like a mere speck beneath towering and tottering crags. If you’ve survived all that, then Chapman’s Pool is a wonderful secret cove to lunch at before continuing westwards across the shallow Kimmeridge Ledges to Kimmeridge Bay. There is little tidal flow now, but this area is famed for its ability to form big clean surf waves! The best scenery is arguably still to come, west of K-Bay. The Gadcliff is a contender for Britain’s weirdest rock formation, and Worbarrow Bay’s brilliant white precipices will both dazzle and amaze. By the time you reach the caves and arches around Lulworth Cove, you’ll be suffering from eyeball overload. Be sure however, to paddle slightly further west and explore the perfect arch of Durdle Door and the tunnel at Bat’s Head.
If you can show me any section of the UK’s coast with more variety in just 20 miles, I’ll eat my paddle and post it on YouTube.

Techie details: This coast can be enjoyed as one long trip, or as a fabulous overnighter. The water can be road-accessed at a variety of spots – Studland Bay, Swanage, Kimmeridge Bay and Lulworth Cove. Tides ebb out westwards for six hours from about 30 minutes before HW Dover. They begin to flood in eastwards from about 5.5 hours after HW Dover. The tide flows strongly (up to 5 mph!) with significant tidal rapids around the headlands, however there is little flow west of Kimmeridge Bay. Further information in the guidebook ‘South West Sea Kayaking’ by some fellow called Mark Rainsley, available from Pesda Press.

Two nights out under a Purbeck moon

A few photos from a great weekend with friends on local waters. We paddled around the Isle of Purbeck from Wareham to Ringstead with two nights out camping under the full moon.

All good.

Channel Hopping

In the early hours of this morning we returned from a wonderful trip to the Channel Islands. It was all the more excellent because in truth, we had had no idea what to expect and what we found was a real revelation. Below are a few hastily scribbled notes about what we’ve been up to, and more photos are here.

——————————————————-

Trip was decided on at short notice, what with Scotland (our originally planned destination) being bloody miles away and us suddenly realising that there were islands only 60-80 miles (a two hour ferry ride) from our house that we’d never visited. After a bit of web research, my personal priority was to visit Alderney…and indeed, in the event, I was not disappointed by the place…

Group was a few female friends, plus some token Welshmen who decided to ditch their planned Scottish trip and join us. Paddling ability and experience was mixed, but everyone coped fine with what proved to be some fairly serious paddling jaunts and some occasionally intimidating conditions.

Friday – everyone turned up at our place in Dorset and went to bed.

Saturday – several hours after going to bed, we all got up again and drove to the ferry terminal at Weymouth for the 6 am sailing. The Seacat whizzed us to St Peter Port on Guernsey, where we disembarked in wind and rain and (the first of many surreal not-quite-England experiences) had breakfast in a French-speaking boulangerie. We spent the morning sorting food and kit and deciding where/ when to launch (there is a good chandlery and kayak shop in Sampson). After a bit of research, we turned up at the Beaucette Marina at the north tip of the island (a flooded quarry with a channel blasted through to the sea) and enquired about parking and launching. Despite the fact that the place was filled with chic superyachts, they invited us to go ahead and use the place as we pleased, free of charge. So…we launched late afternoon to cross to Herm Island. It’s only a short crossing, but it involves strong tides and the wind was blowing a grim Force 5-6. We just about made it to Herm, where island staff met us and tractored our gear up the hill to the campsite. I returned from a walk to find my tent festooned with balloons…it was my 40th birthday, as if I needed reminding.

Sunday – We explored Herm in the morning, especially enjoying the Shell Beach. In the evening, we suited up and launched into a wet and windy sea for the trip to the island of Sark. We met Herm’s puffins, then explored the reefs north of Herm before heading out into the open Sound. Somewhere in the middle of a lumpy tide race, we met something that might just have been a Pilot Whale…either way, we made it through the swell to Sark and landed in the splendid tiny harbour on the east coast. Sark is ringed by cliffs and has no natural shelter; the harbour is accessed through a tunnel in the cliffs. We sorted the kayaks whilst a couple of the group walked up on to the island to find the campsite, returning with a campsite owner and tractor; rather excellently, we and our gear were all lugged up to the campsite by clinging onto said tractor.

