trip around Ireland

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the day before the last

- July 15, 2018

Today I woke up really early eager to go and crack on as many km as possible so my last day would be as shot as it can be. As I lifted my head and looked into the harbour there was no sea to be seen. It is crazy couple of days ago the tidal range was really tiny and as the Irish Sea opens up the range goes huge again. I was several hundred meters from the sea no point dragging the boat I just wasted energy. I will wait for the water to come to me. I went to forage for bakery and cafe but it was too early so I got just bananas and coffee from news agent. I set of into slight tail wind and enjoyed the moment I knew it is not gonna be long lived. As I said it is not over till it is over the day shifted into hard grid just to remind me that I am not gonna get it so easy. I tried to stop for lunch at Kilkeel harbour but it was proper fishing harbour with big trawlers and really stinky and filthy so I carried on for a bit and almost fell asleep while paddling it was time to go for

Another day

- July 13, 2018

Today i am in balliwater 58 km futher south could be 65 if i did not have to dodge feries at belfast for more then an hour. I should have downwind tumorrow should be great fun i was doing 9 km.h against tide today great steep chop exactly what we like with my ndk quantum and oh boy no stres of the west coast cold and rainy as i like it.

Poop in a pipe

- July 11, 2018

I woke up in little harbour which is located in Redford Bay and has great view of Dunmore Head alias Giant Causeway, pretty nice place. It was great night under the sky again and in the morning I did not bother with some serious breakfast, just biscuits dipped in peanut butter and tea. The plan for the morning was to hug the coast against the tide and make my way to Ballycastle, wait there for the tide to turn and set off and go as far as I can southwards into the Irish sea. Meanwhile I will forage for food. The first section of the paddle took 2 hours and hugging the coast paid off I was watching tide races and was quite happy where I was telling myself this place must be mayhem when it all kick off. Nasty place but very pretty. Highlight of the morning was being faster than 2 fisherman guys fighting the current in a motor boat and me kicking their butt. It is great feeling not to be the snailiest creature on the sea for once. When I met them later in the bay I paddled to them an

THO FOGY SPOOKY BEATIFULL

- July 03, 2018

As I poked my head out of the tent the sea fog showed me who is the boss and I happily tucked in for some extra kip. At the end it ended to be afternoon paddle because of the fog and also me faffing about as usually and chatting to the fisherman. I set of from the harbour which is based on the west coast of Mullet Island. It was straight into strong wind but I would rather the wind then the heat. I had tide with me which was not much of a help, it just made the sea bit choppy. As I turned Glendorragh Point one of the most scenic landscape raised in front of me. Bay full of caves and cliffs which looked like bombarded by meteorites, stacks and rocks of all shapes I cannot even describe it. All at one spot of few miles (with no landings of course) and to top it up was the Eris Head drifting out of sea fog back lit with the sun an amazing scenery. Place where solo paddler feels the ave of beauty and the insignificance of being, place so beautiful yet intimidating at the same mome

The toilet snooze

- June 30, 2018

Yesterday I woke up quite early but still felt pretty knackered from the heat and 6 straight days of paddling. I did some shopping for food and then went for cafee to a pub by which I carefully parked my kayak the previous day. And as I went to the toilet and sat down I fell asleep. After a little power nap I decided that it is time to rest for the day and I just slept in a shade, under a boat, next to my kayak, on a slipway by the pub on the beginning of the bridge which was new with a shop on the other side. The following day I decided to set of really early at 3.32 exactly I was woken up by a combination of my horrible alarm and a screaming crow who was jamming with a seagull. I managed to snooze the alarm but the bloody birds were out of reach and I had no spare shoe. It was beautiful morning and great paddle with not much heat. As it was 6 oclock and I was paddling already I heard a cock doing his morning singing ritual and I just said to myself “You are late you lazy sod “.

Early bounce

- June 23, 2018

The alarm goes at 3.02 an outrageous time to wake up. Just in case I set up two alarms one on my watch and one on the phone and I selected the most horrible sound I could find, just in case. There are no taking chances for this section. The previous part was almost too much fun and I did not expect this to be any better. I checked the forecast and decided to wait another day and go with calm winds f 2 offshore the only problem was that the window was from 4 am till 9 am. Some of you may wonder why I do such a small hops. So let me describe the coastline. Once one passes Sleahed the coast line is just vertical cliff all the way to Brandon with very few places to run away if the weather turns nasty. And as it was not committing enough you get the swell pounding the coastline which creates amazing rebounding waves. To explain that... whatever hits the cliff bounces back and collides with whatever is going at the cliff which is of course another wave and as they meat up the

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