As is probably very clear to anyone who knows me or has read my blog for a little while, beign on the river is very definitely my Happy Place. And while I love being on the water at any time of year and in virtually any weather, summer evenings are unarguably some of the most beautiful times.
One of the best ways to appreciate the beauty of the countryside is while canoeing - it's a gentler pace (at least the way I do it!) and is rather more sociable than kayaking, as we chat as we paddle and take it slowly. It's probably around a year since I last went canoeing, and I'd forgotten just how much I enjoy it - the very different pace and atmosphere make it a totally different experience to kayaking, even within the same club. A few weeks ago I finally got back in a canoe, and remembered the fun! Since then I've only managed to get to the canoe session once or twice, but hopefully over the rest of the summer I might manage a few more paddles.
One session recently, paddling past a deer park, we did indeed manage to see a few of the deer grazing by the fence. And I've been almost within touching distance of a heron before now, as well as seeing muntjac deer and several kingfishers. The quietness of the canoe is definitely a bonus for getting good sightings of wildlife. (As I write this, I have the olympic canoeing on - that's a whole nother thing altogether, and I didn't even recognise their boats as canoes!)
I've also not managed to go kayaking for the past couple of weeks, as our holiday got in the way! However, since the race in June, I've tried paddling a wobblier kayak than my normal, and have got on pretty well with it. My first two sessions were surprisingly successful, but I fell in (for no apparent reason!) half way through the third session. Since then I've been back in my normal more stable one, but the weather and river conditions haven't been conducive to trying the wobbly boat. Maybe next week I'll get to a suitable session and can risk another swim...!
One of our club coaches seems to be very keen on exploring some of the backwaters off the main river, so Tuesday evening paddles can be a bit of a journey into the unknown! It's an absolute treat and often the highlight of my week, to get off the busy stretch of water and venture into the less visited sidepaths. Even within a mile or less of the city centre, it's possible to feel as though you're in the heart of the countryside, and to be surrounded by nature. And our kayak skills definitely get tested too - sometimes there needs to be some fairly agile steering as we carefully work our way through a slalom course of fallen tree branches; other times we have the challenge of getting past a weir - getting out of our boats on the downstream side, carrying them up past the weir, and getting back in on the upstream side which, around here, seems to mean coping with a height difference of around a metre between river bank and water!
To add to the fun, while on holiday we discovered that the supermarket up on Holyhead had rather different seasonal specials to those in our very inland area. As we tried on new beach/paddle shoes, and looked at a new buoyancy aid for me (didn't fit!), I pointed out they also had inflatable kayaks. £199 for a double kayak is something of a bargain, but even so didn't feel worth considering - but then we discovered that the single kayak was a mere £30! Well, at that price it would be daft not to - that's what hiring a single kayak for 2 hours locally costs, and I can definitely get more than two hours' use out of it. So that's my strangest ever holiday memento!
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