Lakes Tourers Vol. 1 - Derwent Water

The morning stared as a cool chilly day with little rain forecast. We met at the Theartre car park not far from Kendal and a short walk to the beach area at the top of Derwent Water. While it was a short walk, with boat and kit…, well it did not feel that short.

There was 9 of us in 8 boats. In Kayak Tourer; Carlos, Sam, Nigel, Nick, Claire, Simon, myself (Clive). Then Dave and Sharon in Canoe.

We set off from the beach area and paddled to the left of the island (A national Trust property) and headed down the lake. It was a slightly overcast morning with a chill in the air and the possibility of showers after lunch.

After the island we crossed over to the west hand side of the lake as we headed south. The views were really nice well a range of fells around us. Simon did say which was which but I cannot remember, sorry. We kept reasonably together as a group, enjoying the scenery and having some interesting conversations.

As we moved further down the lake the wind picked up and we started to see some swell and small waves so we tighten up as a group and kept going at a reasonable pace. It was at this point there were a few questions to our exact location, and Claire was in charge of the map, well she was until the wind started. One minute the map was on the deck of her boat, the next it was gone and sinking to the bottom of the lake. The best is that it was not her map, it was Simons, lol!!

We paused for a drink of water and to start thinking about a lunch stop. It was decided to cross the lake to the east side as there were 2 or 3 options we could spot so we group up ready to cross and as quickly as the wind got up with the waves and swell it disappeared again, so this made the crossing rather easy.

Across the lake and we stoped on a nice beach for some lunch, at this point my phone went with a message. I should explain that we met up with Alain Cook, a previous club member who now lives in Shetland, and was as it happens on the Friday on his way from Evesham back to Shetland and as we were there decided to meet up with us and the walk one of the Fells. He was high on the west side of the lake looking down and took a photos of us crossing the lake, but we are only dots on the photos.

After lunch we the continued back up the lake the weather changed again, the clouds cleared a little and there was a little raining in the air.. We the decided to have a go with each others paddles. Even through they were very similar they felt very different.

As we got to the end of the paddle I did try to encourage people to have a go at some rescue practice but nobody seemed keen… not sure why, lol!!

After we had paddled round the island back to the beach we started from, carried the boats back to the cars got changed, we made our way into Keswick to visits a few choice stores, outdoor related of course, as well as a coffee stop.

A really nice paddle, thanks all for your company.