Circumnavigating Ireland was always just an idea. One of wild seas and coastlines, of solitude and strangers. Initially I’d considered Ireland a warm up. A little adventure and a benchmark. Something to test my mettle and measure my myself.
Whether I am capable of such a journey alone was a bridge I intended to cross nearer the time, I would decide later if I should invite people to join me or whether to go solo. The biggest deciding factor would depend on my skills being up to the required standard. However, the romance of travelling alone was there and the more people I talked to, the more momentum the idea was gaining. I also began to realise that paddling alone perhaps wasn’t your average day out and it could actually be something incredibly special. Thus begins operation Get Your Paddling Act Together!
Since the Mull adventure last year, I made a list of trips I wanted to tackle before Ireland. I figured that I needed to gain as much experience of solo expeditioning as possible, as well as finding suitably comparable conditions in which to get comfortable. Enrolling as a full-time mature student at university means that I have some long summers in which to paddle, and there is a lot of paddling to be done if I’m ever going to be ready to take on Ireland. These are exciting times!
The British Isles by Sea Kayak 