Having felt utterly uninspired to write anything at all for weeks.. the usual post-trip blues I suppose combined with a heap of work amongst other things I figured I might try and snap out of it by sharing a couple of things of a sea kayaking flavour…
Firstly, a brilliant day out east of here with friends yesterday… a perfect winters day with clear skies and a chilly breeze from the north. Very little swell around at the moment so precious little by way of play but very nice nevertheless. I love winter days like this on the water when the sun stays low and there is a crisp chill in the air.
Now, continuing in a sea kayaking theme… my longer term readers will remember that a couple of years ago I spent a summer up in the very special Outer Hebrides working as a sea kayak expedition guide for Clearwater Paddling. It was a fantastic summer and in some respects I regret that the start of my own business stopped me going back for a second.. and a third season up there. I intend to get back as soon as I can with my kayak anyway for some paddling but in the meantime it was great that Chris asked me to sort him out with a badly needed new website. So I did. A really nice, graphical diversion from the rather more complex application stuff I’ve been writing of late and a nice way to maintain a link to the islands. His photographs of his sea kayaking adventures in the islands are what should sell the trips and were massively under-represented on his old site so I just built him a framework that he can use to showcase the trips through his pictures. Anyway, the point of this post is that if you haven’t paddled in the Hebrides then you need to, and if you’re wondering what to do for a holiday next year that involves great paddling, great food, great company and awesome scenery then you should definitely check him out. In particular for 2014 he’s running a trip to the remote St Kilda archipelago using a fabulous brigantine tall ship, the Lady Avenel, for support – you’ll sail to St Kilda on board the beautiful old square rigger and use her as a base while you explore the islands by kayak. Sounds absolutely awesome and a quite unique paddling adventure. The website is at http://www.clearwaterpaddling.com or you can just click on any of the pics below. Have fun!
