And something of a genuine scorcher!
Me, my mate Brian and his little springer spaniel, poppy went over to Ullswater again on Monday.
It's the easiest of the lakes for us to reach and with the ever rising cost of fuel.................
It's just as well its a decent size with reasonable roadside access.
We decided to use the large layby, just north of Glenridding, rather than use the NT car park at Glencoyne. I wouldn't normally do this but we fancied a different "put in" and the layby was more or less empty when we arrived;
The weather was absolutely fantastic, far more like high summer than early spring;
The water was more or less flat calm, the only real waves were being generated by the passenger ferries that plough up and down;
This bit of video gives you an idea of how much wake these things create;
[video=youtube;7433_zhRWNU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7433_zhRWNU&feature=re sults_video&lr=1&ob=0[/video]
If you're not expecting the waves or are simply new to paddling, this could really spoil your day!
However, they're great fun too!
We weren't planning on heading any where specific for the day, so we headed north and east across the lake and found that in the shadow of the hills on the east shore, it was still quite chilly;
We continued NE for a while, with poppy taking in the scenery and us two slowly cooking in the hot sunshine;
we took ourselves over to the beach near Aira point and while I got the kelly kettle going, Brian unloaded the boat and got some solo practice in;
He's only been paddling a very short while and this was only his fifth time on the water but every time we go he picks up a bit more and I make sure he gets some solo practice in.
Of course, yours truly had a go as well
Then we decided to turn tail and explore the bottom end of the lake. Here we're heading toward Silver Bay on our way south;
I haven't done anything with the photo here, the light really was just like that.
We continued south and arrived at the camp site at Side Farm;
I've only used this site once, there's barely a flat pitch anywhere on the site, the road in is "rough" as in really rough! Very popular though, mainly with walkers and bikers I think.
We decided to take a look up the small river which feeds into the bottom end of the lake from Brothers Water;
we only managed a few hundred yards before running out of water, so returned to the lake and headed for Glenridding;
And then continued up the west shore, back to the put in, where we once more unloaded the boat and got in some more solo practice;
When paddling solo, I always kneel, and heel the boat over so that the gunwhale is within a few inches of the water, this allows you to paddle the boat considerably faster and also control the boat better.
Brian has had a knee replacement so cant kneel in the boat, so he simply sits to one side of the seat, to achieve the same results;
Unfortunately, this position is not quite as stable as the kneeling position, and you have to be careful,
but he does just fine
The boat is Brian's and its a Nova Craft SP3- I had one for a short while and loved the way it paddled but couldn't manage the weight of it off the water, so had to sell it on. Still haven't found a better boat to paddle yet
So anyway, there you go; no bushcraft ( apart from lighting the kelly with birch bark
) but a cracking day out and another step on the way to bigger things to come
thanks for looking and hope you enjoy the photo's
cheers
Steve
Me, my mate Brian and his little springer spaniel, poppy went over to Ullswater again on Monday.
It's the easiest of the lakes for us to reach and with the ever rising cost of fuel.................
It's just as well its a decent size with reasonable roadside access.
We decided to use the large layby, just north of Glenridding, rather than use the NT car park at Glencoyne. I wouldn't normally do this but we fancied a different "put in" and the layby was more or less empty when we arrived;
The weather was absolutely fantastic, far more like high summer than early spring;
The water was more or less flat calm, the only real waves were being generated by the passenger ferries that plough up and down;
This bit of video gives you an idea of how much wake these things create;
[video=youtube;7433_zhRWNU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7433_zhRWNU&feature=re sults_video&lr=1&ob=0[/video]
If you're not expecting the waves or are simply new to paddling, this could really spoil your day!
However, they're great fun too!
We weren't planning on heading any where specific for the day, so we headed north and east across the lake and found that in the shadow of the hills on the east shore, it was still quite chilly;
We continued NE for a while, with poppy taking in the scenery and us two slowly cooking in the hot sunshine;
we took ourselves over to the beach near Aira point and while I got the kelly kettle going, Brian unloaded the boat and got some solo practice in;
He's only been paddling a very short while and this was only his fifth time on the water but every time we go he picks up a bit more and I make sure he gets some solo practice in.
Of course, yours truly had a go as well
Then we decided to turn tail and explore the bottom end of the lake. Here we're heading toward Silver Bay on our way south;
I haven't done anything with the photo here, the light really was just like that.
We continued south and arrived at the camp site at Side Farm;
I've only used this site once, there's barely a flat pitch anywhere on the site, the road in is "rough" as in really rough! Very popular though, mainly with walkers and bikers I think.
We decided to take a look up the small river which feeds into the bottom end of the lake from Brothers Water;
we only managed a few hundred yards before running out of water, so returned to the lake and headed for Glenridding;
And then continued up the west shore, back to the put in, where we once more unloaded the boat and got in some more solo practice;
When paddling solo, I always kneel, and heel the boat over so that the gunwhale is within a few inches of the water, this allows you to paddle the boat considerably faster and also control the boat better.
Brian has had a knee replacement so cant kneel in the boat, so he simply sits to one side of the seat, to achieve the same results;
Unfortunately, this position is not quite as stable as the kneeling position, and you have to be careful,
but he does just fine
The boat is Brian's and its a Nova Craft SP3- I had one for a short while and loved the way it paddled but couldn't manage the weight of it off the water, so had to sell it on. Still haven't found a better boat to paddle yet
So anyway, there you go; no bushcraft ( apart from lighting the kelly with birch bark
) but a cracking day out and another step on the way to bigger things to comethanks for looking and hope you enjoy the photo's
cheers
Steve
