Paddleboarding - the modern way to try out Venetian gondola life

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. We do this in a bid to be less polluting and tackle climate change while at the same time keeping a global outlook. Just enjoyed a new activity - stand up paddleboarding - and combined it with a couple of hours picking up rubbish from a canal! Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

I only collected one of these rubbish tubs. Have to admit that I was so proud I forgot
to ask #Trash4Treats organiser Kiko how she got rid of them. Notice I'm holding a cake 
(rhubarb and coconut, yum) which was my treat for being a SUP litter picker.

What is it about the very end of August?  It seems to be a time I need adventure, ideally on the water...

Lola, then 13, with Patrick from
  Kayak Sydney taking us out in sea
kayaks under Sydney Harbour's
famous bridge.

Five years ago I took up an invite from Patrick at www.kayaksydney.com to paddle with then 13 year old Lola around Sydney Harbour under the famous bridge. It was fantastic - we went past amazing houses, rode the wake of the ferry and enjoyed Australia's bluest skies. (In a bid to avoid adding to climate change the family plan is to avoid flying, or to make a trip every 10 years).

Roll on 2016 and I'm trying to stand on a paddleboard on the quiet waters of the River Lee Navigation (the canal) which runs past Olympic Park in Stratford. There's a great stand up paddleboarding organisation, run by Kiko, called SUPkiko which combines two hours of learning to paddleboard with collecting rubbish from the canal.

There are five of us on today's #Trash4Treats outing. None of us have ever stood on a board before - but 30something Kiko, who learnt how to paddleboard while working in Uganda, explains clearly what we have to do. She reckons only 1 per cent of people fall in (and they possibly want to do so!).

Canals are notoriously dirty thanks to the lack of tide. Even with Kiko's regular #Trash4Treats scheme - where paddleboarders go out rubbish picking for two hours and when they return are rewarded with an ice cream or a nice piece of cake - there is plenty of litter. In fact Kiko dreamed up the idea while paddleboarding here because she didn't like her "office" (ie the canal) to be so grubby.

Everyone is meant to collect at least 10 pieces of rubbish but quite soon the five new paddleboarders have hoiked enough trash to fill their rubbish bucket. Kiko's got two!

Back on land it's clear that we've all got the same sort of stuff - polystyrene chunks, empty beer and drinks cans/bottles, condom wrappers and plastic bags. I've also found drinking straws, a large chunk of foam and a yellow plastic bowl.

Kiko says her scariest find was a doll's face with long flowing blonde hair. Guess what that looked like at first?

Learning to standup paddleboard via #Trash4Treats run by SUPkiko at Hackney Wick
(there's Kiko bottom right). With treats provided by the Milk Float Cafe

Hunting for litter is a good way to forget any standing up nerves. You start the session on your knees, just to get the hang of the paddle. After 10 minutes (or however long you need), you lay the paddle across the board and stand.

My legs were shaking at first but by repeating the mantra "your paddle is your friend" (hopefully silently) I began to enjoy the sensation. When I felt like I was about to fall (eg, as a result of my poor steering, another paddleboard heading towards me or getting tangled in the thick green weed that coats part of the canal, or me rubbernecking the hipster bars in this area) I just went forward on to my knees.

To be truthful I loved paddling on my knees. But this is stand up paddleboarding so I stood up and went for it.

SUP (stand up paddleboarding) is an all body work out. It's not too hard to learn, and as a bonus the muscle workout is amazing - I woke the next day feeling as if my chest/back was actually barrel shaped as clearly every one of the muscles/ligaments around my ribs had been worked equally.  They definitely don't function like this when I'm on the laptop.

When conditions are right (ie I'm on land or on water, but not on the high seas thinking I'm about to drown) water is often calming, but Kiko claims SUP can be meditatively good for you too.

