Kayaking around Oak Bay

Today, with the conference finished, I went on one of the organised post-conference trips. There was a seabird and whale pelagic trip, which didn't look too exciting. I decided to go kayaking; something I haven't really done before (excluding some river canoeing I did as a kid), but am told you can approach wildlife very closely and I thought it would be something good to do around Portlethen. Marischal (the conference organiser) took us to the launch point. He's an interesting guy. His family is from Broughty Ferry originally. He used to pronounce his name the Aberdeen way (i.e. Marshall), but has been forced to pronounce it as spelled because it confused too many people.

Six of us paddled out, plus the guide. We were in tandem kayaks - I was teamed up with a guy from New Brunswick on the Canadian east coast called Dave. He has done a bit of kayaking before, so that was helpful for me as a novice. It was drizzling with rain most of the time.

We paddled to some islands, where there were common seals, and some cute river otters. We also saw a grey whale pass behind us. All around the islands there were moulting harlequin ducks - not as smart as they could be, but still amazing to see them. There were black turnstones and surfbirds on the shoreline, and a couple of belted kingfishers.

The intrepid paddlers

I survived the day pretty well. It even brightened up, and we could see across to the mainland. My shoulders were a bit sore by the end of the day, as were my feet from steering the rudder. I figure my swimming must have helped my shoulders.

In the evening, I met up with Martin Heubeck and Kees Camphuysen for a meal and a drink. We go into Chinatown and have an amazing meal!



Harlequin ducks and black oystercacher