Me and my mate Brian decided to give Ullswater a miss and carried on past Rheged and drove to Keswick and Derwentwater instead.
We headed for Kettlewell NT car park and parked up for free as Brian's recently joined the NT
The conditions were more or less perfect on arrival but were forecast to change around lunchtime, with winds picking up and cloud increasing, so we were keen to get cracking and were soon paddling out onto Derwentwater.
We decided to take a look up the river derwent which enters the lake from the south.
We were soon paddling gently up the river with various makes of waterfowl and their new families watching us as we passed by.
Catbells ridge
And Skiddaw
Brian staring at the river bed some 12 feet or so below
The following pictures are a bit mixed up, some heading up river to Grange and some coming back down to the lake, with yet others where I was just spinning gently around!
There are a couple of points where you are no more than 10-15 yards from the road to Seatoller/Honister yet you could be a thousand miles away from anywhere at times too.
The scenery is sublime and you get a completely different perspective on the landscape and wildlife too. We turned back down river just about 100 yards short of Grange village and its little stone bridge across the river, then made our way back to the lake.
On arrival back on the lake the wind had, as predicted, got up and there was a short chop on the water, with an occasional small white horse or two, which made for a slightly splashy paddle across to the western side and the Derwentwater launch "bus stop". We stopped here for a short while discussing the conditions and our next move, ending up heading due north east which took us across the chop at 45[SUP]0[/SUP] thereby giving us a decent cut across with minimal risk of capsize. I wasn't sure what to expect stability and ride wise during the crossing and the conditions were a really good test of my Palava's versatility and proved once more that it really is as good as most of the other canoes I've owned or indeed paddled. In short; it's a real canoe and a boat that anyone thinking of getting into canoeing could, in fact should consider a front runner.
I took no more photo's as I'd battened down the hatches for the paddle across the lake and the wind strength continued to increase so the camera remained packed away. We paddled up the eastern shore for about a mile then turned back and let the wind blow us back down to Kettlewell, where another group of schoolkids were just heading out in rafted canoes and heading north into the increasing wind and chop.
We beached and got packed away then headed home, another tiny adventure to add to the memory banks.
Derwentwater is not a favourite of mine but it was nice to take a paddle up the Derwent to Grange and back again.
Anyway, that's it for now.
Steve
We headed for Kettlewell NT car park and parked up for free as Brian's recently joined the NT
The conditions were more or less perfect on arrival but were forecast to change around lunchtime, with winds picking up and cloud increasing, so we were keen to get cracking and were soon paddling out onto Derwentwater.
We decided to take a look up the river derwent which enters the lake from the south.
We were soon paddling gently up the river with various makes of waterfowl and their new families watching us as we passed by.
Catbells ridge
And Skiddaw
Brian staring at the river bed some 12 feet or so below
The following pictures are a bit mixed up, some heading up river to Grange and some coming back down to the lake, with yet others where I was just spinning gently around!
There are a couple of points where you are no more than 10-15 yards from the road to Seatoller/Honister yet you could be a thousand miles away from anywhere at times too.
The scenery is sublime and you get a completely different perspective on the landscape and wildlife too. We turned back down river just about 100 yards short of Grange village and its little stone bridge across the river, then made our way back to the lake.
On arrival back on the lake the wind had, as predicted, got up and there was a short chop on the water, with an occasional small white horse or two, which made for a slightly splashy paddle across to the western side and the Derwentwater launch "bus stop". We stopped here for a short while discussing the conditions and our next move, ending up heading due north east which took us across the chop at 45[SUP]0[/SUP] thereby giving us a decent cut across with minimal risk of capsize. I wasn't sure what to expect stability and ride wise during the crossing and the conditions were a really good test of my Palava's versatility and proved once more that it really is as good as most of the other canoes I've owned or indeed paddled. In short; it's a real canoe and a boat that anyone thinking of getting into canoeing could, in fact should consider a front runner.
I took no more photo's as I'd battened down the hatches for the paddle across the lake and the wind strength continued to increase so the camera remained packed away. We paddled up the eastern shore for about a mile then turned back and let the wind blow us back down to Kettlewell, where another group of schoolkids were just heading out in rafted canoes and heading north into the increasing wind and chop.
We beached and got packed away then headed home, another tiny adventure to add to the memory banks.
Derwentwater is not a favourite of mine but it was nice to take a paddle up the Derwent to Grange and back again.
Anyway, that's it for now.
Steve
