Hectic weekend :)
Jun. 19th, 2011 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
belisarius_534Quite a busy weekend outdoors and remarkably successful given the frequent showers that we managed to miss.
Saturday was new-activity day, courtesy of loads of Groupon vouchers. First up was a 2hr kayaking trial on the tranquil River Stour just down the road from here. An excellent intro and guide to the boats from the Saffer instructor 'Kurt'was followed by a nice trip up and down the river. I'm very tempted to try and get into sea kayaking, heading out along the coast and exploring islands, with a spot of wild camping in spots not accessible by land.
After a brief lunch stop, it was off to Mersea Island to try a spot of dry land kite flying as an intro to kite surfing. Interesting weather conditions, being very squally and with the previous group to us having to haul down the kites PDQ when lightening started to strike!
The kite flying with the 1.4 sq metre practice kites was quite fun, without too much 'pull'. A complete contrast was getting harnessed up and flying the 4.5 sq metre surf kites. We could only do this with an instructor holding on to minimise take off. Only one person left the ground and got dragged along on their face. Despite being lighter than the first victim, Chris managed to avoid a similar fate. Us blokes were pretty much ok.....
So yeah, potentially another sport to get into - just need to try it on the water.
Today less exciting, only left the house for a 1h30 bike ride, otherwise have been sitting round in my pants and doing some work.
Saturday was new-activity day, courtesy of loads of Groupon vouchers. First up was a 2hr kayaking trial on the tranquil River Stour just down the road from here. An excellent intro and guide to the boats from the Saffer instructor 'Kurt'was followed by a nice trip up and down the river. I'm very tempted to try and get into sea kayaking, heading out along the coast and exploring islands, with a spot of wild camping in spots not accessible by land.
After a brief lunch stop, it was off to Mersea Island to try a spot of dry land kite flying as an intro to kite surfing. Interesting weather conditions, being very squally and with the previous group to us having to haul down the kites PDQ when lightening started to strike!
The kite flying with the 1.4 sq metre practice kites was quite fun, without too much 'pull'. A complete contrast was getting harnessed up and flying the 4.5 sq metre surf kites. We could only do this with an instructor holding on to minimise take off. Only one person left the ground and got dragged along on their face. Despite being lighter than the first victim, Chris managed to avoid a similar fate. Us blokes were pretty much ok.....
So yeah, potentially another sport to get into - just need to try it on the water.
Today less exciting, only left the house for a 1h30 bike ride, otherwise have been sitting round in my pants and doing some work.
