This day was ridiculously awesome!
We awoke bright and early for Davin's and my 8:30 kayak trip.
Though neither of us had kayaked before, we decided it would be much better to rent a tandem kayak on our own for an exploration around the coast as opposed to a guided half-day or full-day trip. We were expecting a quick "Here is what you do if you flip over" lecture on how not to die and then a race to the ocean. Not so.
We were very wrong.
Following a near-three hour land and sea tutorial on everything kayak, we were finally released to go discover the nearby islands on our own. We were glad to finally get away, and made for Adele Island and its reported fur seal colonies and occasional blue penguin sightings.
This proved much more arduous than we had planned. It took an hour and a half to reach the island, but the weather and the views were spectacular enough to pass the time easily. It was after our packed lunch on the near shore of the island that the difficult part set in. We decided we had made enough headway to warrant a timely circumvention of the island from the surrounding waters before paddling with the wind gleefully back to shore.
The wind picked up at the Northern tip of the island and the waves grew larger and the terrain rockier. At times it felt like we were making no progress at all, and the increasing force of the waves against us made the situation unpleasant.
We battled hard and eventually crossed the northern bay where we had a rejuvenating encounter with some fur seals and an immense flock of local birds (no penguins this time).
We caught the wind coming back to shore and the crossing proved easy enough, though we were at a loss for where to land. We had departed at high tide and now the shallows of near low tide beaches changed the landscape considerably. After running aground twice about a hundred yards from shore, we made it to where we needed to be. Burnt, hungry, and sore, but I for one was glad for the experience.
Off to pilot a stunt plane! which deserves its own post to come.
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