Monday – We went walking in the morning and in the evening paddled around Sark, an outstanding trip. There are lots of bird colonies, endless caves and tunnels, great little tidal rapids to play with. I really must go back and do it at high tide, it’d be an entirely new trip again.

Tuesday – The day dawned wet and foggy, yuck. We hid in cafes until the afternoon, when the sun came out again. A few of us then climbed down the cliffs to explore and swim the astonishing Gouliot Caves; these are a network of tunnels where continual rapid tide flows provide constant a plankton supply for an incredibly dense and diverse array of anemones, sponges etc. In the deeper darker tunnels, the walls were entirely covered by multi-coloured life, through the whole ten metre tide range.

Wednesday – The big open crossing to Alderney. We launched early, at 7.30 and headed north into the open sea. It wasn’t exactly a dull crossing, as we experienced jumping dolphins, large ships across our path and a surprisingly large groundswell. When Alderney finally hove onto view, we tried to give the SW cliffs a wide berth on account of the swell and also because of Alderney’s infamous tidal races. Unfortunately, heading a mile north to achieve this led us dangerously into a really strong N/NW-flowing current (not shown in any of our many atlases) that dragged us way off-course to the amazing stack of Ortac (which happened to be surrounded by enormous tidal races and reefs with huge waves breaking over them). We actually didn’t mind too much as it was a fantastic location, populated by thousands of pairs of gannets; more importantly, we were able to steadily make headway against the flow and ferry glide a few miles to Burhou Island, fighting the NW flow all of this distance until we closed on Alderney. An amazing and exhilarating experience, but I suspect that if we’d been there a few days before (spring tides) then we’d have been on a one-way trip to the mid-English Channel. Of course we hit the shores of Alderney rather late, so had to struggle along the coast against the tide which had just turned. Just when we thought it was finally over, waves started surging over the 10 metre high harbour breakwater which we were paddling perilously close to, and refracting back at us. Jaysus! The good news was that our landing spot was a perfectly sheltered sandy beach with the campsite just behind. Our final tally was eight hours on the water and 25 miles covered, Gawd knows how many more miles covered fighting Alderney’s epic tidal flows. Everyone in the group apparently loved the day, clearly they all lack imagination…

Thursday – Unsurprisingly, many of the group wanted a rest! A few of us paddled down to the amazing Les Etacs, a series of serrated stacks at Alderney’s SW; this is another gannet colony and I’ll let the photos do the talking there. The rest of the day was spent walking and exploring Alderney, a remarkable island. Every single inch of the coast is covered by ludicrously overbearing fortifications from down the ages, with the most recent and ubiquitous built by the Germans (or more strictly speaking, by Russian slave workers worked to death by the Nazis – even the campsite was formerly a concentration camp). The town of St Annes looks French and indeed France is usually in view, just eight miles away. I had no idea that there were places like this in the UK, a visit is highly recommended if you are happy with the challenging tides.

Whilst enjoying dinner at the campsite in the evening, we were rather surprised to find that the weather forecast had changed, suggesting that our safest ‘window’ to paddle back to Guernsey would now be at 3.45 am the next morning…yes, just a few hours hence. This was disappointing, as there was much more to see and do around Alderney, and I’d had my eye on a paddle to the remote Casquets Lighthouse the next day. A couple of group members had to return from the pub and sober up quickly!

