Sea Kayaking Tour

Friday 20th January 2017

Papagayo Coast, Lanzarote

We were eagerly up at 7am today ready for our sea kayaking trip on the south coast near Playa Blanca. I'd somehow come across the www.seakayakinglanzarote.com webpage a few months ago - I think Facebook suggested it to me. It looked like a pretty good setup so about a month ago I booked an excursion with them during our holiday. 

We were told that today looked like the best day for weather, wind and waves, and we met up at a black sand and stone beach on the Papagayo coast. Our hosts were called Juan and Sarah - Juan being an accomplished sea kayaker originally from mainland Spain, and Sarah a rowing coach from Glasgow. The sea looked quite scary from the beach, with waves breaking on the shore and a few metres out to sea, but Juan assured us that although there was a big swell, we would have no problems launching and then paddling round the coast. 

I was relieved that we were provided with tough, plastic, pretty much indestructible boats, which turned out to be very stable and also matched my blue outfit. Juan and Sarah had fibreglass boats, which are lighter and prettier but easier to break. 

 

Juan demonstrated on Sarah how we were going to get past the waves and out to sea. This involved waiting for a break in the swell and waves, then Juan pushing the boat out and Sarah paddling as fast as possible. There seemed to be a science to the timing of the waves as there were periods when there were no waves breaking so we could make a dash for it. We all made it out with no problems and were soon off round the coast. The sea wasn't rough, but there was a lot of swell so the boats were moving up and down a lot. At times it looked like a massive wave was going to bear down on us from out at sea, but no such thing happened as the water was too deep. Waves only break when the swell hits shallow water. 

 

 

 

As we paddled further along, the sea got a bit choppy as the waves were bouncing off the cliffs and coming back out to sea! After my experience in Bala lake in the summer (instant capsize in choppy windy conditions) I was a bit apprehensive, but everything was fine. We had to paddle quite far out to get round the headland at Punta del Papagayo, as there were rocks, which made the sea shallower there, and therefore made the waves break in quite a scary way further out. 

 

 

We landed at a small beach by Lanzarote's only campsite (which looked awful), landing being pretty much the reverse of launching. Then we kitted up in wetsuits and snorkel masks to go and check out the marine life. 

I'd never been snorkelling before, but found it to be pretty easy most of the time. The most important thing is not to try and breathe through your snorkel when the top of it is under water. I learnt my lesson after the first time. I was surprised at how many fish there were just a few metres down. We saw a lot of the same fish that we saw when we were diving, plus some black and white stripy fish, and I'm convinced a saw a Nemo fish even though they only live in the Pacific. I took my GoPro with me on its special floating hand hold, and managed to get some shots under the water. The GoPro seems like a pretty good piece of kit although I think the photographer could do with some improvement. A selection of the less bad photos is below. 

   

 
Below- can you spot the Nemo fish? 

 

 

 

After snorkelling we had some lunch, provided by our hosts, which was probably the nicest lunch we've had since arriving. Sliced melon, followed by a salad of tomato, avocado, walnuts, local goats cheese and something a bit like chorizo but nicer, with fresh bread. It took a while to warm up after the snorkelling but the sun was out and we found a spot out of the wind so we were dry and warm by the time we needed to head back. 

 

The return leg was a bit harder than the outbound leg as the wind was against us. The sea seemed a bit more choppy but that might have been my imagination. Landing was a bit tricky as the waves were playing up and we were landing onto a quite rocky beach, but we made it under Juan's instruction.

 

 

We had a great day out, if a little nerve wracking (for me - Claire wasn't bothered by any of the scary sea things). The snorkelling was amazing, not quite as good as diving but it does require less skill and money. We were in safe hands with Juan, who obviously knew the sea very well, and could anticipate what was to come. I felt safe in the knowledge that even if I did capsize, he would be there in a flash and fish me out again. I was pleased that this did not get tested though. 

We have four full days left of our holiday, which we intend to kick off with a long run, probably in the rain tomorrow.