I’ve been kayaking before. I’ve been kayaking on the sea before – in fact, I’ve only ever been kayaking on the sea. But this post is about learning to kayak on a closed cockpit sea kayak with a spraydeck. The reason is there’s a thing I wanted to do but it’s only available to groups … More Learning to paddle a sea kayak
The other weekend I went for my first ever Moonlight Swim at Shepton Mallet lido. It’s an event they put on during the summer at the full moon and it features a two-hour outdoor swim by moonlight, firelight and fairy lights and a free hot chocolate to warm up afterwards. It’s a heated pool, heated … More Moonlight Swim at Shepton Mallet lido
If you haven’t read Monday’s post on how I fared with my Discover Award, go and read that now. Then come back here and see how the Explore Award went. I said last time that Antz wanted me to do a bow rescue, to hang upside down under a closed cockpit kayak and that I … More … and then I got my Explore Award!
I’ve done a little bit of kayaking before and while I’m not overburdened with talent at it, I’d decided kayaking suits me far better than sailing did. So much so that I decided back in 2017 to get my One Star Award. I got as far as booking it and then the group that actually … More I went kayaking and got my Discover Award!
Last year I went to Wareham and hired a canoe. I knew from experience the year before that although rowing boats are so much more romantic, they’re a lot heavier and a lot more difficult to manoeuvre. So having discovered that canoes are easier, I went off to Wareham on the first niceish day of … More How to do an (accidental) handbrake turn in a canoe
Since I’ve gone back to swimming recently, and since I made some comments about Iceland the Obligatory Naked Shower (although it’s possible they were in the first version that I deleted and rewrote), I thought I’d write a whole post about Iceland and swimming. Most western countries are pretty big drinkers and Iceland is no … More Iceland and swimming
I love swimming. I love swimming for fun and I love swimming for exercise because the boundary between “it’s good for you!” and “it’s fun!” is so fine. At the moment, I’m not willing to go to one of my local indoor pools because plague but my favourite outdoor pool has just opened and I’ve … More Swimming for exercise and my 2021 swimming goals
Last year I went to Wareham, hired a rowing boat and rowed up and down the river for an hour. There’s something about rowing. Something of a long-gone world, carefree days with just yourself, a boat and the splash of the oars. Of course, I’m not an experienced or good rower and my carefree hour … More Canoeing is good for the soul
One thing that a lot of people like to do on holiday is go to the pool and that’s a bit difficult at the moment. However, if you’re staycationing in Dorset or Wiltshire (the border between the two pretty much runs through the north of the town), salvation is at hand in the form of … More Dorset Staycation: Shaftesbury Oasis review
Last June, on my way to my camping weekend in north Devon, I bought an inflatable kayak from the the magical middle aisle at Lidl. I didn’t try it out in Devon; I have enough sense to recognise that water wild and fierce enough for surfing isn’t going to be good for inflatable kayaking and … More Stay At Home Storytelling: how to set out to sea in an inflatable kayak
I Am A Polar Bear 