Bacchanalian Baja

Kayaking without reason



This was a kayaking excursion but as with most good kayaking adventures... it's not just about the paddling. This tale also involves a burro in disguise... (no, that's not REALLY a zebra!)... and a critical volume of tequila (nobody knows exactly how much)


And in the good tradition of Aqua-Adventures adventures... (There HAVE been others... adventures... well, traditions too...) there was more to it behind first glance. Following festivities at a local bar/restaurant on March 31st (maybe I'll elaborate on those later...) had strayed beyond midnight, one person (I'll call her Jen to protect her identity) hatched the grand plan to open a zoo in a vehicle belonging to the Johnson kayak reps. This plan meant capturing wild animals from the plains of Mexico, and transporting them down the hill to the campground... starting with... yes, a zebra! It was dark... we didn't see the sign!

I have to say that I was amazed by the courage of AC-DC style rock singer Phil Hadley of England... who had earlier jolted the whole bar-full of youngsters onto the dance-floor with his inflammatory frontmanship... as he bent over to check out both ends of the zebra in the dark to figure out firstly which end was the front, and secondly whether the animal was male or female... I've always had a healthy respect for teeth and hooves... and the rest of the arsenal, so to speak. Brave man!


The zebra was tethered by a long rope... but didn't seem to want to move an inch from where she (Phil decided) stood. (Video clip by Russell Farrow... but don't tell Claudia)

It was then... in the silence of the wide plains of Mexico... quite close to the silent village... above the silent bay... that the zebra began to bray! The deafening foghorn of a sound echoed around the valley.

Two things then happened. First, almost every one of the brave hunters standing around the zebra sprinted off into the dark, followed by the sound of tumbling and crashing as they discovered the edge of the tall dusty bank down to the road. Second, the two remaining with the braying zebra (myself included) ran out breath through laughing so hard we became almost totally helpless.





Next day some of the group remained in disguise, just in case they could be identified...



Under the circumstances, if (Jen) had managed to borrow the burro, she could have ended up in a Mexican jail... which was exactly what happened to one of the two Johnson reps on the way back across the border, after the next, and our last, morning of paddling in Baja. (Jen), back at San Diego, received the phone call. Their vehicle had been impounded, one of them detained, perhaps indefinitely, leaving the other stranded at the border without transport. As (Jen) wrote down the details on her note-pad in dismay during the five minute phone call, she repeated out loud no less than three times for the dazed rep at the other end... yes... the date? Again? Yes... April first.

Oh and the other video clip? (Jen) kindly lent me her Point65 Whisky16 for the week... but with the repeated plea "PLEASE don't damage it". Of course, I love rock-hopping and playing in rough water... and I love the challenge of doing it without contacting rock... unlike someone else in her other fiberglass boat... how does the song go? "We don't tip-toe through the tidepools"? Well... of course what the eye doesn't see...

(There are more Baja 2009 images on my web-site nigelkayaks.com)

Early break in Florida

It's time to escape the northwest for a break in balmy Florida!



We take a trip on the Hillsborough River with Barb and Rick to look for wild birds and alligators. True to form we are soon gasping at the outrageous color of roseate spoonbills, at the tall striding sandhill cranes, wood storks and every variety of egret, and paddling under trees shaking with vultures.



The weather still cool, it's not the best for sunbathing alligators... but enough for the vultures...


Skilled sea kayaker Brad Tanner of Mote Marine gives us a great guided tour of the facilities at this non-profit independent marine research laboratory and rehabilitation center at Lido Key, Sarasota. With the longest-running research program into dolphins, Mote Marine scientists can identify every resident dolphin in the Tampa Bay and surrounding area, often from just a single photo, and have genealogical records running back more than 50 years.



Dolphins and sea turtles feature strongly here, but there are manatees at the rehab. center too. It's a great way to see what they look like underwater without getting your face wet!


And if you really don't like sticking your head in the water, you can see through the side of the 135,000 gallon shark tank too!


(If you like fishing, there's a life-sized model of the largest hammerhead shark caught locally with rod and line to show you what's possible...) (That's Brad standing beside the hammerhead shark)





With more than 200 varieties of Florida marine life on display in the aquarium, Mote Marine is the perfect place to start if you're visiting Florida. It shows what you might see, and I always see more when I know what to look for.


If you see specimens here that look less healthy, remember this is a working research and rehab. center. Many of the creatures you see were brought here injured or ill. After recovery they will be released again if possible.


With my brother David and lovely Kim, Barb, Rick, Claudia and Russell, we spend a day on the Weeki Wachi River.

Manatees float in the pools


Further upstream the water gets clearer and the colors more vivid.














Florida for me is about kayaking, canoeing and guitars. This year we are offered a guided tour of the Dean Guitar Workshops in Tampa, by John Puhl. It was really interesting to see how a growing company like this operates, and see the precision processes that are used to create these great-playing guitars.












No Florida trip would be complete without dropping in on Kent Sonnenberg at Legends Guitar inc. Kent always has some cool vintage guitars there. Guitars are always changing hands. It's fun to see what's in today... and his son Chad (a great guitarist!) is working on their web site, so soon you'll be able to see their new arrivals on line.












Inspired, we pull out a few guitars at home to play. Between kayaking trips, Russell has been spending more time playing with the Sizemore Band.
















The band rehearsals are at his house, but we see them play in Dunedin...



