Kiko's friend Charlie Head, who has paddleboarded the Amazon, is currently going round the UK on a SUP talking about mental health issues (and travel) #TheBigStand.  Follow Charlie's facebook page and you can see a much shared video about how mental health effects us all (and donate £3 for his next meal, #thehungrySUPper!). I've also linked to his 2min video from Blackpool Pier here:



And even if paddleboarding wasn't making your mind relax (I keep imagining I'm in Venice), it's extremely cheering having so many passersby congratulate the paddleboarders when they see them chasing a bit of litter, Kiko is a brilliant ambassador for cleaning up the canals. While supervising her newbies, she also chats with all sorts along the canalside including the drinkers at Crate and Grow, the boats that come past and lots of kids (she used to be a teacher).

Ahhhh London, so beautiful, and now a little bit cleaner in the Venetian light.

"It's brilliant what you are doing!" "Is it easy to stand up?" are the things the people we pass keep on saying as we paddle up towards Hackney Marshes and back. What a fantastic way to spend the afternoon.

My husband, Pete, was definitely impressed, claiming I'd passed my "hipster proficiency test" as we had a cheeky lager at Tank (one of the many super cool bars near the super coolest of all the canalside bars, Crate, in Hackney Wick). Perhaps one day after a West Ham match at their new stadium some Hammers fans (like Pete even) will avoid the crowds at Stratford and instead just hop on to a SUP and paddle back to their homes? It's a nice thought, but for now if you take a paddle with Kiko you can enjoy crowd-free canals with only a little bit of dodging young coots, swans and the occasional passing barge. Bliss.

VERDICT: Go and try SUP paddleboarding with Kiko. It's really fun, and definitely will reward you with a set of photos that seem nothing short of miraculous - you (well me) standing on a paddleboard on the water. Kiko also runs corporate (team bonding) paddleboarding sessions and has a base at Richmond for those Londoners who don't do north east. 
website: SUPKiko  @SUP_Kiko Insta: SIPKiko F: SUPKiko

In praise of plimsolls

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. We do this in a bid to be less polluting and tackle climate change while at the same time keeping a global outlook. This post looks at the role of Samuel Plimsoll  - the man who gave us the Plimsoll Line - in helping prevent lives being lost at sea.

If you see a portrait of Samuel Plimsoll he looks exactly as a Victorian social reformer should look - with a huge bushy beard. His campaigning saved many lives at sea, and it still does thanks to the line put on all boats in a bid to prevent them being overloaded. This is known as the Plimsoll Line, and it's also what inspired the tube symbol for London.

Samuel Plimsoll's signature (c) nicolette jones

Whose shoe?
One of my neighbours wrote a biography of Samuel Plimsoll, inspired by the name of the road she lives on. Several years later she's now trying to re-establish Plimsoll Day in a bid to help raise money for the RNLI charity. Her plan for Plimsoll Day 2016, which is on Wednesday 10 February is to ask people to wear plimsolls and tweet their feet. The suggested donation is only £1 and can be made via her just giving page, see here.

See more information about Plimsoll Day at this great blog post.

Is this a Dagger I see before me?

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. Here's how you can take to the water in a kayak and transport yourself to any river in the world. This post is by Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about books and blogs).  

"Is this a Dagger I see before me?" Admittedly Shakespeare dreamt this line up first - but that pesky "dagger" is the second thing I notice on this blustery April morning down by the reservoir. The first is an extremely tall, dripping man who has just tipped out of his Dagger kayak. I have a nasty feeling that I will be the second one in the water despite there being no current, or sizeable waves.

"It's my fault, I was racing," smirks the tall man. He doesn't seem to mind at all. Perhaps the reason you go out in a kayak is to have a dip-in-the-water adventure. That's certainly the impression I get from the promo videos of whitewater rafting featured on the Dagger manufacturer's website offering a nail-biting trip to Norway.