Friday – The alarm went off at 2 am and as forecast, conditions had become perfect (changing from stiff Force 5 to light breezes) in the few hours we had managed to sleep. We loaded and launched under starlight, and paddled past groups of puffins through Alderney’s tide races, half asleep in the pre-dawn gloom. The sun eventually rose behind Alderney (quite a sight) and we paddled on in dead calm conditions. This crossing was simpler (straight down the tide) and much quicker, we arrived at Beaucette Marina at 9.15 am after 22 miles and 5.5 hours on the water. The yachties and Marina staff whom we met (just out of bed) were impressed by our mornings’ work! We put up tents on the heathland behind the marina and dozed off for much of the day. The marina staff were happy for us to camp on their land overnight, and even let us use their plush showers and toilet facilities.

Saturday – Our last day saw us paddling Guernsey’s southern coast from St Peter Port to Hanois Lighthouse. This was a spectacular section of cliffs and caves, made all the more impressive by the waves humping into them. Yet another fantastic sea paddle in the Channel Islands, and once more very different from everything we’d done before; the variety is phenomenal! Our ferry home was irritatingly delayed (ash cloud?) and we finally made it back to our front door at 2 am Sunday morning, to sleep like the dead.

 

Worbarrow

In South West Sea Kayaking, I wrote regarding Worbarrow Bay in Dorset,

“…surely a contender for England’s prettiest scenery?”

We went for a stroll there at the weekend. I see no reason to change my judgement.

In other news …

At the weekend I turn 40, and we take a ferry to the Channel Islands to go paddling.

Having paddled at the Britain’s southern extremity, a few weeks later we are booked on a ferry taking us to Britain’s northern extremity, the Shetland Isles.

I finally have a date for this year’s South West Sea Kayak Meet, which IS going ahead; 4th and 5th September. More info to follow…

Dancing Ledge

Last night we walked to a favourite spot on the coast just a few miles from our house, Dancing Ledge. Extensive quarrying in the last two centuries opened up a sizeable chink in the Purbeck cliffs here, and the quarrymen even carved out a small tidal swimming pool for local schoolboys. We donned wetsuits and sampled the pool, before leaping out screaming and jumping instead into (oddly) much warmer sea.

We camped, as always enjoying a much more restful and lengthy sleep than we might have managed back at home. As the sun went down, I convinced myself that I could see shore lights 65 miles away right across the English Channel, including those of the island of Alderney (where we hope to be paddling in two weeks’ time). Heather was pretty sceptical, and was irritatingly proved right when it became clear that the lights were moving up and down the Channel…

Early this morning, I grabbed my camera gear and climbed along the cliffs to the location of Purbeck’s small puffin colony, in the hope that they might perform for me. However, rather unobligingly, they proved unwilling to make an appearance. After a while of peering fruitlessly at their ledge through a very long lens, I began to notice the maritime plants around me. I changed lens and pointed the camera in a different direction

 

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South West Sea Kayaking

South West Sea Kayaking

Previews

Please enjoy previews of 'South West Sea Kayaking' here and here.

About this blog

During 2006-8 I researched, photographed and wrote 'South West Sea Kayaking', a detailed guide to the coasts and islands of South West England; from the Bristol Channel to the Isle of Wight.

'Savage Shores: Britain's Coastal Environment' is the working title of the book currently being researched and written by my wife Heather and myself for Pesda Press. The book aims to explain the climate, geology, landforms, natural history and human history of the coastal environment to walkers, sea kayakers and others enjoying this wonderful part of Britain's natural heritage.

This blog is intended to keep you up to date with our progress and adventures in working on the book.

Pesda Press Titles

 

South West Sea KayakingSea Kayak with Gordon Brown DVD

 

Rock Trails Lakeland Rock Trails Snowdonia

 

Sea Kayak Handling Scottish Sea Kayak Trail

 

Sit-on-Top Kayak Sea Kayak Navigation

 

Welsh Sea Kayaking Sea Kayak

 

The Northern Isles Scottish Sea Kayaking

 

Oileáin English White Water

 

Scottish White Water Kayak Rolling

 

British Canoe Union Coaching Handbook BCU Canoe & Kayak Handbook

 

Kayak Surfing The Seamanship Pocketbook

 

Scottish Canoe Classics Scottish Canoe Touring

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