Saturday evening brought an opportunity to borrow a short boat from the canoe shop and try a few moves in the play spot of the Itchen Weir. The traditional slide show preceded an excellent barbecue. Generous portions of meat and bread were used to stem the flow of alcohol to our senses. Later, desert was cooked over a huge bonfire. Seered marshmallows and spiced rum… Yum!

The highlight of the paddling was the trip around The Needles at the western end of the Isle of Wight. Dodging the ships in The Solent, rounding the mighty chalk stacks and riding the tide races in brilliant sunshine. This may seem like a simple recipe, but these ingredients work every time!

The event was really well organised by the staff from the shop and outdoor centre who are a really friendly and helpful bunch. It is worth keeping an eye on next years calender as the organisers hope to make this an annual event.

The emphasis of the weekend was on ‘Paddling Lightly’, or in other words; enjoying our sport with the minimum impact upon, and with the greatest respect for our wild and beautiful marine environment. The modern sport of kayaking can involve heavy use of motor vehicles. But last weekend’s events showed that with careful planning impact upon narrow lanes, small car parks and the wider environment can be minimised.

The events on the water were largely organised by Pembrokeshire’s collective ‘Sea Kayak Guides’. The staff at ‘Stackpole for Outdoor Learning’ were amazing too. Louise Smithson and the rest of her team were extremely efficient, especially when it came to meal times when great food was turned out in plentiful dish loads.

Peak UK and P&H Custom Sea Kayaks were out in force to support the event and brought kit and boats to try & buy, a splash of colour and a bouncy dog called Georgie!

On the Saturday the blustery weather kept the paddlers in sheltered waters of the Cleddau and other sheltered shores. In the evening we were kept well informed by a local wildlife expert and local sea kayak guide Nigel Robinson. Afterwards the adventurous Olly Sanders recounted tales of how he clung to walls, paddled amongst icebergs, caused an explosion in a hunting cabin and watched helplessly as his compatriots were kidnapped by murderers.

The stories grew taller and taller and and we drank late into the night …

On Sunday a more adventurous group went to circumnavigate the exposed island nature reserve of Skomer. The tides here proved as entertaining and tricky as a bucking bronco. Circumnavigating the monks haven of Caldey Island, or traversing the rugged coastline between Solva and Porth Clais was quite enough for mere mortals in the chunky rolling swells of the day.

The evening started with a sumptuous barbecue before descending into a musical furore instigated by a local ceilidh band.

Bank Holiday Monday was more sedate. A few more gentle palling trips before tea and cakes and home to reality. Ho hum…

There are more photos from the weekend on the festival Facebook page.

The shop is being expanded and to celebrate we took a fleet of P&H sea kayaks and Venture touring boats to Rudyard Lake for an informal demo event. Rudyard Lake is set deep in the rolling hills of the  Staffordshire countryside.

In the morning people from local canoe clubs came to try out different boats from Venture canoes and kayaks to the latest P&H prototype Cetus MV. Some folk had never tried touring and sea kayaks before and the day was a real eye opener for many. At lunchtime David Fairweather and I gave talks about recent combined sea and inland touring experiences.

The spring afternoon sunshine encouraged more people onto the water before the late afternoon chill brought proceedings to an end.

Another friend, Michael McGoldrick let us use some of the music from his albums: ‘Morning Rory’ and ‘Fused’.

The 12 minute film will be featured at the increasingly popular Sheffield Adventure Film Festival in one of the ‘On the Edge’ evenings. Kayak Coast 2 Coast can be viewed at ‘Cafe Euro’ 7.00pm Saturday 6th March.

I have chosen a P&H Quest LV which I collected from the P&H canalside base near Runcorn on Saturday morning. It was like christmas and birthdays all rolled into one as I cut through the wrapping to meet my new pride and joy.

What better way to get my new kayak home than to paddle the 32km along the Bridgewater Canal, though the beautiful rolling Cheshire countryside, to within a few hundred meters of my home in south Manchester.

I’ll have to wait at least a week to get it out on the sea…

Thanks to Sam, Pez and the rest of the P&H team, and also to Jim from Kayaks North West for helping me with the unveiling. Thanks to Chris Krawiecki for the photos.

Over 60 paddlers descended upon the misty village of East Prawle in south Devon and set up camp in the farmers field. I was part of a small elite force that headed for the ‘Pig’s Nose Inn’ to see what local beers could be found.  

The Pig’s Nose Inn (photo – The Rainsley collection)

The mist was still down on Saturday morning but with just a light southerly breeze we split up into small groups and began to explore the local coastline. I had travelled from Runcorn with Tim Lambert from P&H Custom Sea Kayaks and a trailer load of demo boats. We Paddled out from Hallsands with a small group around Start Point.

Graeme Mackreth was amongst our number sporting his latest acquisition. I wondered if this classic skin-on-frame ‘Baidarka’ was merely a purchase of passion or perhaps a cunning investment in research for a future boat design.

In the evening we gathered in the Pig’s Nose hall for a series of short talks. Chris Wheeler started with a world tour of places less paddled. Olly Sanders delivered tall stories a plenty including an account of how he managed to blow the roof off a hunting cabin on the Greenland coast. Mark Rainsley described his recent Scottish adventures then I finished off with the virtues and beauty of northern England coasts.

On Sunday the sun came out as did plenty more demo boats.

 (photo – The Rainsley collection)

Tim and I paddled with a group to Burgh Island where the hotel and pub were overwhelmed by thirsty visitors.

With the pub out of bounds we got in amongst the swell to explore the rocky shores and towering cliffs before reluctantly winding up the weekend festivities back at Thurlestone Beach.

This proved to be a challenging 182 mile adventure over 8 days using an historic trading route linking urban life with rural and seafaring culture. Crossing northern England from the Irish Sea to the North Sea, the trip started in mid March at Crosby Beach at the Mouth of the Mersey Estuary. The team were interviewed and filmed for a BBC news programme before setting off into blustery conditions on a very choppy sea.

At Runcorn Jean, Glen, Liz and me, (Jim Krawiecki) spent the night on a narrowboat moored beside the Kayaks North West shop and P&H offices before heading for Manchester through the rolling Cheshire countryside along the picturesque Bridgwater Canal. Over the next few days there were dozens of locks to portage as the route followed the trans-Pennine trading route along the Rochdale Canal and the Calder navigations.

Amongst the hills and dark satanic mills of northern England, spring was springing and wildlife was abundant. The natives were friendly too.

A gang of boisterous lads wielding bottles of WKD became worryingly inquisitive of the kayaks and equipment. But the paddlers were soon released in hearty fashion once a sinful watering of grog was sunk and the continuing voyage duly toasted!

Reaching the Humber Estuary at Goole was a great relief. No more locks! But the next day provided a gut busting a 30 mile paddle dodging ferries at Hull before spending the night in a lighthouse with a shoal of fish, several cats and a mad artist. On the 8th day all that remained was an 18 mile paddle down tide to Spurn Head and a tremendous welcome ashore by the lifeboat crew that lives there.

The Kayak Coast 2 Coast team would like to express their thanks to Kayaks North West, P&H kayaks and Peak UK for their help with equipment for the trip. Thanks also to everyone who helped along the way, and helped to raise over £1600 for the RNLI Lifeboats via www.justgiving.com/kayakcoast2coast. We updated the Kayak Coast 2 Coast blog each day so that is worth a read but, there will be a more detailed trip report in a forthcoming issue of Canoe & Kayak UK magazine