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With a few spare days off work left, and some fresh to strong west to southwest winds forecast, we made a last minute decision to paddle the stretch of coast from our home in Brixham to Lyme Regis in West Dorset. We set out early on Sunday 12th May from Brixham in a fresh westerly wind, making the crossing of Torbay a little unpleasant, but once we were past Hopes Nose and in the shelter of the high cliffs things were a little easier again. After a short stop at Watcombe beach for a leg stretch we pushed on along the sandstone cliffs to Teignmouth, where the river was flowing out quite strongly neccesitating a good ferry glide to cross, and then onto Dawlish where we stopped for a pasty and a cup of tea for lunch. The afternoon was a long one, partly because the wind was increasing, producing quite a lumpy sea state, and partly because we ended up paddling quite a long way before we found somewhere to camp for the night. Crossing Exmouth estuary entrance we encountered breaking waves over the shallow sandbars there before pushing on past Budleigh Salterton to Ladram Bay where we hoped to stop the night. By now the wind had increased to a good Force 5 to 6 and the sea was starting to get a little wild, but at least the wind was directly behind us now as we headed up the coast with Sidmouth in our sights. Ladram Bay was not to be, as it turned out to be a huge caravan park complete with its own on-site evening entertainment complex, so we pushed on torwards Sidmouth in the hope of finding somewhere to stop near there. Arriving on the outskirts of Sidmouth it was obvious landing our kayaks would be a little bit of a problem as the building swell was dumping heavily on the steep shingle beach there. Luckily for us there were some man-made rock groynes that dispersed the waves enough to allow us a safe landing in the lee of them. Once ashore we carted the boats up to a safe spot at the top of the beach, beyond the high tide mark, before getting a brew on and cooking up a nice pot of chilli and rice for dinner. There were no official places to camp, nor any ideal ones either, so we waited until it was almost dark before setting up the tent in a slight alcove along the seafront promenade. The weather forcast on the VHF informed us of moderate to fresh winds for Monday morning, increasing to Force 5 to 7 westerly during the day. With favourable tides early in the morning it was decided we should make a super-early start to make the most of things. We were so tired it didn't take too long for us to fall asleep.
I was up just after 4 am and we were packed up, breakfasted, and on the water for 5.30am. With both wind and tide in our favour we made good progress over the 11km to Beer Head, arriving just on 7am. It was silly to stop here and not continue to make use of the conditions, so after a quick cereal bar and a drink we sped on towards Lyme Regis, staying a good kilometre offshore to get the best from the tide. During this stretch of the journey the wind gradually increased, as predicted, to a solid Force 5 to 6, allowing us to pretty much surf all the rest of the way in a blur of speed, waves, and spray. Turning the final head in towards Lyme Regis the wind picked up even more to F6 with gusts of F7, so we had a pretty wild and crazy ride in on the last stretch, arriving just before 9am into the sheltered waters of the harbour at pretty much full high tide. The flags were horizontal and the wind whistled through the yachts halyards as we carried our boats the short distance up the slipway to where we could unload and set about getting changed and re-fuelled. After a much needed brew, or three, and a bite to eat, we went for a wander into town to visit the tourist shops, art galleries, and fossil shops for which Lyme Regis is famous. We had a few more hours to kill before our lift home arrived, so after a short walk through some gardens and a long snooze on a park bench, we headed back to the kayaks to un-pack and get ready for our departure back to Brixham. With Portland Bill, Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove off to the east, it was easy to start making plans to explore further along this wonderful stretch of coastline.
Watch this space!
The last weekend in April saw myself and friends Greg, Dom and Paul heading out for the Italian kayaking paradise of Valsesia Piemonte for seven full days of creeking on the world class rivers that this beautiful area is blessed with. Levels were high for the first few days so we enjoyed some big water runs on the Sesia and an upper Sesia run which included some pretty good waterfall drops. Once levels dropped a little we were able to get on the classic runs of the area, although levels were still medium to high and as such a bit on the sporty side. The upper Mastellone was exciting, and a good warm-up run for the superb and steep Gronda and Sorba slides - amazing rivers with loads of steep slides and boof drops. As the levels continued to drop to more normal levels we were able to paddle some of the other classics, such as the Egua, Sermenzina, Sermenza, including many of their various sections. We paddled such varied river conditions during the trip, involving alpine runs, steep and technical runs with loads of boulders, slides and drops, through to some pretty cool gorge paddling on the lower Sermenza and lower Mastellone. A lot of the rivers were pretty full-on grade 5 paddling, but it was all pretty cool being in such a beautiful setting of snow-capped mountains, steep wooded valleys, and quaint rustic villages dotted randomly throughout this amazing landscape. Definitely looking forward to the next trip! :)
April mainly consisted of lots of climbing training on my home wall, with the odd foray out to the cove and Bonehill rocks on Dartmoor for a spot of bouldering when the weather allowed. Generally it was too wet for much in the way of climbing outdoors, not wet enough for any kayaking on the river, and far too windy for any sea kayaking, so all in all a bit of a rubbish month really. Roll on summer, and hopefully plenty of deep water soloing again!?!
