For our annual camping and kayaking weekend on the Jurassic Coast, a dozen of us made our way down to Dorset on Friday afternoon and evening. The weather forecast did not look good at all and it was somewhat doubtful if we would get on the water. After deliberating while at the pub, it was decided that a circuit of Poole Harbour would be the Saturday trip as it was mostly sheltered from the strong winds.
After a safety briefing, Mike taught us a new game to help warm us up (now known as the ‘peg game’). Then we were off to Brownsea Island. As we crossed the Western part of Pool Harbour a large number of racing yachts with hydrofoils (called ‘International Moths’) whizzed passed us at speed.
After a stop on the Arne peninsular, a bird reserve known for a very large numbers of Avocets. Ironically one of our kayaks was also an Avocet, but from Anglesey.
In Ower Bay we stopped for a few minutes to practice some self and assisted rescues, and the occasional roll, before a quick lunch break. As we started after lunch the skies closed in and the wind picked up. Rounding Goathorn Point we got a full blast of the wind from our side at the same time as the rain started. There was nothing to do except put our heads down and paddle back towards our start point without being blown off course.
Once back at our lunch point the weather cleared allowing us to get the boats and kit loaded and return to the campsite before getting showered and changed for the evening’s pub trip. However, returning to the campsite we saw that a lot of our tents had been not been spared from the wind. Phil’s tent in particular was completely flat!
The next day the weather had cleared considerably and we were able to plan to get on the water at Lulworth Cove. That involved consolidating the boats onto a small number of cars to avoid the significant parking fees, and driving down to the shoreline before 10am, two at a time so as have enough room to unload and turn around. Then we were on the water, paddling through some spectacular rock formations and coastline.
Although the weather had improved we still had to cope with the sea state from the previous day’s storm and that was occasionally challenging.
A break for lunch at Mupe Rocks (quite rocky and not recommended for future trips) made for a short but exciting paddle with lots to see and do.
