Baja - Bay of Loreto National Marine Park - Danzante and Carmen Islands

Last Spring, several women paddled with Ginni Callahan and Bonnie Perry in the Bay of Loreto National Marine Park in Baja California Sur, Mexico. The purpose of the trip was to soak up whatever it was that presented itself. And, of course, to enjoy the sheer physical pleasures of paddling.

The Loreto coastline is dominated by LaGiganta Mountains, here seen glowing at sunrise...

Sierra La Giganta at dawn from the southern tip of Carmen Island

We planned to spend a couple of nights at the southern tip of Carmen Island and another couple of nights camping and paddling around jagged Danzante Island, here seen in the distance from our put-in south of Loreto....

Danzante Island from out put-in south of Loreto

Carmen Island is dry, desert dry, with the very occasional palm useful for shade and hanging things...

Carmen Island campsite

The seas were gentle and we paddled slowly up the shoreline of Carmen Island, poking about sea caves ...

Carmen Island Sea Cave

with the remains of ancient sea creatures embedded in the ceiling...

Carmen Sea Cave

We played with Flat Earth sails in the light wind....

Bonnie Perry and Ginni Callahan

and practised calm water paddling skills....

Bonnie Perry - calm water paddling skills

After paddling across to Danzante Island, Ginni demonstrated how to snorkel in a kayak...

How to snorkel in a kayak

Our campsite was at La Ventana (the window)...

La Ventana, Danzante Island

Ever-practical Ginni used tools appropriate to the task - here pliers...

Ginni Callahan

and taught us how to distract thirsty bees away from our breakfast by pouring fresh water into a bowl and adding a rock "island" for the bees to sit on while they drink....

Bee watering trough

On our leisurely paddle around Danzante we were entertained by dolphins...

Dolphins

and Ginni took us on a walk to see "her" Cardon cactus that she has been watching grow over the years...

Ginni's Cardon

and some of the plants that bloom in the desert conditions...

Cactus Flower

With two of the five North American BCU 5* Leaders in our midst, they naturally had to demonstrate their skills...here it is the "cross-bow power stroke with feathered recovery"!  (If you can manage this without either falling over with laughter or getting irrevocably tangled up with your paddle, you are worthy of 5* certification!)

Cross-Bow Power Stroke with Feathered Recovery (!)

Did we set any speed or distance records? Absolutely not!  Did we revel in good fellowship and the soul-enriching beauty of the Sea of Cortez and the mountains and the islands?  YES!! 

Newfoundland's SW Coast

Imagine a region of ancient continents colliding and moulding the earth’s crust like tafffy. Millions of years later, add glaciers scouring out fjords and hanging valleys.Then add the sea and you have a paddler’s paradise of cliffs and rock gardens and crevices. This is Newfoundland's Southwest Coast. I joined Scott Cunningham's Coastal Adventures trip early this August. We assembled in Burgeo (a half-day's drive from the ferry terminal at Port aux Basques) - a beautiful jumble of islands and bays, once home to Farley Mowat.

In Burgeo we loaded our boats on the ferry and landed in Grey River, one of Newfoundland's few surviving outports, serviced only by ship.

Our first day's journey, from Grey River to La Hune Harbour was one of the best paddling days ever! Rough wild cliffs - and water falls....

We arrived at La Hune Harbour, the site of a former Outport, to be greeted by a pod of white sided dolphins, who proceeded to circle around as we settled in to our campsite where one of our party was overjoyed at having figured out how to evade the damned mosquitoes!

We were weather bound at La Hune Harbour for three days. Scott led a foray up the 1000 foot mountain that overlooked the campsite, here clouded in mist...

We read in our tents during the rain and wind, and then had a glorious day's paddle up the La Hune fjord. The wind chasing us was so strong that it caught up the whole of the volume of waterfalls and flung it back over the tops of the cliffs....

The reward for the blustery paddle was this sheltered waterfall and pool....

a lush contrast to the barren rock of the fjord....

On our next day's paddle from La Hune to Cul du Sac, geology dominated....

We camped at the head of the Cul du Sac fjord. The cliff walls would not be out of place in a desert...

Our tents were on the steep hillside that was site of the former outport and we tried to imagine (unsuccessfully) where buildings had been located and how they had been built.

The next day brought us to Francois, another of the rare still-existing outports...

We loaded our boats onto the over-nighting ferry in glorious sunshine...

and returned the next day to Burgeo in the driving rain...

Newfoundland's Southwest Coast is a wonderful part of the world....I am already planning to return.