Kayaking on the Grand Canal

Last weekend was an absolute scorcher, perfect weather for messing about on boats. Or, to put it more correctly, on a kayak! Extreme Time Off have a van at Portabello Harbour from which they rent out kayaks. It costs €24 for one hour or €40 for two hours. Being novices we opted for just one hour. After a short lesson and safety briefing we were off!

There I go ... more or less in a straight line! 

It's supposedly easy enough to get the hang of kayaking. Put the paddle in the water and push to move forward, do the same on the other side to keep yourself going in a straight line. For some reason my brain found these simple instructions difficult to master, it seemed like every time I tried to accomplish something the exact opposite happened! I bumped into the canal wall, ended up in the reeds and also nearly overturned M in his kayak! Eventually I did get the hang of it though and we headed west down the canal.

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Getting up close and personal with the buddleia bushes ... not really on purpose! 

My most abiding memory of the trip is the rubbish. The Grand Canal is absolutely filthy. I don't mean the water, that's pretty clean, but there is so much litter in the canal it's not even funny. I noticed multiple wine and beer bottles, a plethera of cans, a cushion, a shoe, an empty Pampers box, a deflated football, black plastic bags and oodles and oodles of random wrappers and papers. Really, who ever is doing this dumping should be ashamed of themselves.

Pretty water lilies which have managed to grow despite the rubbish

We got as far as the Parnell Bridge before having to turn back again. Looking down the canal there seemed to be a lot less rubbish in the water, it got me thinking that next time I go kayaking it might be nicer to start further out of the city. Extreme also rent from the Newcastle Road in Lucan so I might try there in future.

M had a great laugh at me and called me an obsessed food blogger but I had to take a pic of Locks just in case I ever go there, I'll have a picture from a unique perspective for that blog post! 

Overall, rubbish aside, it was a really pleasant experience with one exception. When I booked the session the sales representative from Extreme was very insistent that we rent wet suits at a cost of €8 each. This was no problem. Unfortunately when we arrived there was no wet suits in sight! I hadn't brought a change of clothes so it meant that I had the a wonderful walk back into the city center in a pair of thoroughly soaked jeans! It certainly kept me cool!

My soaking wet jeans, spot the teeny weeny little dry spot?!