A Summer of Paddling 2025

The summer of 2025 is basically at an end, and it genuinely feels like it’s sped by so quickly. I know that’s a general thing that everyone says at the end of every season, every year, but it remains true. Thankfully though (and something that doesn’t often get said in a household with multiple illnesses between us), this summer has not been without adventure.

Something we have prioritised this season was our Mum’s health, both physical and mental. We realised that while we cannot reverse all her problems, we can stop her from atrophying and getting worse and the results have been promising. With kayaking, a splash of cycling, and some home exercises thrown in when she’s not trying to recover, we can keep her body at a stable place, and maybe, hopefully, we can very slowly, in teeny tiny incremental steps, one day get her (sort of) healthy again.

The cycling was a newer development, and started a while ago in some gym recovery sessions that she spent a few months completing. Day in, day out, even though she went on many different machines, she kept going back to the cycling machines. She was sat down, which allowed her to pace herself and get her breath when she needed to, which meant she was able to cycle for long periods, and make some progress. It got us thinking, whats the difference between cycling in a gym, and on an actual bike? Theoretically, if she paced herself the same way, we’d get the same result, but with one crucial detail; she’d be outside.

We tried with a trike first, but that proved very quickly to be the worst idea we could have had. It was heavy and sluggish, and only provided pedal power to one of the two back wheels which made it difficult to maneuver. All of that combined with the fact it sat her in an uncomfortable position, made it much harder to move than it was worth, caused her significant pain, and we were back to the drawing board.

Trying on a normal upright bike was nerve wrecking for all of us at first, but once she got going on it, she was able to keep her balance. She struggled, though, a lot, and had to stop to catch her breath every 50 yards or so. Regardless of how much she struggled and how much pain she was in though, she was outside, which is by far her favourite place to be, and that alone was enough to put a giant smile on her pain-filled face.

We’ve been out twice as a family on our bicycles now, but only twice so far. As much as it’s enjoyed by all three of us, it’s a lot of pain for her, and demands a lot of recovery time afterwards (weeks and weeks). With cycling being something she’d have to work up to, she (and I), found something we love even more, and it’s something we have spent the majority of our summer doing. Paddling!

It’s the perfect sport for us both. For Mum, she’s sat down so she’s able to pace herself, isn’t at risk of falling, and doesn’t run out of breath very often (sitting down allows her to keep it longer). Since most of the sport requires using our upper bodies, as a wheelchair user, she manages it really well. For me, it exercises my core, which as a Crohn’s disease sufferer, is something I definitely struggle with. All in all, its something we can both do, with varying success.

Plus we really like water (if that’s not obvious by now), so we set off to conquer some wet places.

The first place we have conquered this season was Llyn Geirionydd. It’s a really pretty lake in the Welsh mountains, although it’s not very big, being approximately 3.1km in circumference. We went on this trip with a family friend, and went out of tourist season, so that it would be nice and quiet. We basically had the lake entirely to ourselves.

We canoed around it twice (not having our kayaks by this time), trying to get the most that we could out of the day. We even found a shallow area, where we were able to park our boats, and sit on a rock to have a breather and a bit of lunch. We watched as small fish kept jumping out of the water to catch flies on the surface, which was really noticeable given how still and calm the lake was.

The next place we went was the sea – launching from the beautiful Traeth Rhoscolyn / Rhoscolyn Beach. With it being our first proper time paddling in the sea, we didn’t want to go alone, so invited our family friend along with us again. We spent nearly three hours out on the waves, enjoying the peace, and the serenity (which funnily, is what we named our canoe).

We paddled around the Rhoscolyn Beacon, which is sat upon a collection of islands off the west coast of Anglesey (Ynysoedd Gwylanod, which means Seagulls’ Islands). It has historically been used to warn ships of the rocky coastline, both above and below the waves. While I’m sure it still has this same use in today’s world, it is also now home to many, many seals. We canoed around at least 20 of seals, keeping our distance, however some of them were curious and chose to follow us some of the way around the islands.

There were also plenty of jellyfish, especially as we explored some of the coves that were tucked away in the cliffs around Rhoscolyn. If we had not been in the canoe, we would not have seen any of them.

The next time we went out on the water, Mum and I got to try out our new kayaks for the very first time. We have always wanted to paddle around Holyhead Harbour, and so, again with our family friend ready to plod along with us yet again, we did just that. It was a relatively calm day, if not a little on the windier side of things, but nothing we couldn’t manage. The bay itself was decently sheltered because of the breakwater, but once we got past the halfway point (roughly) where the breakwater curves out to meet the sea, it definitely got a bit choppy.

