{"id":1249,"date":"2013-05-07T09:11:41","date_gmt":"2013-05-07T09:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1249"},"modified":"2013-05-11T08:35:25","modified_gmt":"2013-05-11T08:35:25","slug":"inch-abby-canoe-camp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/2013\/05\/inch-abby-canoe-camp\/","title":{"rendered":"Inch Abby Canoe & Camp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday myself and SpecimanYak headed down to Killyleagh to try our hand at some canoeing with OutdoorConcepts. The plan was to head for Salt Island on Strangford Lough and stay the night. We had no idea what to expect, and to be honest we were picturing skinny kayaks with very little tolerance for rookie balance – and as I thought about it I could feel the cold water waiting on me.<\/p>\n

We gave them a ring on the day and to our cheer we found out we would actually be heading over in Canadian canoes. Great! Yak dumped his 40litre pack and upped it to 60, along with one or two extra dry sacks full of alcho…erm…essential camping equipment. I threw a firelog into my already bursting rucksack and headed off. We chatted in the car about our recent outings and Yaks’ stories of the Sleive Beagh walk has got me thinking I need a challenge.<\/p>\n

We arrived in Killyleagh and found the OutdoorConcepts van by the shore. We walked over and that’s when we noticed the wind and the waves on the water ahead. We spoke to Craig as he got out and shook our hands, and it was clear that he was already thinking of a plan B. Salt island was in sight but between us and it was a strong headwind and fast moving waves.<\/p>\n

Our instructors arrived, Kate and Jim, and they quickly had an alternative. We drove down to Downpatrick and from there we launched down the river toward Inch Abby. The water and coastline here was gorgeous and the paddling was easy. There were six people in total as two girls had also joined us – It wasn’t long before our whole group was chatting away and getting to know each other.<\/p>\n

\"Canoe<\/a><\/p>\n

After not too long we arrived at the Abby, a beautiful collection of ruins by the river. We pulled up and began getting camp sorted. We pitched within the ruins themselves, which was fantastic. Yak had a decent size 2man tent which was up in 2minutes, giving him plenty of time to laugh and make jokes as I constructed my luxury 3 man Tempest. “No Yak, the Hilton is much bigger”, “Yes Yak, Of course I have applied for planning permission to put my tent up”.<\/p>\n

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After we were all set up, we got the dinner going. A couple of disposable barbeques did the trick, and we were soon munching and drinking. It was a great group and craic was had by all. The firelogs worked great just sitting on top of the used bbq’s and we chatted for hours. We ended the night a spooky walk through the nearby graveyard with graves hundreds and hundreds of years old. Another great experience.<\/p>\n

In the morning we packed up and paddled around a little more before heading home. All in all a fantastic experience. A great group of people and great guides, not to mention a gorgeous camping spot to which I will definitely be returning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Original post is here. With thanks to KyleL<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday myself and SpecimanYak headed down to Killyleagh to try our hand at some canoeing with OutdoorConcepts. The plan was to head for Salt Island on Strangford Lough and stay the night. We had no idea what to expect, and to be honest we were picturing skinny kayaks with very little tolerance for rookie balance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1249"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1254,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1249\/revisions\/1254"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ni-wild.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}