Let's Kayak

It was a lovely sunday morning when Wendy and I packed up the kayak and gear and drove off to Tattershall bridge where we had arranged to meet up with Andy.  A localish guy, we’d met on the website Song of the Paddle which is a very friendly forum related to, mainly, canoeing but they’re kind enough to let in kayakers like myself through the doors.  It seems their motto is “if they paddle, they’re welcome” and a lot of good information is handed out as well as ideas as to where to go.

Andy had been paddling from Tattershall Bridge quite a few times and he not only recommended entering the River Witham from there but also said he’d come along and guide me.  Nice guy, is Andy and he paddles an impressive red canoe.

The plan was to paddle from the bridge towards Dog Dyke.  Then turn left into the River Bain and see how it goes.

As you can see from the picture at the top, the Witham was very weedy.  It was almost like grass on top of the water and with Lincolnshire being such an agricultural part of the world, I wouldn’t be surprised if the fertilisers, etc. from the fields get into the water and helps the weeds to grow more than it would do normally and paddling through the weed, while not impossible, was certainly tougher than normal due to resistance against the hull of the kayak and also getting tangled on the blades of your paddle.  The skeg was not used as I’d have ended up dragging half the river with me.

After a mile of paddling through cress we came across Dog Dyke and the entrance to the River Bain.  We took a look around the Belle Isle Marina at the boats before paddling on and thankfully, we found that the weed hadn’t infested the Bain and was almost completely clear.

Paddling was relaxing; not too hot and not much of a current to speak of so we spent the time chatting about this and that.  It was good to see someone paddling their canoe and I like the way you can do it just by using one side of the canoe and not like the old Western films where they swap over sides to paddle.

About 3/4 of a mile down the Bain Andy mentioned that just to the right was an RAF air field.  Here’s me with my little camera waiting for a jet fighter to buzz us but all we got was a couple of ducks.  Maybe next time…

After about a mile and a half down the Bain we came up against a weir that had to be portaged and which seemed like a perfect opportunity for Andy to show me his kettle.  But first we decided to lug the boats up.  To the right of the weir was dry concrete (I presume this is only used by the river when the water is high) so we were going to sit there.  Unfortunately, with all the grace of a one legged duck, when I got out of the kayak I slipped on weed covered concrete and ended up on my backside in the water.  I could tell Andy was impressed with my skills!

When my ego recovered I found the kettle was a great idea – and unfortunately can’t remember the name of it but it soon was bubbling away and we had a couple of drinks as well as a sandwich or two.

Suitable recovered, we continued on our way down the Bain.

The banks to either side were very green and lush.  The water was shallow due to the time of the year and also lack of rainfall recently; there were a number of occasions where I had to shuffle the kayak to get past parts of the river that were especially shallow but the water was very clean and saw a large number of (small) fish but no fishermen.

When we reached Coningsby Andy mentioned a pub that he knew of – The Black Swan – and they had a bit of a landing point which is handy.  Tie up the boats and go for a drink!  Not wanting to be accused of drink kayaking, I stuck to diet coke but we spent a bit of time in their beer garden just relaxing and chatting in the sun.

Time to go off again.  We continued along the River Bain just to see how it was and we came across an overgrown stream that joined the main flow which made us both curious.  Andy went down it to take a look mainly because due to being in a canoe, if he had to return the way he came he can simply turn around inside the boat and paddle out much easier than I could being seated in a single position.  It wasn’t a good place to go, however, as there was a stretch of barbed wire over the water at about head height.  Luckily Andy saw it in time and got out of there.  Perhaps a “Private – no entry” sign would have been more friendly?  Anyway, Andy returned and we continued down the Bain for a little way further until the water got shallower and shallower whereupon we decided to turn around and make for home.

Casually paddling back the way we came we eventually came back to the weir and doing the same as before, portaged and had a drink / snack.  There were two young lads there (showing my age but to me about 14 is young) and had a bit of a chat and was good to see youngsters out and about getting some fresh air.

Getting back near to Dog Dyke and about a mile from Tattershall Bridge I called Wendy and asked her to come and pick us up which she nicely agreed to.  This would give us plenty of time to paddle back to the bridge but I didn’t plan for the wind on the River Witham, however…and in good old Lincolnshire, the wind certainly gets up and we found ourselves having to paddle not just against the current and wind but there were also quite large waves that were slapping against us.  For too long I felt as if I wasn’t making any headway.  Eventually we both got back to the bridge and tired but happy we packed up again.

All in all, a very enjoyable trip and I hope to go back out with Andy again.

M.

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Well, I had already taken my BCU 1 star course earlier in the year at and I was regularly paddling so I thought I’d take the plunge and go for the BCU 2 star course as well.  It was run by the nice people at the Ferry Meadows Lakeside Leisure water sports centre (the same people who run the saturday kayak club) and was led by Matt.  There were only 3 of us on the course (Pam and Gemma) which has got to be better than trying to learn in a large group of people and more sociable than on your own.

What does the 2 star course entail?  Well, it seems to me to try and get people to be confident enough to paddle their kayak and not to have too much / any supervision.  It’s not enormously technical but you have to do the basics at a fairly high level.

