Kayak Trip under the Full Moon

The annual kayak trip under the full moon was a little different this year. The hanging around at the start was the same. The difference was the people. Last year it was only the “Patronato” group, in other words the regulars. This year there were only five of us. The majority of the group were tourists with the “Adventura” group. There was no way they would make it to Carisal Beach. So this year we headed west.


Beginners receiving instruction.


Impatient to get going.

After what seemed to be an eternity waiting on the beach, we finally got in the water. Another 15 minutes waiting for everyone else to get in the Kayaks before we headed off towards the Balcon. We set off at a decent pace to warm up a little. Before we reached the end of Burriana we were told to slow down by the lead monitor. We looked back to see that already a number of the Adventura group were lagging behind.


Finally in the sea.

The pattern continued all the way to the Balcon. At this rate we would never make it to Playazo beach. We reached the Calahonda playa, just before the Balcon and waited for the stragglers. The atmosphere was fantastic. The moon lit up the sea. Soft music was drifting across from Papagayo. Hundreds of tourists lined the Balcon, camera flashes lighting up the sky. The tranquillity of bobbing up and down made us relax and forget about the beginners who were still making their way to the spot.


The Balcon at night.

A little more paddling towards Playazo. The lights from the Balcon behind us. Now we could see the bright florescent tips of the anglers’ rods who were perched on the craggy shoreline off Playa Torrecilla. Experience taught us to move further out to sea. A few shouts of “Cuidado” to warn the less savvy who were in danger of being garrotted by the fishing lines. We formed a group at the end of the beach. Manolo wanted to split into two groups. The advanced party to head off to Playazo for a bit of exercise, the others to head back to Calahonda for the Picnic. The other monitor wasn’t interested. It was agreed to rest for 5 minutes before heading to Calahonda. Sod that! We set off to Playazo on our own.

We had a good 10-minute run down past the boat yard and towards Nerja de Marina. We then realised that we were carrying some of the picnic goodies for the others in the group. We turned back and headed for Calahonda. I was sure we wouldn’t be the last to get there. As it turned out, we were one of the first.

Our landing on Calahonda went smoothly enough. Almost like a military exercise as wave after wave brought in more Kayaks. When the invasion was complete we had taken over the whole beach. Not exactly the Normandy landings, no barrage of artillery and machine gun fire but we were greeted by a bemused German couple. I think we had interrupted their romantic moment on the beach.

We unpacked the picnic and tucked in. It was Jazz night at the Papagayo and we headed over to see what was going on. The place was packed. The band was pretty good and it seems to be a decent night out. Shame we were in our beach gear and had no money with us. It would have been nice to stay for a few drinks.


View from Papagayo.

It was soon time to head back to Burriana. We waited on the beach until everyone else had launched. The attempted coup by the “Patronato” five had failed to get the keys off Manolo so there was no point setting off first. In the end he compromised and said he would follow us back and open up. We soon caught and overtook the rest and landed at Burriana whilst the tail end of the Adventura group were still at the Carabeo. We were changed and on our way before most of the group had landed. Overall it was a good night but we probably won’t do it again. Too much hanging around.