Kayaking on Lough Allen

Last week John, a good friend of ours, asked if we would like to go kayaking with him and his wife Lorraine. And as we're always up for anything outdoors, we agreed to meet them at Lough Allen on Saturday afternoon for a bit of water fun and madness.

Kayaks "on the rocks"

 So we set off on an overcast but dry (at that point anyway...) afternoon. The lake was a bit choppy but that just added to the fun. Our kayaks were all sit in tops, so no need for any eskimo rolls at any stage (nobody capsized either, so we were all good). We also brought Cara as she is a total water baby and loves to swim.

Ok, how do I best get into the water now without slipping on the rocks...

balancing on the rocks

 We made our way across to some rocks that just seemed to pointlessly sit and stick out somewhere in the middle of the lake. We decided to abandon the kayaks on the rocks for a while and go for a little swim. Yes, it was cold, despite the fact that we were all wearing wetsuits. This is summer in Ireland after all....

Lorraine, John, Cian and Cara out swimming

 Cara was amazing. She is a good little swimmer anyway, but she proved that we had totally underestimated her skills. She didn't tire and even pulled us through the water (looks like she'd make a brilliant water rescue dog :)). Dogs biomechanics must make then paddle as soon as they hit the water...even when we held her she was still paddling away while her legs were in the water,. Only once out of the water she'd stop. Cian proved same with lifting her all the way over his head...and yes, she did stop paddling indeed. Hit the water and off she went again :).

Once we had enough of the swimming for a while we went back to the kayaks that were still sitting on the lovely slippery rocks and made our way up towards Ballinglera's shore. We found an old football there, so Cara was in heaven. Once more we decided to abandon the kayaks and go for a swim, this time without the life jackets, to make it a little easier to move around the water. We were close to the shore this time and the water was pretty flat, so it was ok. John told us that they used this area for teaching kids how to swim (proper country style ;o).

At the "beach"

 We were messing with the football for a while and had a great laugh. Poor Cara kept following whoever had the ball but was never quick enough to snatch it unless somebody actually handed it to her.

Cara going after the football...

Got it :)

The way back was a bit harder than the way up as we now had to go against the wind and the waves...and at that point it also started raining...we didn't really mind though, didn't really notice the rain as we were wet anyway... After a bit of a good workout we made it back to our starting point. We packed up the kayaks and most of us got changed. Only Cian stayed in his wetsuit as he decided to take Cara for another swim in the lake and give her a bath at the same time. it's handy because she doesn't mind being covered in shampoo and then thrown into a lake...but if you mentioned the word "bath" at home, she'd do a runner...hates being cleaned that way for some strange reason...

After we were all done at the lake we went home to get cleaned up ourselves and met later at Lorraine and John's for a nice and well deserved Chinese. We spent the evening chatting, drinking and watching some tv. Eventually Cara settled as well. She was still full of beans for most of the evening, no idea how as she had been on the go all day long. It was nice to see their two dogs and Cara just chilled out in their beds.

I definitely had a great day and can't wait to do it all again!

PS. My Vivobarefoot Ultras were the perfect shoes for kayaking. Comfy, light, water was just running out of them and I was surprised how much grip I had even on the slippery rocks. :)

Take care all!