| Kayaking along a river for me, ticks all the right boxes. | | | | separate paths, one blocked by an over hanging tree |
| It is a great sport that everyone can do. You are in the | | | | and the other by a weir. |
| great outdoors keeping healthy and fit. You can power | | | | One of my fellow paddlers decided to try and tackle |
| paddle and have a great workout or take your time | | | | the weir which was a daunting prospect especially as |
| with leisurely paddles stopping as and when for a cup | | | | he had never shot a weir on an inflatable kayak |
| of tea or a beer. For me there is nothing better. | | | | before. |
| The river Stour is a sedate river in Essex England and | | | | Needless to say he got stuck half way down due to |
| stretches for some forty six miles. This was the river | | | | the rubber skegs on the bottom of the inflatable kayak |
| for one of my first kayaking adventures which threw | | | | and the weir only having a few inches of water |
| up some unexpected events. | | | | running over it. Luckily he was still high enough on the |
| On this particular paddle I was accompanied by four | | | | weir to get out and drag the kayak back up to the top |
| friends and we each had an inflatable kayak for the | | | | much to the increasing amusement and ever growing |
| journey. Four of us had Sevylor Rangers and one had | | | | crowed at the pub. |
| a Sterns Cordova. | | | | We then decided to take the route blocked by the |
| Due to a very hot summer the river was low and the | | | | tree which we did manage to negotiate but not before |
| rise had practically dried out so we started from a | | | | getting covered in leaves and pieces of bark. |
| place called Henny Street which is about three miles | | | | Thankfully all of the inflatable kayaks made it through |
| further down river. | | | | this first obstacle without sustaining any punctures. |
| As this was one of my very first river runs and the | | | | No sooner had we made it past the tree we came to |
| first time I had ever paddled an inflatable kayak my | | | | a dead end and found ourselves in a small pond with |
| friends and I had little experience and had not planned | | | | nowhere else to go. |
| our journey as well as we might have. | | | | Confused about what to do next a local man |
| As any experienced kayaker will tell you what is | | | | appeared on the riverbank that seemed to be |
| detailed in a map can look very different from what | | | | unhappy with regard to our presence in his garden |
| the river is actually like. It certainly does not provide | | | | pond. To our total embarrassment it now became |
| information on river heights, conditions and the effects | | | | clear to us that we were not in fact in the River Stour |
| of the weather. | | | | but in some ones back garden hence the reason the |
| After spending a few minutes pumping up my | | | | people at the pub found us so amusing. |
| inflatable kayak and loading up all of the kayak | | | | Fortunately the pond owner quickly realised that we |
| accessories, my friends and I were ready to go. It was | | | | were hapless and inexperienced kayakers and pointed |
| early morning around 8am on a beautiful sunny | | | | over to where the river was, a couple of hundred |
| Sunday. We began our journey near the Swan public | | | | yards away. |
| house, much to the amusement of its patrons. | | | | Red faced and full of apologies we dragged our |
| Within seconds of being afloat we were faced with | | | | inflatable kayaks into the river proper and began our |
| our first dilemma. The river immediately forked into two | | | | journey. |