So the plane ticket is booked, I’ve got a tick list of rivers and a Nepal Lonely Planet Guide. I’m really excited to be going back to Nepal, its been way tooooooo long, 10 years too long in fact. 2 weeks kayaking, depart 1st Aprilm fly back 16th April. Currently the tick list includes Kali Gandaki, Marshyangdi, Madi Khola, Modi Khola, Belephi Khola and Bhote Khosi
I’m not sure whether I can get across just how excited I am about this. The 2 post monsoon seasons I did safety kayaking there in 1999 and 2000 left a huge impression on me, both where truly life changing experiences. God help anyone who knows me over the next month as I’m very likely to be a complete Nepal bore. I can feel it happening.
But for now I want some help from folks. I need some recommendations on some new music for the trip. Now its not just as easy as just listing some tracks or an album, recommendations have to fit into categories as listed below. First I explain the background to this and then the catagories. Continue reading “New music for Nepal trip required- please help”→
The past couple of mornings I’ve been getting up at the crack of dawn to make the most of early morning surf conditions. We don’t get a lot of swell here in the Arabian Gulf so I’ve felt the need to make the most of it.
But why get up so early? Why not go after work? Often the waves get bigger here in the afternoon because the wind tends to significantly pick up from noon onwards. The problem is the afternoon winds that pick up are typically onshore, with the waves and this literally pushes them down early making for mushy conditions. When the breeze is offshore it blows into the face of the oncoming waves and holds them up. It makes for much cleaner waves that feel so much nicer to ride.
The following 2 photos were taken on a small beach on the wild, beautiful and largely uninhabited East Coast of the Musendam Peninsular during this trip. To be honest I dont think I’ve quite captured just how many bottles there were. It has highlighted to me the sheer scale of the problem caused by plastic bottles thrown away.
At the weekend Lee and myself did the trip I’ve been wanting to do since I completed the Circumnavigation of Musendam. Jazirat Al Hamra on the wild exposed East coast of Musendam, Oman, left a deep impression on me and I’ve been yearning to go back. I was sure a weekend trip using the roadhead at Naid in Khwar Habalayn would work well and so it did.
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This is simply an outstanding 2 day sea kayak trip. Its wild, beautiful, committing, interesting and can be challenging. I’ll post up more details soon but I wanted to share these photos with you asap.
Its taken me too long to get around to start exploring Dubai’s Creek in my kayak and it turns out I’ve been missing out. The first afternoon spent in the bottom section of the busy, bustling waterway was brilliant and I’ll be heading back to continue exploring asap.
The World in this case being, of course, the Dubai World. A series of man made islands just off shore from Dubai and in the news at the moment for all the wrong reasons (Telegraph article).
I needed a plan and inspired by a facebook post I’d seen about a team of SUPers doing the trip recently as a charity paddle it seemed like as good a plan as any. Seeing as there are not many places on this planet you can live and go for an evening paddle around the ‘world’ it had to be done. I checked Google Earth and worked it out to 32km and that seemed fine so printed off a couple of copies of the image and laminated them, threw some stuff in a bag, loaded up the kayak and went to Neros for a coffee and some lunch. Its one of the advantages to solo paddling, there is no one else to organise, no one to organise you and only your own timescale (if you have one) to adhere to.
Click for bigger image
It was quite a long cafe lunch, I’d been out on the road bike in the morning and I wasn’t feeling in the mood to rush. Eventually I was on the road and found myself at Sunset Beach, Um Suqeim, Dubai. By the time I’d unloaded the boat and done the quick kit faff it was about 1630hrs when I paddled out through the surf.
The weather was very unDubai like, overcast with rain in the air and a stiff North Easterly breeze blowing. I set a northerly course that made the ‘World’ about 5km away. Once into the shelter of the islands the going was pretty easy and with the GPS showing a speed consistently over 7km/h the tide was obviously with me.
There was still plenty of daylight as I got to the sea wall that surrounds the development. You can’t paddle through the islands of this proposed millionaires playground, no oiks allowed and the security boats on the various entrances made this very clear.
An Overcast Dubai
Heading NW, anti clockwise direction, I continued to make good easy progress in the fading light. It seemed strange to see Dubai’s distinctive skyline through occasional rain and with a very overcast sky. The weather made for very comfortable paddling though and a change is as good as a rest.
As I rounded the far edge of the sea wall the light gave out. The wind was now right in my face and the sea was getting quite choppy. I was concious I wouldn’t be obviously visible to the few speed boats out so I had already put a light stick on the back of my cap and had my head torch on my head ready just in case. In the end I hardly saw any boats for the whole journey, just a few water taxi’s beating a path between the Creek and the end of the Palm.
Night Time Paddling
By the time I reached the most northerly point of the trip I was moving much slower than my earlier average of 7.2km/h. The tide was obviously against me and a reasonably chunky sea was coming at me from the side slowing me down to between 4 and 5km/h.
