After a week of rain and heavy wind, the sun came out, surf lessons continued and today we rented kayaks and paddled out to see the little islands we can see from the beach. Geoff and Ceci were in one kayak and Adele and I in the other.
Kayaking in the ocean is different from kayaking in the lake! The rental guy warned that we had to paddle fast and hard, straight into the incoming waves or else we'd tip out. Obediently, we took off and I'll tell you what! We would see big waves coming right at us, breaking just as we approached. Adele was in the front and took the brunt of them, but they surged us straight upwards! Once past the breaking waves we had relatively calm waters.
The coastline is so beautiful with its rocky cliffs, forested hills and green pastures. It was fun to look back on where we live and see the beauty of it from the sea's perspective. (Although pictures don't nearly do it justice.)
The first little island, and the main reason for our adventure, was to visit Donut Island, a collapsed blowhole. As we approached there were waves crashing into the rocks. We swung around at a distance to enter straight into the narrow cave-entrance. The swells in the water made it a little scary! I tried to video our entering the passage while "paddling" with one hand, and that made it even more scary!
Ready to enter:
It looked like a mouth ready to eat us up!
Inside was emerald water, rock walls covered in foliage, and a circle of blue sky above. We felt like we were sitting in a National Geographic photograph, only seeing it with our own eyes! The space was small and the swells continued to move us around, so most pictures didn't turn out. Even these are blurry, but you hopefully can get a glimpse.
Swells kept coming in the cave keeping us on our toes. To leave we had to make a row for it! It was such a fun adventure.
We passed some small lava islands on our way to the largest island.
There were some beautiful and unique-looking birds along the rocks.
We pulled up on the small beach and explored the rocks, collected shells and swam in the clear and calm water. We could have stayed there for hours!
Eventually we had to make our way back. It was hard-going on the way back in! Our arms were feeling like noodles! We had been warned about the waves getting back into shore and geared up for a possible capsize. Geoff and Ceci went first and seemed to hang on a wave like they were surfing it, and they did, accidentally, and with a LOT of hard paddling and leaning! Adele and I made it in too, mostly between big waves, thanks to my superior navigation... The kayak just before us wasn't so lucky!
It was a GREAT day, a memory of a lifetime.
Kayaking in the ocean is different from kayaking in the lake! The rental guy warned that we had to paddle fast and hard, straight into the incoming waves or else we'd tip out. Obediently, we took off and I'll tell you what! We would see big waves coming right at us, breaking just as we approached. Adele was in the front and took the brunt of them, but they surged us straight upwards! Once past the breaking waves we had relatively calm waters.
Bathroom break:
The coastline is so beautiful with its rocky cliffs, forested hills and green pastures. It was fun to look back on where we live and see the beauty of it from the sea's perspective. (Although pictures don't nearly do it justice.)
The first little island, and the main reason for our adventure, was to visit Donut Island, a collapsed blowhole. As we approached there were waves crashing into the rocks. We swung around at a distance to enter straight into the narrow cave-entrance. The swells in the water made it a little scary! I tried to video our entering the passage while "paddling" with one hand, and that made it even more scary!
Ready to enter:
It looked like a mouth ready to eat us up!
Inside was emerald water, rock walls covered in foliage, and a circle of blue sky above. We felt like we were sitting in a National Geographic photograph, only seeing it with our own eyes! The space was small and the swells continued to move us around, so most pictures didn't turn out. Even these are blurry, but you hopefully can get a glimpse.
Swells kept coming in the cave keeping us on our toes. To leave we had to make a row for it! It was such a fun adventure.
We passed some small lava islands on our way to the largest island.
There were some beautiful and unique-looking birds along the rocks.
Eventually we had to make our way back. It was hard-going on the way back in! Our arms were feeling like noodles! We had been warned about the waves getting back into shore and geared up for a possible capsize. Geoff and Ceci went first and seemed to hang on a wave like they were surfing it, and they did, accidentally, and with a LOT of hard paddling and leaning! Adele and I made it in too, mostly between big waves, thanks to my superior navigation... The kayak just before us wasn't so lucky!
It was a GREAT day, a memory of a lifetime.
What a magical place to explore! so many priceless memories! Those shells look a lot like the shells in the earrings we got in Villefranche.
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