In November of next year I 'celebrate' a milestone birthday and as such feel I can at last experience a fully blown mid-life crisis. To 'honour' this occasion I want to do a trip or a feat of mildly epic proportions with a few carefully selected friends
. What I am struggling with is what to do and where to do it! This is where I need inspiration.... your inspiration. I would prefer a flat water touring, camping trip, something I can stick a flag in and say when I was (21
) I did this in a canoe, if you see what I mean. Thanks in advance.
Uk or Europe
I think is the first question second one is I never realised you were 49
for this you will need a special zimmer paddle
Hi there, I know exactly what you are after, and the only constraint is the one that has brought you to this stage in your life, whether you be 40,50,or sixty, The constraint is TIME, then we have the ever niggling one MONEY, I know you asked for INSPIRATION and all I have done is demoralise. Right you wish to mark your time of life with some sought of achievement, my dear friend,STOP look around you, your family and where you are today in terms of employment, financial, Health,and all the canoeing trips, Having read quite a few of your Bloggs on our sister site, you have already achieved.
Right now before you go outside and hang yourself after reading my few words of encouragement, how about a trip to Canada, or next best Sweden, ambitions of mine but not accomplished as yet, I'm 70 next year and that constraint Time i was talking about, well I have loads of it, in fact I have got the rest of my life, and so have you
Hope from what I've wrote you can glean out my intended message,
and Happy Paddling Bill.
Ps, After reading what Ive wrote, I was trying to inspire you, but I think I will try and find a spare piece of rope.
"Had to think twice about posting this."
(11-08-08 08:47 PM)LAS247 Wrote: [ -> ]I want to do a trip or a feat of mildly epic proportions,,,
At your age a trip around Roundhay or Hollingworth lake would be a milestone
The Tyne Tour is in November also the Canoe symposium for the camping aspect, but the Tyne Tour is grade 2/3 on the bottom section, but from Wark to Chollerford is a nice paddle? Windermere in November could be a bit windy.
Perhaps the Leeds Liverpool canal would be nice, but not sure where the campsites are.
Cheers
Graeme
How about a Loch Ness Tour?
Not too far away or too expensive a journey for you or any friends who you ask to join you, plenty of scope for paddling and, presumably camping, although I haven't checked that out, and you may even get a birthday kiss from Nessie herself.
TD
I can understand the need to want to do a big epic trip every now and then, not only the thought if doing the unusual but also doing that which you reckon you would never be able to do in a place that few will repeat. I dont think it has anything to do with mid-life crisis etc... but I think in me it is an explorers itch that needs satisfying no matter how home life is.
I guess one can only give you what one would wish to do in that situation, and I have to say that for me Canada would be the ultimate for the paddling experience.
There are plenty of large flat rivers and lakes that you could spend a month navigating, and I would say that for an epic trip you need to think 3 weeks or more. In terms of getting there I guess its not that difficult as you can hire all you need when you get there. The only draw back is the old ££££'s
However I have been looking at possible paddling china and there is some interesting stuff to the south of the country which I reckon would be a unique experience.
As said perhaps Europe (France/Germany) might be more accessible, or how about the Italian lakes? Hmm then there is the Norwegian fjords - good luck in choosing a trip as there are so many excellent places!
Pete
If it's in the mainland Uk I think I would try and figure out what is the most remote spot you can paddle to [it would have to be in Scotland I suppose] without any daft portages or crazy open sea paddling. Plant a flag and set up camp and comune with nature. I seem to recall that there was a thread on SOTP on these lines some time ago.
Another thought is just to set yourself a year long challenge - that would have the advantage of giving you a good excuse to get out even more often than you already do.
I have had a discussion around the great glen, there and back. Further a field I quite fancy Norway, although I'm not too sure what the weather would be like at that time of year, really cold I should imagine
My main concern is that a few close friends would be able to come along... maybe even you Andy
oh, no sorry... I did say close
So cost and time have to be right, I'll just keep checking back here....
how about we upset all our nearest and dearest and clear off xmas week
much better than sitting at home pigging out and we can all blame it on
lee
How about the grand tour of Loch Lomond.
You could book the camp ground on Inchcailoch as a base. It has no facilities except a composting toilet, so it would feel like wild camping, but be reletivley safe and comfortable if the weather was bad.
Great Glen - start to finish, the whole hog, the full bhuna, all the way maaaaannnn. Well it's a biggie for me and would be a hell of trip regardless. Or I could be talking ba's.
Not exactly original I know, but.....
Red Kite Silly S***e
How about paddling a K***K Lee
Graeme