Water babies
Even if you aren't that keen on water it's still an absorbing pleasure to hang around by the river bank, or even take a trip down a river. I've got plans to do this with the Canoe Man in Norfolk - I want to be in the river with an otter - soon. But over the years have had fun joining an organised kayak trip (just me and a 6 and 8 year old) down the tidal River Tamar and also being expertly captained by my friend Hannah along the early, shallow part of the River Severn in Powys. My claim to fame remains an early morning paddle around Sydney harbour guided by the wonderful Patrick from Natural Wanders. (see pix above in ocean racing kayaks)

Every river is going to be different - and yet offer some of the same emotional release, adrenalin buzz, relaxation and the ability to creep up on the wildlife (or in Oz, real estate) - wherever you go in the world so it feels like a wise skill to be able to paddle (even if I still daren't try the capsize test). That's why I've joined a canoe club at my nearest big water, a lovely local reservoir that seems to attract the sun. Actually the whole family has joined - even though under 18s go out in boats on different days to the adults - and I hope it will provide plenty of anecdotes.

These may not be as glam as the stories from the whitewater crazies in Norway, but definitely will give us all a new skill plus the opportunity to tell tales of dunkings, dead dogs, herons fishing by the standpipe, baby-crazed swans, flats overlooking the reservoir being sunny Sunday polished (oh you can see a lot from the water!), trees coming into bud and cormorants drying their wings on the old oak tree.

What a result from travel that's less than 10 minutes from my own home.

Over to you
Which river trips in a kayak do you recommend? Especially if the trips include children...

Is it ok to be nervous in boats?

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This time a quick look at reasons to be seasick This post is by Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about books and blogs)   

As a child I would scream if you put me into a boat. Obviously I blame my parents for this - they'd taken me to Strangford Loch, in Northern Ireland and wanted me to play by the shore. In a bid to stop me wading into the water they put the fear of God (and a lifelong terror of water) into me by talking about the whirlpool that killed. You see,

Boats gets swallowed by whirlpools...

Even though I'm grown up and know all about life drills and the Plimsoll Line, I'm still a bit nervous of water. That's why I've made sure my daughters can swim, kayak and row. I know the difference between a life jacket and a life protector - and use them.

But the terrible stories of shipwrecks over the past few months - an oil tanker off New Zealand, the cruiser off Italy and now a ferry in Papua New Guinea (see story here) - freak me out.

Titanic fears
Last summer,on the way back to the UK after a three-month break in the Solomons and Australia, we saw a vast cruise liner squeezing under the huge Sydney Harbour Bridge. It must have been one of the ships that take 4,000 passengers. I probably never would consider going on a ship that big, but once you've seen a tower block floating past (see pic above & below) it is hard to imagine how you would cope in a crisis situation. Or indeed what it would be like with lights out in an overturned boat, a rough sea and all staircases turned into cliffs.

Boats seem to attract accidents, bad weather and poor seamanship. They also dump crap in the sea, not just sewage, but waste oil and loose cargo.

Consider this post a thumbs down to motor boats, however big.

Over to you?
Is boat travel still the way to go in the 21st century? What would you do to improve ship safety and sustainability?

It's a pyrrhic Victory

Pete, Nicola, Lola and Nell love to travel the world but are finding ways to do so without racking up their carbon footprint. This post is by Nicola

Just taken Lola and friends down to Portsmouth to catch a ferry to France. To avoid hanging around the ferry terminal we also visited Portsmouth's historic dockyard. An expensive trip (£55 for a family ticket) but full of amazing history lessons. For instance we were forced to whizz around the Mary Rose Museum which shows how Tudor seamen wore jerkins, measured the sea bed and plotted their routes, etc, just so we could have the guided tour of the navy's first ever commissioned battleship the HMS Victory at 3.35pm.

Because we made this trip the day after Trafalgar Day (October 21) there were wreaths marking the spot Nelson died while fighting the French. (Although the nearby Lady Hamilton pub seemed to have ignored this particular landmark moment). It was also a few days after the big spending review by Cons/Lib-Dem so felt strange seeing the about-to-be scrapped HMS Ark Royal tied up in a nearby dock.