Easter Paddling

A total of 138 days had elapsed since last paddling a canoe, possibly the longest gap in 30 years of canoeing and kayaking! Post lockdown comeback day was Good Friday and a day of 1:1 coaching on moving water at a site on the England-Scotland border. Conditions were near perfect with bright sunshine; little wind - possibly another six inches of water is all we could have asked for.

We should have been away on our annual Community Easter Canoe Expedition from Good Friday until the middle of this week, unfortunately for the second year running Covid had its say and we were unable to go. Most of the team who were due to be on expedition opted to head out for a day of "mellow touring" on a section of river Marion & I had never paddled before. The trip was essentially through the tidal section of the river and provided a mixture of urban & rural scenery - it was also Charis' first ever river trip paddling a kayak, she did well! Amongst the seemingly inevitable debris that seems to mar our urban rivers we saw: Kingfishers, Heron & Redshank. It was very much not our usual day on the river but nevertheless a really enjoyable trip.

Mal

 

First Week Back

The period of time between around mid-November when we last worked and now has been by far the longest period of my life in which I haven't worked. The biggest issues on a personal level in dealing with lockdown(s) have been the restricted freedoms faced and the lack of purpose that work brings (there are certainly plenty of other things that bring purpose into life, however, not working has been a real challenge from this perspective).

We made the decision a couple or so weeks ago that in order to be ready for work resuming this week (29th March 2021 was named as a key date for relaxing of certain English restrictions with respect to the Covid-19 pandemic) that some preparation would be necessary eg. checking venues; being fit enough and making at least some effort to ensure that skills were up to scratch. This was a difficult process to manage and carry out in a responsible manner, it certainly couldn't be achieved by "working at home" as such we endeavoured to keep contact down to no more than one other person; keep anything we did as local as possible and obviously conduct all of our activities outdoors. There are a few photos at the foot of this post from this preparation phase.

Anyway, the 29th March 2021 came around and we found ourselves out caving twice in the first three days of the week. They were events of a very different nature with Monday seeing us out with two folk who hadn't spent much (or any) time underground before, whilst the second activity was with a much more experienced individual. The weather also had its say with the first day following immediately after a period of heavy rain - with all the challenges it brings to caving - whilst the second day (evening) saw settled high pressure in control and a mild dry evening for our visit to Alum Pot. Both events went off extremely well and it was a pleasure to be back up and running again. There are a few pictures below that capture the nature of the first week back & some more later from our short time of preparation.

The following images capture some of the preparation in the days leading up to 29th march 2021

Mal