I managed to get away for a few days this week and visit a friend up in South Devon. Nick Arding came along to help us run a corporate training package for Lloyds bank in November of last year, it was during this training that I had the privelage of meeting Nick for the first time and also got to listen first hand to a very inspirational talk about Nick's successful expedition to climb Mt Everest back in 2003, it wasn't just the climbing of the worlds highest mountain which made this expedition successsful but also due to the rescue of a fellow climber who had sustained a broken leg during an attempt on the final pitch to the summit.
Nick is modesty personified, and the delivery of this unique story is told in a very matter of fact way, almost as if anyone could have achieved such a result. Anyway when Nick invited me along for a couple of days of paddling, exploring his local coastline I jumped at the chance and during the two days we managed to take in the best of what South Devon has to offer.
The first day we left from Slapton Sands and paddled along to Start Point,then headed west as far as Lanacombe Beach, there was a fresh southerly breeze and a solid ground swell of around five feet still running from the recent gales and this made the rock hopping as well as the race off Start Point very interesting indeed.
The following day we were joined by Debs Pinniger who happened to be staying at the Dart country park, Deb a very successful river paddler and slalom competitor in her own right is no slouch in a sea kayak either and we made a great days journey from the Inland port of Totnes, down river to Dartmouth and then east to Brixham. Good swell and strong winds accompanied us throughout the day and this made for exciting conditions along this beautiful stretch of South Devon coastline. All in all a very enjoyable two days of paddling.
Nick and his business partner Lee Pooley are running several sea kayaking expeditions this year, one to Skye and the other across to the Scilly Isles, so if anyone's interested you can go to their website
http://www.seakayakinginternational.co.uk/
cheers
Jeff
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