April Kayaking on Negratin

This month was a record one for me – four outings in one month, all on Embalse de Negratin, launching at Playa de Freila each time. For some mysterious reason it was always on a Wednesday that the weather forecasts looked the most favourable for a bit of kayaking with my Gumotex Halibut:

Wed. April 3rd. - time on water 4 hrs. and 8.5 kilometres paddled. Start time 10:45h.

Wed. April 10th. - time on water 3¼ hrs. and 8.5 kilometres paddled. Start time 10:45h.

Wed. April 17th. - time on water 3¼ hrs. and 7.5 kilometres paddled. Start time 11:00h.

Wed. April 24th. - time on water 2½ hrs. and 5.4 kilometres paddled. Start time 10:00h.

The weather wasn't entirely in my favour on my last trip. What little wind there was at the start freshened after two hours, creating quite a chop on open water. Headed back to Playa de Freila a bit earlier than usual. Now know to avoid days where there's likely to be a westerly wind like that.

Visiting the reservoir regularly throughout April has been interesting. Week by week the water level rose, unlike the reservoirs in the drought stricken areas of the Costa del Sol. The river which feeds Negratin must have been collecting much rainwater run-off from the mountains further North. I paddled the same stretch of shoreline three times, and every time it looked different. Paddling in open water on Negratin is all well and good, but it's close to the shoreline where there's a chance of seeing something different. Even if it's only terrapin 'plopping' back into the water as you approach, or electric-blue damselflies darting around in the vegetation, as I saw this month.

A reminder to be aware that tops or branches can break off these dead trees at any time, especially on windy days. Whole trees could even fall unexpectedly.

 

Looks as if these trees are well on the way to collapsing. It's inevitable that all these dead trees will eventually collapse into the water – and the scenery around the edge of the reservoir will be the worse for it.

Early in the month I couldn't have got this far into this inlet. The water level had risen by at least a metre by the day of my last trip. Somewhere further into the inlet I could hear running water, but couldn't penetrate far enough to actually find the source.

Sun, wind and water has made natural sculptures from tree stumps and roots around the shoreline of the reservoir. On my April 3rd. trip there wasn't a suitable landing place, to go ashore and get near to this one – but, thanks to the rising water, I could land and take a photo of it three weeks later. This is one of the best I've seen.

This bit of sculpture was just drifting around. Bits and bobs of timber, previously high and dry, are now taking to the water.

A leg-stretch stop early in the month. That green, wispy/feathery looking vegetation in the water is growing in profusion along a lot of the shoreline. In some places it is growing 2 to 3 metres high. Took a piece home with me to try and identify it – initially without any success.

Invasive or what! That green vegetation doesn't seem to be bothered by the rising water level. Doesn't even mind being totally submerged. With the water quite clear, when the plants are only just covered it is like paddling above waving tree tops. Being very flexible with feathery foliage it is easily paddled through – other than where it's very dense.

Success! On my final trip that vegetation was in flower and much easier to identify, with the help of Google. It is a member of the Tamarisk family (also known as Saltcedar) and can even grow into fully fledged trees. Apparently in some parts of the world, especially in the U.S.A.. it's classed as an invasive species. Certainly proving very invasive here.

Another pull-out. I generally go ashore to stretch my legs at least once on every trip. Actually my bottom benefits from these stops more than my legs! Despite being an inflatable one, the seat pad of a Gumtex Halibut starts feeling a tad too hard after an hour or so. Seems to be a shared problem among us oldies – not long ago I came across quite a lengthy discussion, on a canoe & kayak forum, about how to make seats more comfortable for old butts!

When I was here in January this ramp didn't even reach the water. Now at least 30 metres of it is covered. That's 30 metres less of hauling back up to the car park!

The reflections on the water were magnificent that day.

Despite the considerable rise in water level, it's still a long way back up to that car park!

A month of quiet kayaking at it's best - with a bit of education, about Tamarisk, as a bonus.  As you can see, Tamarisk appears somewhere in most of the photographs.

