Jurassic Gathering, Sep 2019

Sometimes sea kayaking can give important life lessons, unrelated to skill, ability or aptitude. One of these lessons was exposed on last weekend’s CKC trip to the Jurassic Coast: if you don’t wear underpants while paddling 14 nautical miles, the chaffing will stop you paddling the next day.

And so it was that part of […]

Exploring the Jurassic Coast by Sea, May 2019

There was one thing on everyone’s mind as we set off from the Chelsea Kayaking Club on the May Bank Holiday weekend: Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove. The weather was looking a bit uncertain, but we weren’t!

When we arrived at the Primrose Fields Campsite near Wareham, we were welcomed […]

A Tale of Two Harbours: Circumnavigation of Portsmouth Harbour, May 2019

A clockwise circumnavigation of the Portsmouth Harbour, followed by a paddle through a creek to Langstone Harbour, then out to the open sea, covering a total of 32 km.

The date is Saturday 18 May 2019 – FA Cup final day. If you don’t follow football, you might not remember that a team from the […]

Powered by Easter Eggs: Isle of Wight circumnavigation, Easter 2019

An anti-clockwise circumnavigation of the Isle of Wight over the Easter holiday weekend covering 97.5km in 2.5 days, including crossing The Solent twice, some wild camping and a few Easter eggs.

Leaving the Good Friday traffic behind, the CKC expedition slipped into the harbour at Keyhaven mid afternoon under blue skies and gentle winds (F2).

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Kilchoan 2015: Planes, trains and automobiles. And a Frenchman in a van.

30 May – 6 June 2015: Kilchoan, Ardnamurchan

Not the title of a crappy sequel to the classic John Candy movie, but how a dozen CKC members got to this remote part of Scotland.

SATURDAY, 30 MAY 2015

Kilchoan is the most westerly village on the British mainland. It is so remote that you have […]

Paddler’s Poo Protocol

Whether you’re planning on ‘changing your shoes’ or ‘taking your trowel for a walk’ there’s no getting away from that call of nature when you’re out in the back of beyond on a paddling expedition – no matter what you call it. Admittedly those are two of the more polite terms we’ve had knocking around […]

A marathon a day: Helps get you from Marlow to Chel-say

30-31 July 2011

There’s nothing quite like the ‘home stretch’ whenever you’re out paddling – the optimism, the burst of speed, the feeling of ‘nearly there’. Well on this trip we had two whole days of home stretch as we shuttled eight of the club boats 52 miles up river on the CKC trailer to […]

North Sea – Kayak Crossing Attempt

Always keen to support a good cause or learn about a paddling challenge, CKC was pleased to hear from the Shetland Bus team who are going to attempt the first ever sea kayak crossing of the North Sea, from Scotland to Norway, this month.

The guys; Patrick Winterton, Mick Berwick and […]

A wee jump-tour around Scotland

After many hours sitting in the same position in your kayak, best practice recommends you take a break, walk around and stretch your legs. CKC, in our usual style, took this advice one jump further on our recent visit to the Ardnamurchan peninsula…

After and open crossing to Tobermory on the Isle […]

Bohuslan Archipelago

At the end of August, 10 members of CKC returned from Sweden, after an uplifting week of wild camping and paddling the Bohuslän archipelago, a group of islands dotted along the West Coast of Sweden.

These days, the area is full of yachters, motorboaters and others with holiday homes who flock to the area in […]