Lofoten Islands Expedition 2019 “The Famous Five visit Lofoten” by Enid Blyton Day 01 – Orsvagen campsite to Henningsvaer (shop) to Lyngvaeret Island (9th August) by Anne “The Famous Five and The Riddle of the Missing Bag” Anne was feeling most perturbed. Those beastly people at the airline had failed to put her bag on the right aeroplane to Lofoten, and that meant that she had no clothes or camping equipment or food for the holiday. She was so looking forward to lashings of ginger beer and bags of tomatoes around the campfire with her chums, but now it seemed that she would have to spend all her pocket money to buy more food. She would also have to rent camping gear from Uncle Jann (the kayak-hire man), although Timmy had offered to share his kennel with her so that she didn’t have to rent a tent. This was very kind, but Timmy was going a bit mangy (he had already lost the fur from his head) and Anne thought that she might prefer her own little tent. How Anne wished that her bag of things had made it to Lofoten. Just then, Uncle Jann turned up and said “Anne, I have just been speaking to the airline. Your bag will be on the 7:00pm flight from Oslo. You must camp near the village of Lyngvaraet tonight. Your bag will be delivered to you at Lyngvaraet by courier at 7:45pm.” And with that he was gone. Anne was sure that this was a clue, but what did it mean? Could the Famous Five possibly solve the riddle and find Anne’s missing bag? Anne continued to ponder the riddle as she packed her boat, which contained nothing much at all. She then paddled with the rest of the group along the […]

Fabulous day on the intro to canoeing 🛶🛶🛶 course down at the docks. Everyone did really well, with paddlers progressing from never being in an open boat to paddling solo, others playing with running pry’s, and some people rescuing fully swamped boats! Well done all 🎊🎉. Can’t wait for our trip down the Dee. Link to video about rescuing a capsized boat / swimmer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksR4bh3ZGBs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBf8MMJP3H4&list=PLG39ew-O5f_2KmRRuBmeye8KoeGdBCFR-&index=28

Lofoten Islands Expedition 2019 “The Famous Five visit Lofoten” by Enid Blyton Anne Dick George Timmy Julian Andy Garland Karl  Winrow Catriona Hare Roger Coleman Day 00 – The Journey Out (8th August) by Julian “The Famous Five find their way to Lofoten” Anne had been to Norway before back in 2015 and although a little grumpy on that trip she definitely wanted to return. Anne was very organised and put together a detailed plan of action for the summer holidays. We all immediately signed up to her plan and could not wait until school broke up later that summer. Anne kept sending out details of what to bring and where to be. Some of her notes were umpteen pages long! She even reminded us that we were all flying from the airport in Manchester, “the big one!” As we left the UK; George, Anne and Julian all stocked up on lashings of ginger beer for the trip from the large shop at the airport. Here they met some friends, “Jo the gypsy girl” and young “Tinker Hayling”. They were going to the islands to walk and take photographs and hoped to meet up again with the famous five for the last few days of the trip. Upon arriving at Bodo, the group waved goodbye to Jo (the gypsy girl) and Tinker Hayling. They had heard about the size of the airplane on this 3rd leg of the journey and instead ran away to catch the ferry to Moskenesoya which was due to leave the next day. Timmy was a little concerned as the tiny plane taxied to the end of the runway and whimpered a little as it took off and swung round to head towards the tiny landing strip at Svolaer. Anne tried hard to calm everyone with her […]

Photo of the Month September 2019 Please send any photos to website@liverpoolcanoeclub.co.uk Click here to see the photos and to vote for your favourite.

  Alpine Paddling Holiday 2019     LCC Home   Site Map   News items or reports on club activities should be sent to website@liverpoolcanoeclub.co.uk Archived Newsletters  Major Trip Reports.… Each year the club runs a trip to the Ecrin National Park in the South of France. We paddle many of the exciting rivers, walk up to local glaciers, watch the Tour de France, cycle, Via Ferrata and explore the local villages, towns and culture. This year’s full account can be found in the trip reports section of the clubs website…..

French Alps 2019 paddling trip Day 14 The Lower Gyronde by Keith It was the last day and only 5 paddlers were up for the early morning challenge of a quick trip down the Gyronde onto the Durance and down to the slalom site. We were to be a team of 6, but the “Welsh Wizard” was still under a sleepy spell. We drove out of the campsite at 8:00am leaving the others to start to pack away the camp. We put on under the campsite bridge (the lower one!) and paddled off being pushed quickly along by the fast-flowing water. They were still working on the dam and HEP Scheme above so all of the Gyr`s water flowed directly into the Gyronde making it a great level for paddling. It was an exhilarating paddle into the gorge with the water flowing over most of the normally exposed boulders. We stopped in only two eddies, just long enough to catch our breath before heading on down to the weir. This is now well signed, and the potentially boat pinning boulders have all been swept well to river right by high floods. Without stopping we followed the flow over the middle of the weir and on down below. Ian did talk a line slightly over to the right and glanced one of the boulders, but all ended well. Hannah lead the last section though the mini gorge. No sign of the old embedded bicycle wheel and we were soon swept on towards the confluence with Durance. Plenty of water sped us down through the town and under the old Hydro Electric pipe that used to feed the power plant for the old Aluminium works. Without so much of a single breakout we then charged on down through the slalom course. A […]

