Lee Valley White Water Course

Henley Canoe Club, Lee Valley from Jonny Hawkins on Vimeo.

Project365 - February

After a good start to the project I have decided to have a go at photo editing this month. I'll play with different programs and techniques to figure out what they are all about, in a bid to get the shots looking a little bit better.

Winter wonderings

Project365 - January

After returning from Borneo, I haven't really used my new DSLR that much. This is a project to get me twiddeling dials and pressing buttons in a bid to eventually take better snaps.

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The Devises to Westminster International Canoe Race - 1st month of training

The Devises to Westminster is a 125mile canoe race on the Kennet and Avon canal and River Thames finishing in front of Big Ben. The race organisers describe it as “an extreme test of endurance, mental and physical stamina, self-awareness, planning and control”. In April, Rich Masey and I will be competing in the K2 category, in what we both think will be the toughest challenge we have ever faced. 

Team with our pimping, yet to be named boat.  Any suggestions?

We have both always wanted to do the race after hearing about our canoe club founders Pete and Kevin doing the race years ago. The route passes through my home town and every year I say to myself “next year I will do it”. This is the year.

Careering uncontrollably into a portage.

Having never paddled K2 together, Rich and I have given ourselves four months to prepare. We must learn the technique, get fit, practice portaging, sort our support team and get mentally phyched. We attended a few training seminars at the start and now have a vague idea of what to do. 

Portage practice.  We will portage a half marathon distance throughout the race.

Our weekly training involves a 1h circuits session on Tuesday, 1.5h ergo or river session on Wednesday and Friday eve and a long (20-30mile) paddle on canal or river on Sundays. So far training is going well, however fitting it in with work and having enough rest and recovery time is a tough. 

Rich nailing the circuits.

One of the main aspects of the race is the support team. Two cars leapfrog each other down the race course, meeting us every hour to feed, water, re-clothe and motivate us. Without them the race would be insanely more difficult, so fingers crossed our tactics with them work. 

There are so many unknowns about the race as it’s our first ultra-endurance event. Neither of us have even stayed up for 24h let alone kayaked for that long, so for us it is a huge mental game. Training is going well so far, but we are still a long way away from the race. If we can keep it up, sort the support teams and build our mental toughness, we might just finish. 

 Bring it on!

New rivers with new friends

With buckets of water falling all over the country and time off from the Reading Climbing Center, I couldn't resist a boating trip to South Wales.  Despite driving through buckets of rain to pick up Dan Rea-Dickins, our initial target of 'Tawe Mores' was yet to rise.  Plan B was to head down to Pont Nedd Fechan for my first run of the Mellte.

Dan at the Mellte get on.

 Levels on the Sunday were quite low, however more than enough to give me a good introduction to a stunning river.

Hugh paddling the first drop of the Mellte.

On the Monday, we met up with Hugh Graham. The heavy rain overnight brought the Clydach Gorge into condition and what I thought was going to be a nice grade 4 bimble, contained some nice surprises.

A decent 25ft boof off a sloping ledge, a long tunnel under the canal and a spattering of weirs and trees kept us on our toes through a great little gorge.

After lunch, we returned to a slightly higher Mellte, to enjoy another run down.

Dan boofing in awesome surroundings.

 The increased water level cleaned up all the drops and softened up lots of the landings.

The classic South Wales waterfall, Sgwd y Pannwr.

The main event is a 30ft double drop with an auto-boof mid ledge, that in our flows, required an anti-auto-boof to save loosing a few inches of height upon impact.

The rest of the river continues with more drops, interesting slots and a few more drops.

Cheers Dan and Hugh for a great couple of days

Winter Woodland Wanderings

Living in the south of England for the winter, adventure potential has decreased somewhat, so I was excited to take up Al Humphries' Winter Solstice Microadventure challenge.  The idea is basically to get outside, sleep without a tent and remember why nature's fun.

I decided to take my hammock into the woods just outside Henley, have a fire and listen to the sounds of the woods.  The woodland was damp and musty when I arrived, making fire lighting quite tricky.  I used a  fungi from a dead tree with a flint and steel to get an ember, then dry beech leaves to get some flames going.

Whisky and fire warmed my body as I listened to muntjac deer barking, ows hooting and squirrels rustling for company. 

I had forgotten how cold it gets at night, especially with a frost but eventually I got some sleep and awoke to the sound of animals going about their morning chores and the sun twinkling through the trees.

I packed up quickly, strode across the frosty golf course, staggered up the hill, arriving back home for a huge cup of tea and some boiled eggs.

"Think big, start small but do start" - Al Humphries