The Hypothesis
Rumour has it that, here in the Northern Hemisphere, water vortices down a plug hole anti-clockwise owing the Coriolis Effect of the earths spin. Using the same principal I will always favour taking the right line through the gnarl. Of course, paddling in the Southern Hemisphere going left seemed to work for me, and [...]
Exploring the mellow side of kayaking in Nepal
The Plan
Back to one of my favourite places – Nepal. It was another Rainsley tour – this time with a large group of 15. The intention – to split into two teams. Team Thuli were the hardcore group intending to spend 5 days on the continuous 4+/5 [...]
We were blessed – with good weather and high river levels, for a memorable and relaxing five days paddling on the Soca
When the water wasn’t white
It was unbelievably blue
And always playful
12 of us have recently returned from a mini-adventure to paddle in the Indian Himalayas – targeting areas that see few paddlers or tourists. The trip was arranged by Mark Rainsley (big thanks)
A selection of images tells the story.
Rishikesh – Yoga centre for a warm up paddle on the Holy Ganges
Launching on the Pindar (a [...]
During the course of a family holiday, Andrew and I managed to include the surreal experience of paddling through the Verdon Grand Canyon in Provence. Aided by Deb Pinniger, who knew the route through the numerous siphons and sieves along the way (negating the need for endless scouting), we managed to complete the 35km run [...]
Sort, Pyrenees (for a weekend!?)
I usually consider the 5 hour drive to North Wales a long Haul for a weekend, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for one pence flights for a weekend’s boating in the Pyrenees.
Leaving in the middle of the night, for an early Saturday morning flight to Pau followed by [...]
While Andrew was running Huka Falls during his paddle tour of NZ I was perusing the latest issue of the Canoe & Kayak magazine.
There was an article by Doug Cooper on river running techniques. As chance would have it Doug had used a photo of Andrew and I running a section of the Coruh (Turkey) [...]
3 Ringwood members (Tim, Ross & I) joined 7 from Southbourne CC (Chas, Richard, Graham D, Martin, Gareth, Luther and Mark) for a packed week in the Alps.
Travelling overnight we arrived in Briancon at around 1pm on the Saturday – and even managed a paddle that afternoon.
We paddled 7 days straight and took in some [...]
Andy was now 17 – an age when his keenness to travel and his growing abilities as a paddler were only matched by his inadequacy of funds and far too many exams. I was looking for a suitable venue for a short ‘Dad and Lad’ trip – a taster of foreign lands and big water. [...]
February 2002 (a long time ago) I learnt that Chris Sladden was putting together a Grand Canyon trip (a chartered commercial trip with Flagstaff based ‘Outdoors Unlimited’) – it didn’t take much prevaricating to put my name down.
Over Two years passed before I met my fellow paddlers at the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas – [...]
