Viikko tyttären kanssa Dubrovnikissa. On nätti kaupunki! Mutta oli kyllä kuumaa. Teimme turistijuttuja: retki Lokrum -saareen, vanhassa kaupungissa kävelyä, myös muurikierros, uimme, kävimme melomassa ja söimme hyvin.
Melomassa
Kaupunkikuvia
Lokrum
Ruokaa ja juomaa
The very first summer vacation week this year I spent in London. London is so nice city, there is a lot to see and lot’s of different kind of activities to do. This time I did a SUP journey in a canal from Paddington Basin to Camden Lock via Little Venice and London Zoo. There are you not alone, there are lot’s of canal boats, electric GoBoats and even some cayaks going around so you need to be very careful and take a good attention all the time. It had been a hot summer and not that windy so there were lot’s of weed on the some areas of the canal. It was really hard to paddle through the weeds specially for the first one in a row.
What was really exciting was the long and dark canal in Little Venice. The canal is 249 meters long and it was so dark. The experience was really something! Never done something like that before.
Also it was fun to paddle through the London zoo: we saw some exotic birds and hyenas too. We paddled 9 km and it took three hours, there were some waiting times to let big canal boats to go first. After the trip I was hungry and tired, dropped by the Petit Pret to take a take away salad and went to eat and sleep in my hotel room. Good exercise during the city holiday!
After a very good working day in the Oslo office, I had a one hour before to need to leave for the train to airport. So I decided to enjoy summer in Lysaker, Oslo. And with an right attitude, and perfect weather, a sea and a terrace you can do that just in one hour. See the pictures below and feel the Norwegian summer!
Walking
At harbour
Lähdin pääsiäislauantaina korkein odotuksin kohti kevättä Lontooseen, mutta mitä vielä, pari päivää oli kylmää ja sateista. Tosin Suomessa oli samaan aikaa iltapäivälehtien mukaan lumi-inferno, joten vähemmän lumisessa paikassa toki olin. Lontoossa ei ollut yhtään lunta. Alkuviikkoon sää lämpeni yli kymmenen asteen ja aurinkokin pilkahteli pilvien välistä, joten kevään tuntuun kyllä pääsi.
Kun joulukuussa kävin Thamesilla suppaamassa paikalliset olivat kovasti tohkeissaan ‘vuorovesi sitä ja vuorovesi tätä’, ja että 5m vedenpinta voi nousta yms. Tuo kuulosti lähinnä täysin uskomattomalle. Asia jäi vaivaamaan mieltäni niinkin, että kun tuli nyt huhtikuun ensimmäisena päivänä mahdollisuus osallistua SUP -kurssille, jossa käsitellään Thamesin erityisominaisuuksia ja vuoroveden vaikutusta suppaamiseen, niin pitihän siihen osallistua (Active360/ Thames Skills and Knowledge Level 1 (TSK1)).
Ensin oli kahden tunnin luento suppaamisesta Thamesillä, turvallisuusasioista ja vuorovedestä. Sen lopulla katsoimme karttaa ja vuorovesitietoja ja suunnittelimme kahden tunnin suppauksen siihen perään. Suunnitelma oli mennä 1h 15 min vuorovettä vasten ja tulla 45 minuuttia takaisin vuoroveden myötäisesti. Hyvin suunniteltu, mutta ei toteutunut sitten ollenkaan. Joka kertoo myös Thamesin haasteista.
Thamesin haasteita: vilkasliikenteinen joki, isojakin laivoja, paljon moottoriveneitä ja soutajia (etenevät selkä edellä), jopa terveysriskejä vaikka joki nykyisin varsin puhdas, ja vuorovesi. Vuorovesi voi todellakin nostattaa veden pintaa sellaiset 5-6 metriä, samalla sellaisen vesimassan liike aiheuttaa hurjan virtauksen.