Now in the Arctic regions of the Dubai world, on its seaward side, the seawall was hiding the bright lights of the city skyline. To my left was the yellow/red overcast sky of the cities light pollution, to my right was just gloom. It was out of this murky darkness the waves were coming. In normal daylight they would have appeared quite small but coming at me unseen meant I was kayaking completely reactively on a very choppy sea. There were plenty of small whitecaps just visible in the murk and every now and then I’d get hit broadside by an unseen bigger than normal wave.
It felt great!!!! Just me and the sea. Not the sunny-day-everything-will-be-alright-no-matter-what-you-do-sea thats normally found off Dubai, this one was one to be wary of, one to respect, one to keep me concentrated. I needed to know where I was and where I was going. I was on my own so there was no one to look out for me, the buck stopped here, there could be no mistakes, get knocked over by a big rogue wave or caught too close to the seawall by a breaking wave and it would be a problem. But it wasn’t going to be a problem, I was well within my abilities and I was concentrating so I could just enjoy the conditions, the wildness of it, the steady roar the sea makes when its like that. It made me feel robust and strong.
It felt like quite a long way down through the ‘Arctic’ regions. As I rounded northern Canada the the bright lights of Dubai skyline started to reveal its self again. First of all Atlantis on the end of the Palm, then the cluster of towers making up the Marina, next came the distinctive Burj Al Arab and finally the Burj Khalifa rising out of the city centre. It was still an hour or so back to the beach so I had plenty of time to take it all in. Something I didnt realise happened is the top section of the Burj Khalifa puts on a spectacular light show including very powerful spot lights sweeping the sea and pointing laser like into the heavens. I allowed myself the smug self satisfied grin of the sea kayaker who knows they have the best view possible.
It was about 2230hrs as I surfed onto the beach. The trip had taken almost exactly 6hrs. Tired, satisfied shoulders carried the boat to the truck, the impromptu ‘trip around the world’ had definitely been a good plan.
Trip Info:
Distance / Time: 34km. 6 to 8 hrs
Access / Egress: From any of the Jumeria Beaches
Tides: A bit of tidal planning will help but not a huge issue here as you’ll be able to paddle against them.
Navigation: Easy. Google Earth shows the sea wall that surrounds the developement and once you get to it you can just follow it round. At night it is lit with marker lights.
Difficulty: Medium. Its quite a committing trip. While your close to ‘land’ there is no where to get out either to rest or in an emergency.
Anyone kayaking on the sea in the UAQ area will see plenty of turtles. This unedited footage was shot by Guida from her kayak at about 1715hrs as the sun was setting and shows 2 or 3 large turtles very near by along with numerous flamingos in the background.
Here’s the article from the Kalba Kayak Photoshoot Phil and myself did. Thats me on the front cover that is!! Click on the photo to access the rest of the article.
“NOC HONORS PYRANHA AND NORTHWEST RIVER SUPPLY WITH 2010 PADDLESPORTS MANUFACTURER AWARDS
WESSER, NC (November 3, 2010)— Nantahala Outdoor Center announces the recipients of the 2010 “Paddlesports Manufacturer of the Year” awards, Britain’s Pyranha USA, Inc. as top kayak manufacturer and Northwest River Supply of Moscow, ID as top paddlesports accessory manufacturer.
Pyranha is recognized as “Kayak Manufacturer of the Year” for its design innovation as well as exemplary dealer and customer support. The high-performance Molan playboat is one of the most successful new freestyle boats in recent years, and the Fusion crossover kayak is the category favorite among Nantahala Outdoor Center’s (NOC) paddlesports staff. Together, these boats have created considerable hype in the industry and amongst paddlers in 2010.
Northwest River Supply (NRS) is selected “Paddlesports Accessory Manufacturer of the Year” for its high quality products and strong dealer support. In 2010, NRS has steadily supported NOC retail efforts and the company’s key paddling events, including the NOC Freestyle Shootout, NOC’s Guest Appreciation Festival, more commonly known as GAF, and the inaugural Canoe Club Challenge.
Chris Hipgrave, NOC’s Retail Director, comments, “Pyranha and NRS have proven their support of NOC and the whitewater paddlesports industry in the 2010 season. Both are brilliant sponsors and have shown stellar support of NOC retail staff and our instruction programs.”
Nantahala Outdoor Center congratulates the 2010 award winners and looks forward to continued support from all paddlesports manufacturers in 2011.” – NOC News Release
For those who aren’t familiar with Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC), NOC is the largest outdoor recreation company in the USA, welcoming over half a million guests annually onto over 80 different courses. Over 22 Olympians and Olympic coaches have called it home and it has recently been recognised as the “Nation’s Premiere Paddling School” by the New York Times, “The Best Place to Learn” by Outside and as “One of the Best Outfitters on Earth” by National Geographic ADVENTURE. They will also be hosting the International Canoe Federation World Freestyle Championships 2013.
Ian Ganderton 