Close to Dunedin and the brew-pub is honeymoon Island. Claudia takes us there to watch the pods of dolphins, and to picnic on the white sand beach.















Claudia and Kristin...








Before we leave for home we explore the Weedon's Island Preserve; there's a marked canoe trail there, and a kayak rental concession, and a boardwalk through the mangroves and an interpretive center. Something for everyone! We take off along the canoe trail; pristine white-sand beaches, mangrove tunnels and shallow lagoons with birds, cruising stingrays and leaping mullet...

Brighton New Year

Over New Year I visited Brighton, where I grew up in England. Strolling the sea front I was reminded of my early kayaking. (The Royal Pavilion above is close to the beach)

My first kayaking experience was on the oxbow lake at Cuckmere Haven, (east from Brighton) in a yellow canvas tandem, encouraged by my brother Michael. He later bought a partly finished wood-frame kayak, and re-skinned it. Anxious not to be left behind I scoured the classified ads in the local paper until I found a similar but already seaworthy kayak; a PBK11.

I can't imagine how I survived my first winter of paddling; my clothing was woefully inadequate for multiple immersions in the knee-deep surf zone as my kayak flipped following almost every ride. Dragging my kayak up the lumpy flint beach by West Pier, I'd retreat shivering to the damp cave of my friend's family fishing space under the seafront promenade to change from my drenched cotton t-shirt and running shorts. Coffee water heated on the tiny stove in a tin kettle that on one occasion yielded a boiled mouse...
My friends and I upgraded our kayaks after joining Brighton Canoe Club, with its storage facility "under the arches" near Palace Pier. I bought a used red KW3 and fiber-glassed wooden thigh braces into the cockpit for a tighter fit. Mimicking the tricks of Graham Goldsmith, we "beach-looped" our kayaks in the steep dumping waves, and later left sticky polyester resin pools and salt-damp fiberglass matting on the club-house furniture.

One of the club members "borrowed" a newly built KW3 from the storage rack to join us one day. The boat was not yet completely finished; no foot-braces or flotation. Standing the kayak on end in the dumpers, he slid right down into the cockpit and broke the bow off the kayak. With his trapped feet sticking out from the broken end and the kayak quickly sinking, I think he was lucky to be dragged from the surf alive!

A few miles along the coast at Shoreham was the Streamlight Mouldings workshop producing Keith White's "KW" kayaks. (my second kayak was a used red KW3, then an old slalom model) Closer to home the Goldsmith brothers Graham and Bob started up business as Gaybo Ltd with their first two models; "Mini-slalom" and "Funa" in the bare-wood attic space above a car body-work workshop in Brighton. (My third kayak was a blue Funa... the one shown in the photos above, taken by my dad).

Touring "home territory" at the start of 2009 I dropped in on "Brighton Canoes", ironically in the nearby coastal town Newhaven. While storekeeper Luke was busy attending a family who had just purchased sit-on-top kayaks, I checked out the Point65 kayaks in the racks.

Later we strolled through the town of Lewes. This historic town sits beside the River Ouse. Standing guard over the town is a flint-walled castle built after the Norman conquest in 1066 on the site of an earlier Saxon castle. The town boasts many interesting historical connections... for example a priory founded in 1078, and the more recent Anne of Cleves' House. Keeping her head, Anne received the property as part of her divorce settlement from King Henry 8th. This timber-framed thatched hall is now a museum.
The Lewes bonfire and fireworks celebrations on Guy Fawkes night (November 5th) each year commemorate not only the uncovering of the Catholic plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605, (including King James 1st with both theHouse of Commons and the Lords) but also the burning at stake in the Lewes high Street of 17 Protestant martyrs in Lewes during the persecution of Protestants by Queen "Bloody" Mary between 1555-1557. As part of the celebration 17 burning crosses are carried through town in memory of the Lewes martyrs. Effigies of Guy Fawkes and of Pope Paul 5th (head of the Roman Catholic church in 1605) are also paraded before being thrown on the fires.
The River Ouse is just one of several rivers that rise in the clay and sandstone Weald to the north, cutting through the chalk Downs to the English Channel coast. The River Cuckmere is another. On 2nd January Kristin and I revisited the Cuckmere. Sharing a canoe with Kristin, I paddled alongside my sister Debbie who had brought down the canoes and teamed with Kim, while David whirled around us in his whitewater kayak. We launched onto the Oxbow Lake near the mouth, and carried over the levee into the river by Exceat Bridge onto a rising tide, that would carry us up a meandering route constrained now by levees topped by public footpaths.


The white horse carved into the side of Hindover Hill, exposing the white chalk rock beneath, is quite recent. Apparently it was cut overnight in 1924 by three men working under a full moon. The Long Man of Wilmington further up the Cuckmere Valley on Windover Hill is much older, possibly dating back to neolithic times.
















We passed Alfriston, one of several ancient villages in the river valley. Alfriston's 14th century flint church predates the nearby Star Inn , 1520, which is an interesting place to stop for a pint and a ploughman's lunch. Beyond Alfriston, near Milton Street at the tidal sluice, we paused for lunch and to wait for the tide to turn before scurrying back through the short afternoon.


Before returning to Seattle we heard the Everest summit man Cliff was having a birthday gathering in Lewes, so we dropped in on him at the White Hart to wish him "many happy returns". Appropriately enough, we supped a "pint of Harvey's bitter", brewed down the road by the river Ouse, and long a favorite of mine. Turned out the barman was a kayaker... and used to work at Brighton Canoes...