On Tue evening I packed up the van to head to the West of Ireland for a few days.
The stretch of coast from Clifden in Connemara to Westport in Mayo is easily my favourite place in the world and one of the most beautiful. The lakes and mountains were bathed in moonlight as I made my way to Cross beach outside Louisberg. Mesmerising.
I was coming down to visit a friend of mine who teaches on the trainee instructor course in Delphi. She asked me to do a days kayaking instruction with the trainees so yesterday we took to the Errif river to work on level 3 skills for their upcoming assessment. The landscape around the river is so dramatic with steep mountains and spectacular scenery. It was a perfectly clear sunny day which added to the scenery but it was also freezing!! I was very glad to have good dry gear (plus a down jacket underneath). I was very impressed by the trainees interest and dedication to learning despite the cold weather and I was even more impressed by their x rescue practice at the end of the session. Brrrrrrrrr. Respect. Good luck to them in their assessments and kayaking careers.
After that it was off to Westport for dinner and then story telling, singing songs and trad music in Mat Molloys. Deadly 🙂
So now I’m sitting at the desk looking out at the beach where I will go for a surf in my new playboat later on yaaaaay. But first I have to get out on the bike as I’ve just committed to doing the first stage of the Race the Ras www.racetheras.com in May. How did organiser Eamon know to call me about it just after I’d eaten dinner in Burger King!! He caught me at a weak moment! Ah well I’m committed now so it will be one bike ride a day for the next 4 months. (eeeek). It’s all for a good cause raising money for breast cancer research. Yesterday was the first spin. I cycled to Delphi from Cross Beach before going kayaking. I nearly got run over as I got distracted by the scenery and was cycling in the middle of the road. It was a great start to the day though so maybe the training wont be so bad.
Hoping to meet up with some friends tomorrow for paddle out West then it’s back to Wicklow via Galway city for a level 4 skills assessment on Saturday and river trip on Sunday.
