After a lot of laughter, we settled down. Then morning came. Tony had left his cooking pot out and it had a full two inches of rain in it! The little brook running down the hill was flowing rather well. The rain during the night was a good test for my new tent; I was bone dry. Ron had a bit of water in his tent during the night but I think he was the only one.
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| Morning in Kerneys Harbour.. that's Ron coming up the hill from where we had our kayaks... |
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| Tony making breakfast in his Zebra boots |
With breakfast over we broke camp and carried the gear back down the hill and packed up the kayaks for the last time on this trip.
There was more wind in the forecast for later in the day. We also had a bit of a drive ahead of us to get back to town. So we decided that we would paddle headland to headland and not spend time checking out the coves along the way. And so off we went..
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| Julie and Ron |
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| Ron, Barb, and Hazen |
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| Somewhere around Bonaventure Head |
We crossed from headland to headland, passing Bonaventure and Old Bonaventure, Spaniards Cove and then Trouty Cove. These areas looked like they would be interesting to handrail and it could make a good future camping trip just to check them out... we would put in at Trouty Cove or Bonaventure...
Once we had rounded Bonaventure Head we had a following sea and it seemed it did not take too long and we were near Dunfield, about an hour from our take-out location in Trinity. It was lunch time and so we pulled into Cuckold Cove and had a stretch and a little snack. We chatted to a few of the locals that came down to the beach to check us out, but before very long we were back on the water.
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| Hazen |
From Cuckold Cove we only had about five kilometres left on our camping trip and I began to sense there was not a lot of urgency to anybody's paddle strokes. We rounded Salvage Head and in another kilometre we passed Naked Man. Another kilometre and we were passing between Fort Point and Admiral Island...
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| Barb heading toward Fort Point |
And then it was just a short crossing across the entrance to Southwest Arm to Neddick Point and the paddling portion of this trip was over. Hazen and Tony hit the beach first. I hung back waiting to get pictures of the others as they were nearing the beach...
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| Ron and Julie |
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| Barb |
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| Tony and Hazen |
We immediately set to work taking the gear out of the kayaks, and packing it into the cars. Then the kayaks were loaded up and we all went to the nearby restaurant for a good meal of fish and chips before heading back down the highway.
Final Thoughts
It is my opinion that this club kayak camping trip was a great success. There were situations that we had to deal with, like Old Wobbly's back trouble, and we had to by-pass some areas that we had intended to explore, like British Harbour for example, due to impending weather. But every multi-day kayak camping trip is like that... you have to revise the plan to suit weather and conditions, and deal with things as they arise.
I think everyone had a good time. The group was small enough and the dynamics of personalities allowed us to get along well as a group both on and off the water. We had lots of good laughs along the way. Personally speaking, I thought the last night of the trip was the most fun I have had when camping in a long time.
Hazen, Tony, and I have been on several multi-day kayak camping trips together over the last few years and we wanted to share the experience with others in the club. I hope that Julie, Ron, and Barb each learned a few things during the trip... things about paddling, about kayak camping, and maybe even a few things about themselves too...
Thanks to Ron, Barb, Julie, Hazen, and Tony for four fun-filled days from Burgoynes Cove to Trinity, via Ireland's Eye.
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| From left to right: Barb, Ron, Julie, Tony, and Hazen |
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