Mites meidän SUP-suunnitelman sitten kävi? Vuorovedestä on varsin tarkat tiedot, miten se vaikuttaa vedenkorkeuteen ja virtaukseen ja milloin missäkin kohtaa Thamesia. Mutta esim. sateet vaikuttavat siihen. Niin kävi nyt. Lähdimme suunnitelman mukaisesti suuntaan, johon piti juuri kääntyä vastavirta, se ei ollut vielä lähtiessä kääntynyt, mutta olisi pitänyt ihan heti miten kääntyä. Mutta ei kääntynyt. Kun olimme menneet puolisen tuntia myötävirrassa ope sanoi, että on aika kääntyä takaisin tai ei pysytä mitenkään aikataulussa. Meno olikin ollut tosi leppoisaa ja mukavaa myötävirtaan. Käännyimme ja sitten meillä olikin vastavirta koko loppumatkan. Suunta ei kääntynyt koko sen kahden tunnin aikana.
Sittenkään meno ei ollut raskasta, matka ei vaan edennyt :). Täällä kotimassa tuuli tai aallot antavat signaalin, että teeppäs nyt töitä, että etenet, niin sitten tehdään. Tuolla kun sitä ei tullut, ei tuulta, ei aaltoja, niin ei oikein tosissaan melonut. Mutta sitten havahtui siihen, että kohteet rannalla eivät vaan tulleet lähemmäksi. Oli kuin olisi juoksumatolla juossut. Piti vaan ruveta tekemään töitä, että etenisi.
Vuorovesi on kovimmillaan lähempänä merta. Siellä ei saakaan meloen mennä. Virtaus voi olla sellainen, ettei sitä käsipelin vaan voi voittaa. Minulla on nyt lupa mennä yksin Thamesilla välillä Teddington-Putney päivällä tai yöllä ja ryhmän mukana Chelsea Bridgelle saakka, Tower Bridgelle asti päivällä, jos on erityiskoulutettu ohjaaja ryhmällä mukana. Ja Tower Bridgen jälkeen ei ole laudalla kenelläkään menemistä.
Olipa mielenkiintoinen ja opettavainen päivä. Oppi paljon Thamesista, vuorovedestä ja siitä miten erilaista sama laji voi olla riippuen olosuhteista. Tämä on hyvä pitää mielessä tuntemattomilla seuduilla, varsinkin ulkomailla.
…and having winter fun!
Long time no seeing! There are two main reasons for that. First it is wintertime and you do not SUP a lot at that time in Finland. And secondly I have been thinking what to do with this blog in the future because there will be a change in my marital status. But as ancient Romans said “Navigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse”, men come and go, SUP stays. So here I am again.
And I have done some stand up paddling during the winter: I visited in London in December and took a part in Active360’s Christmas paddling on the river Thames and it was so fun! First we paddled against the tide for an hour and half and then we came back in twenty minutes. It was a big surprise to me that a tide makes that a big difference. Even so it did not feel hard, there were no waves to make hard time with balance so it was easy anyway, you needed just arm muscles and abdominals.
The river Thames was beautiful even it was grey winter day. We saw birds and bird nests on the top of the trees, but not any seals at that time. It was heavenly to be on the SUP board again. Waiting for the next summer, and enjoying winter iceskating and downhill skiing meanwhile.
Photos: Anu Aladin
A holiday week in London was really nice even the weather was colder than expected, it was almost freezing. Finally also the SUP session with Active360London was set for Wednesday . The weather on Wednesday was nice and sunny (and it got warmer day by day). The location for SUP was Paddington Basin and Little Venice where long river boats are more typical view than paddleboards. River boats are lovely and traditional way of transportation in canals in the UK, SUP is a new way to enjoy the beauty of the the rivers. Furthermore the Active360 has a river boat as a base station at Paddington Basin.
The session started at 6.45 pm and the sun was shining when we left from the pier in the Paddington Basin. The scenery was varying from very urban ones to greener ones along the trip. Also plenty of birds live in the riversides (e.g. swans and gooses). The darker side of the urban canal is all the junk and trash which ends on and in the water.
The session was definitely lovely, first half was relaxing and easy and the second half a good exercise against the wind. And the people were extremely nice! People who all share the passion for SUP. Loved to meet you all Sam, Sarah, Charlie and the two ladies! And welcome to Finland, let’s have a SUP together here as well!
Getting ready:
And go:
And the paddled route (includes also an underground trip to Paddington Station :)):
Visiting in Eze village was on a to-do-list also this year, it is a nice place and also going there is a small trip itself. This summer we have taken buses a lot instead of taking trains mostly because we discovered that they are nice (you see different places) and easy (our hotel is actually located near to many bus stops), and last but not least we bought a seven day pass for Lignes D’azur lines so local buses are ‘free’.
