Expedition Kayaks Save The Day.

I haven’t posted much recently, as it has been fairly mundane since returning from the Clayoquot Sound trip and the weather being, well ……….. Wintery.

What a day it was on Wednesday though.

After months of waiting and no news of the new Cetus, I gave up on it, and reverted to plan B.

A phone call to Expedition Kayaks in NSW was like a breath of fresh air. Literally, within the hour, a Valley Etain 17.5 had been selected, the shipping arranged and the payment made by Electronic Funds Transfer.

Thanks go to Mark, for his advice and for making the whole process painless and enjoyable.

There is nothing wrong with my current kayak, the Scorpio LV, has provided superb service, but I really prefer the feel of a fiberglass hull.

The Etain has great looks, with its traditional British lines. I haven’t paddled one, but all the reviews are of the same voice, it is vice free and a good all round craft. A friend has paddled one and rated it highly.

So more, much more, with pictures, in a week or two.

Wild Pacific Trail, Ucluelet, BC

Whilst in Ucluelet we had a few days spare, either side of our Clayoquot Sound trip, and we were able to take advantage of the beautiful Wild Pacific Trail.

The trail runs along the Pacific Coast from the lighthouse at Amphitrite Point , north to the start of Long Beach. Passing only a kilometre from our accommodation, we walked both north and south on different days.

With spectacular views of the Pacific Ocean, there are look outs that are worth stopping at.  Towards the north of the town there are a number of loops in the trail, providing vantage points, specifically designed for artists to aid their work. We saw seals playing in the ocean from one of these vantage points.

The walking is easy as the trail is well maintained. It follows along the cliffs, but within the rain forest, as there are few accessible beaches on this part of the coast, but the views are magnificent

We walked another part of the trail on Flores Island, in Clayoquot Sound, from Cow Bay to White Sand Cove.  This area is different as most of the walking is on beaches, only entering the rainforest at headlands. Designed to aid shipwrecked sailors find settlements, the walk runs along the west coast of Vancouver Island.

My Thoughts On The Nimbus Telkwa Kayak.

It is always good to try other kayaks, so this post is my view of the kayak I used in Clayoquot Sound. This is in no way intended as an in depth review, more my personal observation, I'll leave a proper critic to more qualified kayakers.

The kayaks provided by Majestic Ocean Kayaking were excellent, in very good condition and designed for the task. One appeared to be brand new.

Both Marty and I used Nimbus Telkwa's and Gilly used the slightly smaller Nimbus Solander.

The Telkwa was designed to be a fully fledged ocean touring kayak, capable of doing unsupported trips of at least a couple of weeks duration, and it has a huge capacity. I have to hand it to the Canadian's when they go kayak camping they don't skimp on taking the comforts of home.  So a number of their kayaks have enough volume to hold what you want to take, rather than what you can cut down and survive with.  We met Brad and Chuck at Ahous Beach and they had a good set up, using a Current Design Solstice and an extended, home made CLC 17 foot kayak, they were out for a long weekend and appeared to be camping in style. 

Dimensions
Length        Beam        Depth       Weight (lbs.)         Cockpit size
18' 3"           24.375"     14"             53 Glass            32.625" x 17.625"

Storage Volume
Total volume (litres) Bow Hatch     Cockpit       Stern Hatch
         410                  80                195                   135



The Telkwa handled well, was very stable and quite fast. Fully loaded it was not too difficult to get up to cruising speed, once there, it was easy to maintain the pace. In rougher waters it was vice free and we enjoyed some nice surfing. Edging was difficult and even leaning the body over the side did little to tilt the hull. That said stability was rock solid and even in some unpleasant, choppy seas the Telkwa never caused concern.

The rudder worked well, even with the sliding foot rests that hire craft have.  Surprisingly, there is quite a lot of rocker in the hull, but the kayak tracked and manoeuvred well, both fully and partially loaded, but only with the rudder deployed. The Telkwa did not track terribly well without the rudder and this is probably due to the amount of rocker in the hull.

Summary: Designed as a load carrier for extended trips and for this purpose it's superb.   With its huge volume you can take the kitchen sink. After the low volume Scorpio, the Telkwa opened my eyes to comfortable kayak/camping. It doesn't have any vices and handled very well.  With water temperatures of 6 degrees, swimming was not an option and the Telkwa never caused me any concerns. I certainly will paddle one again, if I am lucky enough to return to Canada.