French Alps 2019 paddling trip Day 12b The Ubaye Racecourse by Martin Aldridge Off the Upper and the shuttle complete, we all stopped for some lunch in the glowing sunshine. I on the other hand, returned to patching my boat, which to be fair had been holding up surprisingly well all things considered, but needed a bit more TLC to protect the crack. A choice was then offered – people could paddle, or people could relax at the lake, get some rays and play on the SUPs. Some chose relaxation, whilst others chose crazy paddling instead 😊. Boats loaded and then on the road we went, for what seemed like ages. At the get in, boats unloaded and off to shuttle again, as a very nice man (who should have been paddling) offered to bring us back without the need for a shuttle at the end. Groups sorted, on the water we went for my boats retirement paddle ☹. Then I started seeing things, I was sure I could see a Helen doppelganger, but wasn’t she back at camp? Thankfully it turns out it was Helen, who had magically appeared with a different group – I’m being told there’ll be a separate write-up, but we’ll see. Even though the water levels were lower, you still couldn’t see the rocks, the water being the same colour. Sarah: “what did we do today”; Martin: “hit a lot of rocks” Our illustrious leader took point and meandered his way between the rocks. An amazing river and well worth the paddle even if low, we all got to the get off having successfully navigated our way down, to then enter the actual carnage of the day, the raft get off. What a palaver. Absolute chaos, with idiots parking and even bigger idiots being impatient. […]

Skin On Frame Christmas Kayak. When my eldest lad gave me a Christmas card endorsed ‘do not open until Christmas Day’ and no actual pressie I thought, ah must be a voucher – better yet, cold hard cash. I was wrong. He had written inside that he was going to build me a Skin On Frame (SOF) Kayak and would source and buy all the material needed to do so. And he has. It has taken a while, life happens to get in the way at times, but on the 1st November I took ‘Romeo Charlie 1’, as she is affectionally known, on her maiden voyage. In truth I was somewhat nervous about this. (I was concerned that with all the time, effort and cost he had put into it even if it was crap I would have to keep it.) I should have had more confidence in Russell, who really enjoys woodwork in his limited spare time and has already made a number of really nice, top quality pieces, although of course nothing like this. She paddled straight and true, seemed fast and turned beautifully on an edge. For those of you who are interested, after a lot of research Russell chose to follow the main instructions, initially, by Native Waters on the Instructibles website. However these were modified quite a bit to suit the keyhole cockpit that I wanted. We also looked at Kudzu Craft Skin Boats and Cape Falcon, among others, and this helped when deciding on how to do the skin. He used Spruce for the keel, gunnels and stringers and oak for the ribs and cockpit. Initial steam bending of the ribs was time consuming, wasteful and basically a failure. Further research, building a new and better steam box and experimenting with the amount of […]

Stand Up Paddle Boarding on the Swellies – Brian Green On Saturday I enjoyed a cracking SUP trip on my new (to me) Red Paddle Board Explorer 13’2″. As I’m a sea kayaker first and foremost and know the Menai Straits really well I decided to make this the venue for my first long’ish stand up paddle board trip. Setting off from Moel y Don with easy parking just feet from the Anglesey shore I took the last of the flood tide heading north past the stunning National Trust property and home of the Marquis of Anglesey Plas Newydd House and Garden and onwards under first the Britannia Bridge, then through The Swellies and under the magnificent Menai Bridge. As the tide had already begun to ebb as I reached the bridge it took some very determined paddling against the strengthening flow to make it through the first arch and into the quieter water beyond. Using some back eddies took me onwards and exploring of the small islands around Ynys Gaint was followed by lunch and a brief stop for an excellent ice cream at the Red Boat Ice Cream Parlour near the slip way in Menai Bridge. My return took me back through The Swellies which were by now in places a mass of boils, whirlpools and grabby eddy lines which led to some ‘interesting’ paddling. Having survived The Swellies without a swim the next challenge was to remain upright on the board while negotiating wakes from the numerous high-speed power boats providing fun for the thrill seeking tourists. All worked out well and I was soon back to my start point, deflating the board and re-packing the van for the journey home. Ten miles, three and half hours and no swims was a pleasing result and will be […]

Llyn Padarn Peer Paddle – Saturday 3rd August 2019 Martin Eley While a large number of the club were enjoying The Alps a group of 21 paddlers decided to opt for the more sedate waters of Llyn Padarn in Llanberis, North Wales. The day started at 10:30am with people arriving and immediately thinking about food, after a few packed lunches were raided and bacon sandwiches consumed we were ready to get on the water. Heading North West the conditions couldn’t have been better for a leisurely paddle to the top end of the lake and back.  There was hardly any wind and, while it was overcast it was lovely and warm. After a break for lunch we then headed off to the south eastern end of the lake to explore some of the small inlets, bridges and the river that flows into the lake, then made our way slowly back. After arriving back at the put in, a brief rolling/rescue practice session broke out. The group consisted of a mix of hardened sea kayakers, regular paddlers, novices, one SUP and a couple of juniors who did incredibly well covering the 7k distance! Llyn Padarn, is set in beautiful scenery and has Snowdonia as its backdrop and proved to be an excellent venue with some of the group commenting that they would certainly return. All that was left was to pack up and make our way to Pete’s Eats for a well-earned dinner! Thanks to everyone who came along. Martin Eley See More Photographs…………