Number 82 took us direct to Eze village and we climbed in a hot weather to the most top where the view is magnificent. Tuomas took a lot of photos when climbing up and on the top as well. It was real hot so the next stop was on the Eze beach. We took a bus number 83 to Eze railway station which is located near to the beach. There were a lot of people on the beach enjoying the Sunday sun and warm water.
I rented a SUP board but this time I enjoyed even more swimming in the warm sea. I also realized that Finland is actually very good place for SUP. There are different kind of rivers, lakes and sea coasts with variety of landscapes and water birds. You can really enjoy the SUP trip, not just concentrating on keeping standing on the SUP board going up and down on (monster) waves.
Today´s visit was into the village of Villefranche-sur-Mer, which was noticed as the very best beach in the area by us last year. This time we took a bus number 81 which is leaving very near to our hotel (very practical!) and we took off the bus stop called Octroi. By taking a bus instead of a train (as we did last year) we were able to enter the town itself when walking towards the beach.
The town is a beauty. Small and narrow streets with old doors and archs was a pleasant place to walk and take pictures. After for a while we ended up to the beach area and continued walking to the very end because the SUP rental location is in the far end.
I changed shorts and t-shirt in a small private tent, kind of funny but it was nice to have some place to do it. The SUP board I paddled on was a new model for me, the shape was a very sharp and it was said to be fast and stable, and it was. It took a short time to get familiar with mediterranean waves but when I did it was fun indeed to paddle.
It was a second day of a spring vacation in Copenhagen and the plan was to go to Amager Strand and do some SUP. Morning was beautiful and after a nice breakfast in a nice local cafeteria in Frederiksberg we headed first to the city where we spent some time waiting the SUP rental to be open.
After a while we took a metro to Femoren which is the nearest metro station to the Kajakhotellet. The place where you can rent kayaks and SUP boards. It is Friday midday so there is not that many people on the beach area, but there were a few people enjoying the warm and sunny day though. I can bet on that there will be a lot of people in the evening and the weekend to come.
I rented a SUP board for an hour. I got a narrow inflatable one, it was very nice. In the beginning there was almost not at all wind (2 m/s) but it increased while I was paddling (5 m/s) so that in the end I got a very good exercise when paddling against the wind. The canal is so narrow that there was not waves still, so the place is good for new beginners to sup as well.
After a good paddling we bought refreshments on the kiosk by the sea and then we decided to continue to the shopping center Field’s in Orestad. It is so fun to travel in metro in Copenhagen.
By the way it was easy to take the SUP outfit in the luggage, a short wet suit and neoprene shoes do not take that much space in a trolley. Tested and approved.
I am visiting Copenhagen with Assari (Assari’s side of a story (in Finnish)). This is just a short visit but there was a possibility to visit a SUP place called Kajakhotellet (kajakhotellet.dk) in Amager Strand. By the way Amager Strand is a very nice place by the sea having a large sandy beach, perfect place in a sunny summer day to enjoy life and outdoor activities like paddling and swimming. It is also located near to Kastrup Airport, so you can drop by when coming/going from/to the airport, just get off the metro at Femören station and have a short walk towards to the sea.
The day was not that warm (it is springtime still) so there was just few people on the beach area but I can easily image that the place is just awesome in a beautiful day. At the arrival it was almost a closing time but I got opportunity to SUP for a half an hour. I got my brand new wet suit on (the first wet suit experience (in Finnish) ) and was ready to go.
There were several different kinds of boards available, I said no to a plastic ‘bathtub’, they are awful. I got a small sporty one, the smallest I have ever tried. So I was a little bit worried in the beginning if I will stay on the board, it was my first time on board after October anyway. After getting familiar with the board, it was very ok, actually making turns with it was easy indeed.
I was all alone supping in strange place for the first time for a long time, so I stayed in inner lagoon. But as you can see the picture, you can go around ‘the island’ as the kayak men did. It was so nice to be on board again, the feeling afterwards was super! For a moment the sun was even shining and it felt like a summer. Pure happiness.
