I have moved!

I have now moved my blog to wordpress. It can be now found at www.patrickclissold.wordpress.com

Edelweiss, Thunderstorms and MSR's

As myself and my girlfriend, Eleri, are both off on trips over the whole summer, we managed to find 10 days we could actually go on holiday together. We decided, as we both needed some fitness training, to go trekking in the Stubai alps in Austria. We packed out bags and left and were soon in the heart of Tirol.
Eleri had never been trekking in the alps before and the weather treated her to the whole alpine experience in one week. On the first day we were cooked by the sun, then on reaching a ridge the heavens opened and we had to endure one of the worst thunder and lightening storms I have ever witnessed. As soon as it started we threw up the tent while the largest hail stones I have ever seen were hitting us on the head. He hid inside the tent for 13 hours before the constant lightening came to an end. What a start to the trip!
The next day we got out of our tents to find that my MSR stove was not working. So feeling a bit dismayed we headed down the next valley, and on failing to fix the stove, had to buy lots of cheese and cooked meat to keep us going for the next week.
After that things got better and we had a great week walking in some awsome mountains. We are both feeling a lot fitter now and are getting ready for our respective summers away.

I have moved!

My blog has now moved to www.patrickclissold.wordpress.com

Finally Sorted

After a lot of time, effort and importantly money, I have finally got all the visas for this summer's expedition. Due to the fact that my University is next to all the embassies in London I have been the team visa bitch. In total I have been to the Kazakhstan embassy 5 times, the Mongolian one 6 times and luckily the Russian one only once.




The only thing to do now is to actually go!

Burn Surfing

Worms Head

It turns out that I actually hurt my hand more than I thought in Italy and I have only just been able to grip paddle properly again. Eager to try out my new found ability I was desperate to get out boating over the weekend no matter what.

The weather forecast some summer storms down in South Wales, but they didn't come to much to it was decided to go surfing on the Gower.



Two of us decided to take our Burns to see what they were like to surf. In conclusion, not as bad as you may think. It was good training to try and control a large creek boat in the surf, and if nothing else it was good to be out of London for a while.

The gorgeous Rhosili Bay

Calais Rally

Every year the Little Ships Club sails hunderds of yachts over to Calais in remeberance of all the Little Ships that sailed across the channel to bring back our troops from Dunkerque in 1940. My ship, HMS Puncher, is a member of the Little Ships Club and as so we went to represent the Royal Navy for the Calais Rally.

Passing HMS Mersey off the coast of Brighton

We sailed from Portsmouth to Dover before refuelling to make the hop across to Calais. The weekend was superb with many G&T's being consumed on many different peoples yachts. A night out in Calais (God's blind spot) resulted in much merryment and dancing on tables....

A few of the hundreds of yachts arriving in Calais Marina

The sail back to Portsmouth was not the most pleasant as we trying to outrun a storm. 10 hours later and much technicolour yawning brought us safely back to pompey after a fanatastic weekend. As I am away all summer on expedition I will miss the usual summer deployments and so it was a good to get some time on board the might P291.

Fun and Frolics in Italy

(all photos thanks to Nick Horwoood)

I have just got back from a great long weekend in Val Sesia and the Aosta Valley in Italy. It was a great if not somewhat eventful few days on some of the best steep creeking Europe has to offer. Some of the highlights for me were the Sorba slides and a quite eventful day on the Soana where I took my first swim for 6 years!

Myself on the Sorba slides

Off the river there was much merryment and jollity with some very good company. I look forward to going back next year.

Nick Horwood on the Gronde

Watch out, more photos to come!

fourbordersexpedition.com goes live!

The website for the upcoming British Universities Kayaking Expedition is now live. We are calling it the four borders expedition and it will be to Siberia, Mongolia and hopefully Kazakhstan. All details are on the site so check it out at: www.fourbordersexpedition.com