A Leap for The Twist

A Leap Day actually!  With a coastal weather forecast looking favourable for kayaking, it seemed a good opportunity to make use of this extra day in the year.  So I took The Twist to Villaricos this morning and paddled south along the coast, towards Vera Playa and Garrucha - a stretch of the coast I hadn't previously covered.

A 'porta-village' on a beach at Villaricos.  I have observed that despite the plethora of nice quiet accessible beaches and coves in the province of Almeria, some motor-home owners, particularly those with fancy 'rigs' (as they might be called in the U.S.A.), have a 'herding' instinct!  There will be quite a mixture of nationalities in this group - mainly retirees escaping the winter climate of their respective Northern European countries.
P.S.  That is not my little van parked in front of them all!

Hazy, cool and just the gentlest of breezes when I started out.

Have just passed Punta del Río and can see the mouth of the Río Almanzora - usually dry but sometimes, after heavy rain in the mountains, it can be a proper river.

The sea doesn't get much calmer than this.  Those two ships are probably anchored, waiting to enter the port of Garrucha to load gypsum.

The haze cleared later.  Just passing Punta de los Hornícos. - even this far from shore the water is quite shallow in this area.  I could see the seabed quite clearly and could have got out and walked in some places.

The motor-homes were more scattered along this stretch of shore just past Punta de los Hornícos.  The wooded area is named El Marqués

11.30 a.m.  Back at my starting point just outside the southern marina at Villaricos.  Time on the water just a tad under 2 hours.  Distance paddled:   5.25 kilometres - fuelled by diluted lime juice (against scurvy!) and fig rolls.  It will be another four years (and weather permitting) before I can kayak on this day of the year again!

A Third Outing for The Halibut

   I took The Halibut to Embalse de Negratin yesterday - only the third time I have used it.  At present the water in the reservoir is very low, so I launched from the concrete slipway at Playa de Freila - because access to the water is difficult elsewhere, until the water level rises again.

It's a long way down to that water!
















   Other than wanting to give The Halibut an 'airing', and try out a trolley I had made for it, there was no great purpose behind this trip.  I just took advantage of a very pleasant February day to enjoy a bit of quiet, lazy, pootling around - for which The Halibut is just perfect.  Here are a few pictures from the trip :-

An occasional cool breeze ruffled the water as a reminder that, although it may be spring-like weather, winter is still here.

Stopped here to stretch my legs and do a bit of litter-picking - collected quite a few discarded plastic and glass bottles for disposal later.

A stop for lunch before returning to tackle the slipway at Playa de Freila.

Now for the hard part - getting the loaded kayak back up that slipway!  Fortunately the new trolley handled it well - but the manpower behind it needed a couple of catch-your-breath stops on the way up!

The Halibut is a bit too heavy and awkward to carry it far single-handed.  This is the trolley which makes life easier.













Time on the water was 3½ hrs. and total distance paddled was 7.5 kilometres.