Our Kayaking trip turned out to be quite the adventure, as does everything that Montana and I set out to do. We left on a beautiful day and had a great start, although regretting not doing some push ups in the weeks before to prepare. I can't even explain how beautiful the national park is, hopefully the photo above will does it some justice.
Over three days (which turned out to be basically 2, as you will see) we saw not only beautiful landscapes but a seal colony, including the cutest baby seals hopping around and playing in the water, and a blue penguin swimming near our kayaks. So cool! Apparently there were orcas the second day we were there but they were north of us and we didn't find out until the day we left... huge bummer, that would have been awesome.
When we arrived at the kayak company base early in the morning, we felt pretty prepared and good about ourselves when the German/Swedish couple we were getting a ride with showed up with an esky (cooler) and... get this... A ROLLY SUITCASE, to try to cram into the kayak's cubby holes. Oh by the way, they were not only kayaking but taking a two day hike, which apparently a rolly suitcase is good for.? While they scrambled to put their things into bags, we exchanged glances with the guide and tried not to laugh. Americans aren't as dumb as we are made out to be, that's all I have to say. The first day was great, with calm weather, great beach time, and a (mostly) successful go at setting up the tent.
The second day was... interesting. Montana was having a bit of seasickness and we both were ill-rested because we thought we were hardcore enough to camp without sleeping pads. Mistake #1. Mistake #2: I viewed this trip as a mind/body cleansing, and underestimated the energy exerted by kayaking, and brought probably not even half the amount of food I should have. So Montana, generous as always, offers me some of her bags and bags of pre-made pasta when I had gone through everything except a handful of nuts, an apple, and a granola bar. Of course we open the pasta and it has gone bad. Moldy, all of it. Naturally.
But wait, mistake #3 was before this I think, and really wasn't a mistake on our part (we blame the national park's lack of warning signs). We were pulling up to a beach, Frenchman's Beach to be exact (you can always count on the French to play a mean trick at your expense), when we realize there is a rock in front of us, very close to the surface. And one to our left. And one to our right. Oh, wait, we are SURROUNDED. Luckily some guy had just drove by on his stupid boat telling us he would confiscate our kayak if we did not put our life jackets on, I protested that I was trying to get my Australian tan back but he was not buying it. So when our kayak inevitably got wedged between rocks we sent a silent thank you to the mean man on the boat for yelling at us as we flailed around trying to get out of our spray skirts and avoid the rocks. When we finally did get out and onto the beach and begin to get the water out of the kayak, a man paddles over and says "oh hey, there are rocks there, you are supposed to get out on the other side of the beach." REALLY? we hadn't noticed at all. Would have been helpful 20 minutes ago dude. While we watched the tide go out that afternoon from the safety of the beach we saw more and more rocks emerge from where we had attempted to land. In total, it was a giant bed of about 30-40 rocks. And no sign??? I'm sure we weren't the first and won't be the last to capsize in the rocks.
The last day we had to be back by 3:30 pm, but awoke to angry growling stomachs and decided to get the heck out of there. Left camp by 9:00 am and did a 3-4 hour trip in 2 hours. There is nothing like the motivation of food to get your somewhere in a hurry. Thoughts of bacon (by the way, many of you will be happy to know I am now a full-fledged meat eater) and eggs and toast danced in our heads and the two hours was mostly silent except for grunts of exertion. As we happily chowed down on burgers and fries--sadly, breakfast was over--we watched tired kayakers roll in all afternoon and laughed at ourselves and our ridiculous experience. Another adventure turned... well, I don't know, more intense adventure than we bargained for I suppose... and we wouldn't have had it any other way.
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