Paddling & Pizzas on Derwentwater. May 21st, 2014.

Working in the outdoors is a very small industry and many of us work with each other whilst running our own businesses. Kendal Mountaineering Services calls on a trusted team of highly motivated, enthusiastic and experienced outdoor practitioners when looking for additional staff to work on our courses.

On occasion, we find ourselves working for another provider who has found themselves in the same position. On this occasion Iain was asked to work on Derwent Water along with other practitioners to look after a group of school children from Birmingham who were on a residential experience in the in the Borrowdale area. On this day, the plan was that they would paddled the length of Derwent Water in Canadian Canoes and stop for lunch making their very own pizzas on St Herbert's Island in the middle of the lake!

Helping the group develop their Canadian Canoeing Skills on Derwent Water was not a problem for Iain (he does it all the time!) however, the idea of making pizzas outdoors was definitely new to him - how were we going to bake them for a start??

Experienced outdoor practitioner Phil Brewer soon answered this question though. After a couple of hours open canoeing on Derwent Water and the Upper River Derwent, we all converged on St Herbert's Island at around the same time (there were three different groups with three of staff) and Iain was handed a large welded tray, some fire lighters and a large bag of charcoal and told to get a barbeque going.

In the meantime two Canadian Canoes had been upturned and wrapped in clingfilm to act as "preparation areas" before Phil gave the whole group a briefing on how to prepare their own pizzas (photo two).

All manner of raw pizza ingredients were made available to the group who had to set to in pairs to create a pizza shared one between two.

In the meantime, Iain had got a large pile of charcoal glowing nicely and giving out a lot of heat. Phil produced some deep baking tins into which we placed shallower (and slightly smaller tins upside down) and the raw pizzas were placed on to these. These trays were then placed on the barbeque and a lid fitted on to the top on to which some of the glowing charcoal was piled "to cook from above as well as below" as phil put it.

As can be seen from the expressions on the faces of these two delighted children the ovens worked remarkably well; and Iain was duly impressed - what a great way to spend a day Canadian Canoeing on Derwent Water and making fresh pizza for lunch on an island!

And what a great day it was too! Beautiful blue skies and sunshine were what we had to work in today although the strong southerly breeze blowing on to the lake from Borrowdale did make manoeuvring the canoes rather harder work than it might have been!

Still, a great time was had by all on this Canadian Canoeing Journey in The Lake District and lunch was great fun - there was time to explore the island too  and then finish off the day with some canoe games - or just generally get a soaking which was fine as it was quite warm out of the wind! The final photo of two rather brave lads standing up in their Canadian Canoe was taken just as we came in to land by Keswick Boat Landings at the end of the session. Great stuff!

If you are interested in spending some time on a Lake District Lake learning the skills of Canadian Canoeing then there are plenty of lakes to choose from and we will come to any to run your session. Prices start off at £45 per person for a half day (four hour) session and we provide you with all of the equipment to keep you warm, comfortable and safe as part of your fee - not to mention canoes & paddles of course! To book your Canadian Canoeing session in The Lake District contact us here. We look forward to providing you with a great experience.