Night Kayaking experiences in Ireland

Bring on the Night: kayaking experiences in Ireland after dark

Not long now ’til our next Moonlight Paddle! On  June 9th we dip our toes again into the night air and see what we can find. As the summer begins, the evenings stretch and the wonders of twilight erupt. We love night kayaking- and the experience is new every time we do it.

On our last tour we couldn’t believe our luck. The sunset turned glorious as we cruised down the River Roe in the Causeway Coast on the outgoing tide. Inishowen, the island of Eoghain in Donegal was in the distance, shimmering.

There is a time of the evening when the birds and wild animals begin to settle, the water goes calm and glassy and if you are lucky, even the weather plays ball. Night Kayaking a small river is ideal- if you can go with the direction of flow, it is even easier!

On the night in question we reached the sea as the sky turned orange (see the header image), and Kay, one of our friends, tried my greenland paddle and I managed to get a nice shot of her silhouetted on the water.

As we turned to go back up river, the night sky settled and the first stars began to appear, first Sirius to the south then the outline of the Plough or Great Bear overheard.

We were meteor hunting, as the Lyrics shower were scheduled to make an appearance. As we headed for home a few pin-prick tiny stars appeared to flick in the eastern sky.

I was 90% sure I had seen a few meteors. Everyone slowed and stopped on a sandbank in the river to gaze at the heavens. Suddenly a massive meteor tore across the dark sky above us. ‘Waoooooh” went everyone in one big out-breath.

As we gently sneaked home against the flow, hugging the bank, everyone’s eyes were raised upwards. The feelings were of satisfaction and contented wellness as we got the boats loaded and changed.

A few people wrote lovely reviews afterwards saying it was their best night of 2017 so far. I could well believe it. We had a ball!

Next Moonlight Kayak can be booked here: https://farandwild.org/tours/moonlight-kayaking-june