PADDLERUK 34
BY
Steve Childs
We live in a world with everincreasing demands on our time, constant bombardment of information from every angle, and the expectation that response to messages / phone-calls / emails / tweets should be instantaneous, regardless of time or day sent.
So the new year’s resolution in the Tootega and Silverbirch office was to do something about it…
Start/finish
https://goo.gl/maps/keun4
Nothing huge and involved, that would defeat the point. But rather taking little opportunities to tie in paddling trips with delivery runs and meetings, and perhaps one ‘night out’ a month where we would down tools at 5pm and head off to explore one of the endless paddling options right on our own doorstep, the only caveat being we had to be back at work by 9am the next morning! Once we started thinking about trips we could do that were ‘within range’ for an evening adventure we were staggered. There are literally hundreds of interesting paddles on our doorstep here in Norfolk – almost all of which we had overlooked until now, and several of which looked like really interesting and varied trips. One that really stood out for us was a circumnavigation of Scolt Head Island on the North Norfolk Coast.
Norfolk
The ironic truth is running a kayak company is no exception – there is always a reason to work late, always a reason to spend another evening working on a new design rather than paddling what you already have, and courtesy of a wonderful network of dealers around the world – always someone you need to call, regardless of the time of day or night.
l
microadventure
It is easy to get trapped, trapped in an endless cycle of work without time to ‘decompress’ trapped in a rut of being so attached to your smart phone, tablet, or computer that you never truly spend quality time with friends and loved ones, and trapped into the mindset that you don’t have time to do anything about it.
Campsite l
In itself a stunning paddle through a mixture of remote salt marshes, little creeks, and open sea, but one that could be made better by tying it in with some seasonal foraging – surely the ideal modern world ‘antidote’? PADDLERUK 35