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What's Katie Doing?

Gin Travel Food

July 1, 2018

Kayaking with Secret Adventures

How to combine your passions for food & drink with some activity to burn those calories off? This method is called temptation bundling and I think Secret Adventures have this down to a fine art! I was lucky enough to join the Secret Adventures kayak expedition on a lovely summer’s evening, with a gang from Love Pop Ups London.

The Love Pop Ups gang posing

The Love Pop Ups London gang ready to go kayaking with Secret Adventures

*Full disclosure – I received this Secret Adventure for free, via Love Pop Ups London, in exchange for this blog review*

Kayaking with Secret Adventures

Katie posing with life jacket

Feeling the outfit lol!

The Start

We met at the Limehouse Basin to sign our life’s away and receive our paddles and life jackets. The instructions on how to use the paddles were fairly straightforward – 2 people per kayak and the one at the back is responsible for steering. Sounds easy right? Well you’ll find out later!! (I do have some experience in kayaking already – so I think that was helpful, however beginners are welcome!)

Going through the paddling motions with the instructor

Getting our instructions

Once jacketed up we left our belongings in the van – these would be driven to our end point so we could get them later. Because the life jackets only had small pockets I could only take my phone with me in the pocket and my water bottle (as you could see it was a sunny day).

Getting into the kayaks

Getting into the kayaks carefully

Then we were paired up and loaded into our kayaks – getting in and out of the kayaks was a little tricky, but no one fell in! In total I think we were 30 people – so 15 kayaks plus our guides.

Katie with paddle

Excited to get going

The Canal

From the Limehouse basin our instructions were to turn left and keep paddling for about an hour or so…Seems simple right? Except it was like a floating dodgems especially at the start.

Kayaks in the weed covered canal

There was a lot of weed in the Limehouse basin

We were warned not to go between house boats at the marina and along the canal and keep away from animals and birds. But then the lack of any practise steering etc came in and instead we were bouncing off the sides of the canal and colliding with the other kayaks! ?

View of my kayak mate sitting up front

My view from the back of the kayak

There was plenty of street art along the canal and lots of different styles of buildings and flats. There were a lot of industrial buildings – some of which had been converted into flats. Leanne and I decided to pick out the ones we would stay in, given unlimited budgets!

 

A canal side converted warehouses

This warehouse conversion looks tempting!

 

We saw plenty of interesting things – lots of water birds and their young babies, some swans (which are dangerous and should be avoided, not sure Joanne was in control of her kayak when she got this close!)

A family of swans!

A family of swans!

 

The Lock

Inside the canal lock

The group in the lock

When we saw the lock in the canal we weren’t sure what to do – waiting for our guides we were told to paddle into the lock, keeping close together with the other kayaks. When everyone was in we all held on to each other’s kayaks and they closed the lock gate behind us and up we went!

A selfie of Katie in the lock

A quick kayak selfie!

When the lock flooded with water we rose with it and could exit out the other side at the higher portion of the canal. I’ve never been in a lock in a kayak before (actually I’m not sure I’ve ever been in a boat in a lock!)

 

The End

The lock was about an hour into our journey, so we knew we didn’t have long left – however it felt like a lot longer! Reinvigorated by the short break Leanne and I got into paddling when we saw a canal side bar – the end was near!! A short while later we saw a bridge and some more canal side restaurant/ bars – Crate was the other side of the bridge, but first we needed to get out of our kayaks.

Kayaks at the end with one person standing up

Woo hoo, we finished our Secret Adventure!

Climbing out with some help, all the kayaks were removed from the canal for transport back to the start. We left our life jackets with the guides and making sure we had all our stuff (amazing how many phones, sunglasses etc were left in the jacket pockets) and headed to Crate.

The pile of life jackets at the end of the kayak

The pile of life jackets at the end of the kayak

 

View from the canal bridge

View from the canal bridge – we got out here and Crate was just the other side

Crate Brewery

Inside Crate brewery bar

Inside Crate brewery bar

Whilst the post trip beer and pizza at Crate is not part of the Secret Adventures event, team Love Pop Ups London decided to stop and grab some food and drink.

