The Paddling Photographer
Yay at last some actual recent content for a change and starting to find ways in which to capture my waterborne adventures.
My boat is a bright blue recreational kayak, 10 foot long and quite sleek. I bought it earlier this summer from a fellow club member who had reached the point of owning one too many boats. I guess it depends on what you enjoy doing, if you are into whitewater, you will probably have a playboat, touring the inland waterways, a rec boat or a tourer for camping trips up and down river, then you may also have a sea kayak which is another kind of boat altogether!
So far this year we’ve had some adventures out on the water, which started on the Basingstoke Canal back in March before shifting to the Aldershot Lido for the summer months. Our club, the Blackwater Valley Canoe Club meets every Wednesday throughout the year with a couple of breaks here and there. The Lido is a big outdoor pool with two sections to it and enough space to accommodate 30 people. The larger pool is used for kayaks and canoes, the slightly smaller section (though much deeper) is dedicated to Paddleboarding.
Along the way we also organise a range of trips and other events a little further afield.
Dorset Sea Trip, Old Harry’s Rocks!
PHOTOS TAKEN BY BOB HAMILTON
We set off from Knoll Beach and tracked along the shoreline until we reached the small beach at the bottom of Old Harry’s Rocks. Once there we came ashore and went for a walk across the rocks after pulling our boats ashore. Wading through a pool of water, just waist deep onto the rock in the photo above, which shortly afterwards we paddled past out into the open water towards Swanage.
Up until this point the water wasn’t all that deep, in some places I found myself tapping the rocks with my paddle as I passed over them. Looking down I could see a large bed of Kelp swaying in the tidal flow beneath our boats. It was beautiful to get such a great view of it.
Once we passed through the gap between headland and Old Harry’s rocks, the sea was very different. It had become more dynamic with waves lapping over the bow of my boat, paddling into them at a slight angle is the best way to deal with them and you can feel the higher demand on strength and stamina. Not in a bad way, just over a prolonged period of time.
We followed the sheer, towering white cliffs onwards towards Swanage, navigating around rocky pinnacles, riding on the swell that formed around where they met with the water. We paddled through some tight archways and onwards to a cave only reachable by boat. The rock formations inside were beautiful, the layers of colour with every strata of rock glistened, as the sea lapped against them.
From there we turned back and retraced our path back to the rocks, the point where we stopped for some lunch and the gentle cruise back to Knoll beach with full stomaches, we felt slightly cumbersome and bloated! Paddling past lovely Sunseekers fresh out of the shipyard at nearby Poole where the famous yachts and motor cruisers are built. It was a lively spot, a party on the beach was in full flow, for a moment it felt like Majorca, the temperature reinforcing that vision further!
Such a great trip!
River Wey, Guildford to Send day trip
I’ve started to take my phone out with me which I seal up in the waterproof pocket of my lifejacket but there are various solutions available for keeping phones safe from water damage or other harm. I’ve had a look into these and will write about them in the future. I also used my phone to track the route we followed, which is useful for fitness tracking and also super handy when it comes to gaining familiarity in the places you explore. There are lots of branches, backwaters and loops that you can cover along the River Wey but the same can be said for many other rivers. Strava helped me look back at the route we took, the time, distance and calories burnt; but also helped recount the reasons why we may not have taken another route or that we could have taken them, gaining that knowledge from the map for areas you may wish to explore instead next time or avoid if dangerous!
If you enjoyed this and want to read about more explorations and random musings from me and sometimes my wife Tina, then I’d be very happy for you to subscribe
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