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Showing posts from 2009

Dagger Axiom

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At last a post about kayaking. This has been a really bad year for my paddling the weather just has not worked for me. However, the urge to get out on the water is still there so an alternative to fighting the weather had to be found. Most especially because I do not want my fitness to reverse over the winter and then have to set about rebuilding it again the spring. A plastic boat has appeared in the garage and so I have managed to take that for a couple of trips. First a local one on the River Ogmore followed by a paddle on the Afon Tawe north of Swansea where one of our party had an interesting experience on the waterfalls at Pen y Cae near Abercrave. My son Neil then started to extol the virtues of the new Dagger Axiom and to cut a long story short we bought two. This is what Dagger themselves have to say about the boat. This river cruising/playboat combines the performance desired by experienced paddlers with the forgiveness and predictability suitable for newcomers and those wish

Zorbing in Dorset

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My daughter Emily was given a zorbing ticket as a present for her 21st. Three months later and she still had not found anyone stupid enough to go with her so guess who got press ganged into having a go? In case you do not know what zorbing is (also called sphereing) it consists of two people climbing into a giant hamster ball which some sadist then pushes down a hill. Actually its a great laugh and highly recommended if you have a spare fifty quid lying around. We visited Zorbing UK South which is just outside Dorchester, but there are lots of other centres all over the UK. As soon as you get out of the car you can see the launch pad and then the hill which looks very steep. To get into a zorb you have to run and dive through a small hole in the side of the sphere. There are two types of sphere. One where you are harnessed opposite to your partner and you spin around head over heels all the way down the hill. The other type is a hydro sphere which as the name suggests contains warm wat

Barmouth September 09

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The weather has at last taken a turn for the better and the forecast looked good so we took advantage of this and headed off for the weekend. Our destination was Barmouth on the west coast of Wales. We obviously took the sea kayaks and the plan was to paddle the Mawddach Estuary. The Afon Mawddach rises near to Llyn Tegid and flows west to Dolgellau where it is joined by the Afon Wnion. It is navigable up to Penmaenpool which is roughly how far the tide reaches. It would be possible to paddle above this point but this would be more of a traditional river trip. Neil had work commitments on the Friday morning so we were not able to undertake the trip as detailed in the guide book which recommends paddling up the estuary with the incoming tide. Instead we started at Penmaenpool and paddled down to Barmouth with the ebb tide. Penmaenpool is a SSSI due to the special wetland habitat just above the bridge which is home to many nesting birds. The settlement is dominated by both the George 111

Scottish Road Trip August 09

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The weather forecast for this trip was much the same as when we left Applecross back in May. I do not think much has changed since then. The wind was still blowing the same and that made for three trips with identical weather. Anyway we still went and this will probably be classed as our 09 holiday. The first leg was up to Newbiggin at the northern end of the Lakes for an overnight stop and then onto Fort William the next day. Someone had got into a spot of bother on the tourist path up Ben Nevis and a SAR Sea King was in the middle of a rescue. The visibility was appalling and it kept having to land in Glen Nevis. This meant overflying the campsite a few times providing a good photo opportunity, but Kath had not yet arrived with her hi tech camera. On Friday we set off for Skye with still no prospect of an improvement in the weather. We stopped off at Eilean Donan castle for lunch in the tea room. Harry was enjoying the trip to the land of his ancestors. This was our first trip over t