After not sleeping much the night before due to excitement and nerves, I woke up and double checked I had everything prepared that was on my list and that I hadn’t forgotten anything.

My mother arrived, and we quickly tied the shiny new Kayak to the roof of the car, making sure it wasn’t going budge an inch on the journey up to Dublin.

We arrived at lock 12 just outside of Dublin city. I chose to leave from there as I didn’t fancy trying to haul my heavily laden kayak around 12 locks in a single day. Locks are placed along canals to help raise the canal boats from sea level up to the current level that the surrounding land is on. Having several hundred litres of water crashing in to them makes them dangerous for very small boats like kayaks and therefore the only other option is to the drag/lift the kayak around them.

The weather was cloudy but warm as I paddled westward away from Dublin, with many people out walking on the grand canal way which runs the length of the canal. While paddling along, I got talking to a few fishermen who were half drunk at the time but full of kind words of encouragement and advice for my trip ahead. (They also added as I left that I should completely ignore any of their advice)

After a time the walkway on the bank way got quiet and I could only hear the sound of my paddle entering the water and the birds singing in the trees. Pure serenity, only 30 kilometers outside of Dublin city centre.

The novelty of kayaking wore off pretty fast though and after an hour I started to get really bored as the canal scenery was staying fairly similar. I had some music on my phone to listen to and keep me entertained and there’s nothing much better than singing along to songs in the middle of the deserted, beautiful Irish country side with the evening sun streaming down upon you.

Attack of the swan

As I was paddling along I suddenly saw a swan appear a few hundred meters ahead of me and instead of moving away from me(either flying or swimming) which is what all the other swans I’d seen so far do, he started making a beeline straight for me. When I finally got close enough to pass him by he started going over to the side of the river where I was trying to navigate around him. Over and over again I tried to pass him by, but he relentlessly blocked the way. I started to wonder if I should go and park my kayak on the bank and try and walk around him.

Suddenly, I noticed he’d let his guard down and made a mad dash to paddle past him on this right hand side. I only narrowly escaped the wrath of his sharp beak and had to keep paddling for all I was worth to stay out of his reaches. The noise of his violent swimming behind me was all the motivation I needed to keep going and soon I came to see the reason why this swan was being as much of a pain in the ass as Gandalf was to the Balrog in lord of the rings with his “you shall not pass” mantra. He was trying to guard a nest. As soon as I moved passed the nest which housed his partner and their precious eggs his paddling slowed to a crawl and I was able to take a quick breather.

The evening

The late evening was marked by the warming sun descending towards the horizon which kept my spirits up, and I decided to keep paddling until I found a suitable spot to camp for the night. Again, I couldn’t help but notice the abundant wildlife surrounding the canal as I paddled. Multitudes of herons fishing and flying gracefully overhead with their long elongated necks and huge wings, ducks with trails of ducklings following them, which scrambled to get out of my way into the safety of the reeds as I meandered past, and horses enjoying munching the long grass on the heavily laden banks. I felt privileged to be able to get a close up encounter with all these beautiful animals and share their world for a time.

My plan for camping was to just rock up somewhere, pitch my tent and hope for the best. Having never really camped anywhere in Ireland before I wasn’t sure what to expect. After making my way past the town of Sallins in Kildare, the time was nearing 8pm and I was happy with the 20 kilometres I had covered so I pulled in to the bank climbed out and did a quick glance around the area for a place to pitch my tent. On the bank I had pulled out on was a path which people from the town of Sallins used to go for walks. I didn’t want to set up camp there an possibly be disturbed by angry towns people telling me that this was a path for walking on and not camping ground, so I dragged my kayak and all my belongings through a ditch and into a small clearing with just enough room to set myself up for the night.

I set up my tent, got changed out of my wetsuit and into warm dry clothes, and as the sun set cooked myself a feast of ravioli and sandwiches using my little camping stove. All that was left to do then was put all my valuables in the tent with me, blow up my air mattress (which would take at least 15 minutes each night using nothing but lung power only) and call it a night.