Caroni Kayak

I have probably kayaked once in my life before, and when I did, it was probably no more than an hour of casual paddling, so of course, I thought that I was an expert of sorts, and jumped on the opportunity to go kayaking at the Caroni Bird Sanctuary. This is another one of those places that has always been on my to do list, as it is one of the main habitats of our national bird, the Scarlet Ibis. There are many individuals that do boat tours of the swamp, and they take you out to witness the thousands of Ibis flying in to rest, the one we got all our kayaks from was Nanan's.
Our meeting point was the visitors center, or so I thought, turned out that it was changed last minute, and there was no phone reception there, but it gave me the opportunity to walk around and take some photos. I finally found where everyone was gathered, and we all got paired up and sent off in 2 man kayaks down the channel. There are quite a few different paths you can take, so it's somewhat important to go with someone who knows the way, there were also areas of the swamp that were extremely shallow, so if you didn't know what path to take, you can easily get stuck in the silt. We paddled out for what seemed like an eternity until we got to the point where you get the best view of all the birds coming in. We all sat there in awe taking in the brilliance of the bright red flocks of Ibis flying in. Really an amazing sight, and I HAVE to return soon, because my photos today do it no justice, as I had practically no zoom, and trying to get clean shots from a kayak that won't stop moving was a bit harder than expected.
Eventually, I heard the upsetting news, all the people kayaking back, had to leave before the sun set to avoid getting lost. This is where I made my biggest mistake. I decided to actually kayak BACK. Most of the people that paddled there, all jumped in the mother boat, and their crafts were tied to the back in tow. Me, however, decided that since I was an expert, I could make it back on my own, as my partner jumped out on me. The strange thing about the return trip was that, I wasn't tired, or out of breath, I wasn't sweating, my heart wasn't even racing, but at about the half way point back, my arms felt like they were about to just fall off. This is why I decided to do this post now, because I am pretty sure that for the next few days, I won't be able to lift my arms.
It was really quite an adventure, and a physical one at that. It was a lovely day, met some new people, had a few laughs and saw a brilliant site.