First Paddle of 2022

 I was late getting out with a kayak this year - and very late adding the trip to this blog.

Saturday April 16th. at 10:00 am and Embalse de Negratin was glassy calm with barely a breath of wind.  It was an ideal morning for an open water crossing from Playa de Freila to re-acquaint myself with the 'badlands' side of the reservoir.  The last time I did this was early in May 2017.  On reaching the other side I turned left and followed the shore towards the dam - much the same route as nearly five years ago.  However, as always, the shoreline looked totally different because the water level was much lower than that last visit.  When I got within sight of the dam I crossed back to the Playa de Freila side and meandered back, hugging the shoreline, to my starting point.  One of the highlights of this trip was coming across a terrapin which appeared to be as curious about me as I was about it.  On the few occasions I've seen terrapins on the shoreline of the reservoir they've 'plopped' into the water long before I get near them, never to reveal themselves again.  This little fella did 'plop' into the water but couldn't resist, it seemed, bobbing back up at intervals to see if I was still around.

I didn't expect the little terrapin to surface again quite so close to me.

A few photographs of the 'badlands' area:

On this trip I used my Gumotex Halibut kayak.  Time on the water was just short of 5 hrs. and total distance paddled was 10 kilometres.

Back to Embalse de Negratin

   I've been back to Embalse de Negratin this week for another bit of quiet paddling.  Tuesday, when light winds were forecast for that area, seemed a good day to go.  I still have a lot of the western end of the reservoir to explore, so I launched again at Playa de Freila and followed the shoreline to the east, delving deep into every inlet on the way.

Playa de Freila (the mountain in the background is Jabalcón)

A very basic map of Embalse de Negratin, Granada Province, Spain

   The red crosses on the map are places where there is good public access to the water.  There may be other places, lesser known ones, but I have yet to find them.  Yes, Playa Nudista is a nudist beach - but there is a separate beach area nearby for more modest folk.  At the moment, after a few years of very little rainfall, the reservoir is down to 50% of its maximum capacity - so the shoreline I followed looked a bit different in shape to that depicted on the map.  The spits of land where I stopped for a mid-morning snack, and later for lunch, would normally have been submerged.

Landed on this spit for the mid-morning snack.

........ and on this one for a picnic lunch.

That's Jabalcón in the distance.

This is as far as I could get into one of the inlets:-

If the reservoir had been at full capacity I might have been able to paddle a lot further up that little valley.

   It was strangely quiet around Negratin on Tuesday, only the occasional screech from a few seagulls broke the silence - there was no other birdsong, anywhere.  And, until I glimpsed some small critters scuttle down a bank and plop into the water, I thought I wasn't going to see any wildlife at all along the shores.  A bit of patient waiting and watching revealed those critters to be little terrapin.  With the help of a basic photo guide book to Mediterranean wildlife they were later identified as baby stripe-necked terrapins.  Mine were 'photo shy'.

Terrapin Inlet.

Reflections.

   Much of the terrain around Negratin is pretty wild, rugged and desolate.  More 'stuff' gets added to my 'What If' bag (sounds much nicer than 'Survival' bag) after each trip on Negratin; decent footwear is next to go in.  Plastic sandals just wouldn't be up to the job should the need ever arise to beach the kayak and walk to a road or habitation - not that there are many properties visible from the reservoir.  I think there is a bit of extra 'be-preparedness' required for solo paddling in areas like this.

Bandit country!

   The straight line return leg back to Playa de Freila was a lot quicker than the inlet hopping outward one.

   I'm glad that I went when I did.  Later this week the daytime temperatures soared to above 30°C. (n the shade). I wouldn't want to be on the water for very long when it's that hot, especially when it's flat calm and mirror-like.

   This was only my third outing in my Neris Valkure-1 folding kayak, so it is still too soon to be writing any sort of review, but the kayak is living up to expectations and proving to be pretty ideal for the sort of paddling I want to do.