Boating with dogs on Lake Windermere, Part 1

My parents took us canoeing on holidays a few times when we were kids. The most adventurous was a 25km round trek on a river in Canada, which was amazing but tough towards the end.

In recent months, I've had a strong desire to go wild swimming with the cockers, who both love the water, but haven't been able to this year as I am now six months pregnant. My parents mentioned they were planning on going kayaking and this set me off wanting to go canoeing with the dogs, to satisfy my craving of being in the water with them.

So we started looking into it. Not wanting to spend a fortune on a vessel, in case us or the dogs hated it, we decided on an inflatable dinghy. I would love a canadian canoe or a wooden rowing boat, but even used and refurbished ones seem to be going for a few hundred pounds, and then we'd need roof racks or a trailer. Nick found an Amazon warehouse deal for an Intex Excursion 3 inflatable boat with oars and a pump, for £65.

The boat came in a bag that folds up enough to take in a back pack which is handy and the pump inflated the boat in minutes. The oars were decent enough quality, and my only criticism of the whole set was that the oars were too short. The boat itself is quite wide, which meant it was very sturdy on the water and would take something monumental to tip it over, and there was room for the cockers and a picnic, but it meant that your arms were spread wide when rowing, which made rowing rather uncomfortable and difficult. If we go again, I'll be replacing the oars for longer ones. However, the boat would be perfect for anyone going fishing who wouldn't need to do much rowing as there are holders for your fishing rod.

We bought some life vests at a good price off Amazon, and we bought Sodial Pet Lifesaver vests off Amazon for the dogs. These fit the dogs well, apart from slightly covering Duke's penis making it difficult for him to go for a wee. The quality of the pet vests were a little poor. Duke went rummaging through some bushes while we deflated the boat at Ferry Nab and ripped his vest open, and Alice's D-ring ripped off at a yank. The design of them were great and I did use the handle to pull Duke out of the water successfully.

We chose to go to the Lake District, as Lake Windermere seemed like the obvious choice to test out our new boat. Finding information on sailing was quite confusing at first as we were unsure whether or not we would need a license. However, we believe, after our research, that you don't need a license at all to sail or canoe on a lake. You do need a license if you sail on a river or a canal, as these are managed and maintained by authorities. So Lake Windermere it was (or “Windymere” as Nick pronounces it!). There is a lot of tourist information available too for the novice sailor at Windermere. I like to go with my trip researched and planned, and we found this map very useful for routes and places to launch. You have to plan where you want to launch as some slipways are privately owned.