It was amazing being out on the water while a cruise ship was in port at Holyhead.

Overall, I think that paddle was probably one of our least favourites, partly because of the faff it was to get the kayaks into the water. We were able to use the slipway that the canoe club owns, which made it easier than it otherwise would have been, but we had to park a couple hundred yards away on the grassy knoll just beyond. After that, one kayak to the water one by one, and then mum, in her wheelchair. The slipway was relatively steep and rather slippy too, which made getting back up it when we were done, rather tricky too. It took quite a bit of time.

The water itself was wonderful, and the harbour is beautiful, but likely not one we’ll paddle again, unless we’re using the harbour as a starting point to reach somewhere else. We would likely use it as a place to launch to go round to Penrhos, the Skerries, or even round to either the North Stack, or South Stack.

The next time we went kayaking after that was with a couple of members from a local Canoe Club we joined! We realised that some of the longer paddles we wanted to go on had the potential to be dangerous, and we had very little experience. We knew logically that safety in numbers would help us greatly. We’re still initiates, and have a lot of learning to do, but we went on Llyn Padarn a couple of times for them to assess us, and were taught a few new (to us) paddle strokes and ways to manouver our kayaks, which was so cool!

After that, the next time we went out for a dip was Llyn Tegid, or Bala Lake in English. It had been a while at this point since we’d done any kayaking so it was definitely difficult at times. We did, however manage to kayak the whole circumference of the lake, which ended up being 13.12km, or 8.15 miles! Not bad for newbies, but the truth is took took all day.

Pain and illnesses aside, it was spectacular, and by far one of my favourite places we’ve been to so far. Out of tourist season, it is a serene, quiet, beautiful place, though you do have to get used to all of the aircraft flying overhead because of the Mach Loop. On our paddle, we had a couple of Texans, 2 F-35s, 2 F-18s, and a huge A400M, that for a couple of minutes, was moving so slowly that it barely looked like it was moving at all. It was rather cool to see.

The weather was rather lovely heading out, but once we got to the other end and started turning back, we were paddling into the wind. It wasn’t that bad, but like I said, it had been a while since our last paddle together, so a bit of struggling occurred. I struggle a lot with a weaker core because of my Crohn’s, so even though I’m exercising to try and improve it, it’s not always perfect.

As for mum, we exercise the same amount but she’s much more disabled than I am. Her efforts with exercising, (even though we hope it’s improving her body very, very slowly), are truthfully to stop her from degrading any further. She pretty much exercises to stay in the same place, physically. It does however increase her mental health, dramatically.

We were both in vast amounts of pain afterwards, and by the time we’d finished circumnavigating the lake, it was dark. Llyn Tegid is a very popular location during tourist season, but I really do recommend it as a location out of season. Its such a peaceful place, and I’m pretty sure at one point, Mum and I had the entire lake to ourselves.

In between all of these paddles of our own, the summer was filled with going to SEAS All Afloat, a charity filled with volunteers that are dedicated to getting disabled people onto the water in pretty much any form; sailing, powerboats, paddle-boards, canoes, and of course, kayaks. You can guess what we spent nearly all our time doing!

This charity is actually how we’ve managed to kayak most of the Menai Strait, and anytime we had a free evening, we were with them paddling for hours until the sun was well past the horizon, and we were the only people left out on the water.

Looking forward, Mum and I have pool kayak sessions with our canoe club, that will teach us some incredible skills. Primarily how to capsize our boats, wet exit safely, recover back into the kayaks, and maybe even some additional strokes and stuff. All from the warmth and safety of the pool. After we’re able to do wet exits, we’ll be able to kayak more with the canoe club, which is very exciting to think about. I will write a more detailed post when we have completed these training sessions.

It has been harder to prioritise Firefly this summer, as illnesses have gotten worse between our excusions, and I know that that’s something both Mum and I regret. The weather this summer has been perfect for everything we needed to repair on her, but as awful as it is going to sound, I think we needed the break from her. She will always be a project we adore, but it got to the point where we were there trying our best to fix her almost everyday, and seeing little to no results. I’m hoping that together, we can get back to her and continue doing what needs to be done on her over the winter and beyond (but hopefully not too far beyond, we would like to sail her one day).

This summer has been packed full with so many adventures, and we don’t intend to stop once autumn and winter come into effect. In fact, Mum and I dream of kayaking in snowfall, so the adventures shall definitely continue. I think it’s safe to say though, that we’ve definitely fallen in love with kayaking.

As for summer 2025, it is officially at an end, and looking back, what a wonderful summer it was.

Keep paddling!

Cerys

(Main photo taken by Karl Midlane, on Llynau Mymbyr at Plas y Brenin)