08 June 2024

Eleven of us met at the Club house on Saturday 8th June, to paddle to Norman’s Bay Campsite. We planned to pack up the sea kayaks with our camping gear and provisions and stay the night and return the following day with as many stops for ice cream on our journey there and back as we could fit in. A few went to check the sea state and concluded that the wind force was too high for us to paddle, as it would mean we would be paddling headwind all the way. Also, the wind force was rising with strong gusts.

However, the weather forecast was much better for the following day so we decided to trailer the sea kayaks to Norman’s Bay and paddle back the following day. We all loaded the boats on the trailer and soon reached the camp site. We pitched our tents and settled in with some of us indulging in ice cream from the site shop.

Most walked to the Star Inn for dinner with of course the obligatory Ice Cream for dessert! We returned to our tents and settled down for the night.

In the morning we packed away and took the tents down. We carried the sea kayaks down to the sea and began our paddle back to the kayak club. We were met by 2 other members Jon and Dave H. who paddled with us to Bexhill.

We stopped at the Lighthouse Cafe for ice cream but the queue was so enormous we decided to press on and stop at the kiosk next to the sailing club. Some were getting withdrawal symptoms from lack of ice cream so we rushed up the beach to order our ice creams. We all sat down on the beach to devour our purchases and then set off again. Although, we wanted to stop again for more ice cream we were conscious that the wind was predicted to get up. We compromised by stopping at the beach cafe instead of McDonald’s and the desperate members quickly got another ice cream and gobbled it down.

We launched for our final leg with the wind with us but it was increasing in speed. All of us arrived at the club house rather quicker than expected with the wind becoming stronger. Everyone proved to be a competent paddler as we all remained upright with no swimmers! We are all hoping we can do the trip both ways next year so we can cram in more ice cream stops.