The Love Pop Ups London crew enjoying pizza at Crate Brewery

The Love Pop Ups London crew enjoying a well earnt pizza at Crate after our Secret Adventures kayaking

 

The verdict

This was a great trip – I got my exercise (boy did my shoulders and back feel it he next day!) and a treat at the end! It was a fab day to be out and about on the canal, despite the rubbish and weeds (you definitely don’t want to swim here!). Whilst wearing quick drying leggings, as you need to be prepared for getting wet, I still felt a little cold by the end (presumably as I managed to splash myself and the leggings got wet!). It was colder by the time we were finished at Crate so I’d definitely recommend having dry layers in your bag at the end to put on.

The guides were good to stop us getting stuck anywhere and explaining the lock and what we needed to do (float there and hold together!)I really enjoyed it and despite it being a group trip I could see it being the perfect secret adventure for a date night.

To find out more about Secret Adventures and to book your own Secret Adventure, check out their website: Secret Adventures

 

Secret Adventures kayak to Crate Brewery

Pin me to plan your future Secret Adventures!

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Filed Under: London, UK Tagged With: Love Pop Ups London, Secret Adventures

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Curious Craig says

    July 7, 2018 at 9:32 pm

    That sounds like my kind of adventure. Those swans are too cool. I’d fell out of boat trying to get pics of those babies.

    Reply
    • Katie Hughes says

      July 7, 2018 at 9:40 pm

      Haha I hope you wouldn’t fall out Craig!

      Reply
  2. Samara says

    July 8, 2018 at 1:11 am

    What a fun read! You can definitely sense how much you enjoyed it! I don’t think I have ever been in a lock either but it sounds like a cool experience! So glad to have been a part of your experience with this read!

    Reply
    • Katie Hughes says

      July 8, 2018 at 9:38 am

      Thanks Samara – it was something a bit different to do in London!

      Reply
  3. Knycx.journeying says

    July 8, 2018 at 10:25 am

    I have been kayaking all my life and it was a very special experience to kayak through the canals! Thanks for sharing and I will note this tip for my future visit! @knycx.journeying

    Reply
    • Katie Hughes says

      July 8, 2018 at 10:57 am

      I hope you get to kayak in London’s canals!

      Reply
  4. Katie says

    July 8, 2018 at 10:36 am

    I can’t believe you went kayaking in London canal. I didn’t even know it was possible . I love to go Kayaking; it is one of my favorite activities. Thanks for sharing this! I will deffo be looking into this when i next visit London.

    Reply
    • Katie Hughes says

      July 8, 2018 at 10:58 am

      Excellent stuff Katie – definitely a great activity in this warm summer weather!

      Reply
  5. Followingtherivera says

    July 8, 2018 at 12:03 pm

    Looks like you guys had a lot of fun! I love kayaking, but it’s really harder than it looks and a real workout too. Good thing you went to the brewery after to reward all your hard work! Love this adventure.

    Reply
    • Katie Hughes says

      July 8, 2018 at 12:16 pm

      Yes it is hard work! But balancing the work out with reward works well!

      Reply
  6. Nafisa Habib says

    July 8, 2018 at 2:24 pm

    Exactly it is essential to burn calories by practicing some adventures during the trip. Good to see you guys having lots of fun. It remembered me doing water rafting which one was too adventurous.

    Reply
    • Katie Hughes says

      July 8, 2018 at 3:16 pm

      I’m sure water rafting was much more adventurous Nafisa!!

      Reply
  7. Hannah says

    July 25, 2018 at 11:35 am

    This was a great read!

    I have booked to do this tomorrow and wondered if bare legs was a silly idea?

    Thanks for making me so excited!

    Reply
    • Katie Hughes says

      July 25, 2018 at 11:50 am

      Hey Hannah – I hope you have a great time tomorrow! I think in this heat bare legs makes a lot of sense, you might get wet but I’m sure that will just cool you down. Let me know how you enjoy it!

      Reply

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