Saturday was a long day – there was a lot of rescuing which, really, meant a lot of rolling the kayak and getting yourself either upright again or swimming and righting your kayak and scrambling back in.  It was pretty physical – lugging yourself dripping wet into the kayak and also helping others who are in the water.  It was fun and certainly handy to know in case you come a cropper.  Also, part of the first day was working in canoes.  I didn’t really like that as much and while it’s handy to be able to paddle a canoe, I wanted to get back into the kayak and concentrate on that but still, I learnt the basics of J-strokes, etc. which could be handy.  One thing I do like about canoes is the ability to put half a ton of kit in and go for a trip.  Perhaps in the future Wendy will have a ride in a canoe for a picnic somewhere?  Who knows.

Day 2 was a good day.

I did, however, wake up completely bunged up.  First I thought I had a cold but I didn’t have the symptoms of a cold – feeling grotty, etc. so I assume I picked up a sinus infection during the rolls the day before.  Either that or the dreaded man flu…I felt fine apart from not being able to breath through my nose so it didn’t put me off at all.

Most of the day was spent paddling from Ferry Meadows towards Orton Mere – on the River Nene which has a lock and a weir (that is the pic on the top left).  One of the challenges was to paddle down the weir which I loved and it was quite a long drop.  I can’t imagine I’d have done it on my own but with instructor Matt assuring us that there weren’t any sharp, rusty spikes at the bottom we had a go.

Log flumes are good but that was even better.  Paddle forward and when you’re “falling” down the mini-waterfall lean back a bit and when you hit the bottom, start to paddle.  Woowoo!  You have to fight the water a little at the bottom but nothing too serious and my kayak did extremely well, manoeuvring without too much hassle.

When we were all safely at the bottom of the weir we spent a fair amount of time working in the roughish water – learning how to cross it, etc. without getting too washed out of the line you want to take.  While this was happening we had quite an audience – no doubt waiting to see us sink…

At Orton Mere there’s a club called Proteus Canoe Club and they specialise in slalom.  They were kind enough to open up and let us look around their club house and were very friendly.  Slalom looks extremely fun but I think I may need a bit of practice, first.  I need to get used to going forwards before I try to go sideways while standing on my kayaks nose!

The day was coming to an end and we had to make our way back and we had to get back to the Ferry Meadows.  One thing we had to do is portage around the weir and that involved lugging your kayak out of the water and crossing a bridge.  You’d be surprised at how many people don’t notice a 6 ft 2 bloke with an 11 foot kayak on their shoulder and that doesn’t include the other 3 people behind me with their own kayaks.  Bless.  This was when we realised that there’s not an easy way back into the River Nene from here.  There was, however, a landing point for larger boats (long boats / pleasure cruisers etc.) who had to wait in line to go through the lock.  And the landing point wasn’t particularly near the water…it was about 5 or 6 feet above it (not exaggerating).  Good time to learn about seal launches, I suppose.

Matt was first to go (probably to prove to us that it was possible and wasn’t a prank) and I followed.  The Weir was fun but I think this was better – free falling into water on a sunday afternoon…you can’t beat it.  It was almost as much fun watching the ladies do it afterwards!

The trip back was nice and relaxed.  It was a lovely sunny afternoon and perfect to be out on the water.  This is what I started doing kayaking for and now I just have to do my assessment to see if I passed.

Martin

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It’s a lovely friday; the sun was out, just a couple of clouds about and no wind to speak of so I took the opportunity to get the kayak out and have a scout of the River Glen from the slipway at Surfleet.  I know google maps doesn’t show a slipway there but it is!

Using the key I had received from the Environment Agency (thank you Andy!) we could take the car right near the slipway rather than having to carry it and when ready decided to first of all turn right towards Surfleet Seas End.  Very nice paddling it was, going past some lovely houses and gardens then spotting the Riverside Hotel – it had mooring which would be good for larger boats but no good for me and my kayak, I’m afraid, so I had to continue past and under the A16 road.  What a waste, I thought, when there were a dozen or so lights under the bridge and all of them lit when it wasn’t necessary; I wonder what the cost is over the year but I digress.

The Spalding golf club was to the right of the river except I couldn’t see much due to the bank being too high (I would provide a link to the golf club but as I was wearing shorts during my paddle which is against their dress code I decided not to) but to the left were houses and bungalows all with lovely gardens which they obviously spend a lot of time with.  The vast majority of properties had little moorings and boats yet on the whole trip I didn’t see anyone else on the water…just swans, ducks and me.

Looking at my watch I saw that time was getting away from me a little so I turned around.  I was due to paddle to Pinchbeck West for at the latest 6pm as our friend Jayne was coming around.  Not that I was pressed for time but I was lacking the experience to know how long it would take and after all…there could be waterfalls, locks and raging torrents to navigate!

Paddling back to the slipway was just as nice – seeing a couple of fishermen I went as slow as I could and tried not to disturb the water in case they were just about to nab the largest fish of their life but going upstream there was certainly less to look at but then…I wasn’t on a golf course any more.  Surfleet village was pretty – there was a nice house with what looked like a large swimming pool and lovely willow trees around.

Going through the little village of Surfleet itself I saw that The Mermaid Inn had a possibility for getting in and out of the kayak…note taken for future reference (in case I need the toilet, of course).  Going under an impressive iron bridge I was back into the countryside where the river is wide, bank is high and not too much to see except for the odd bird, fish and car driving down the road parallel to the river.

At this point I was watching my watch a little more; time was getting on so I sped up and took less pictures.  Wendy called me on my handy water-phone asking where I was.  I said Flaxmill Bridge and I then found out that I should, really, be quite a bit further down the river at the Money Bridge.  Oops!  W decided to come and look for me and I actually took a picture of her sitting on a bridge, watching.  Picking up a bit more speed I trotted off and lo and behold – saw the lovely Wendy.  Well…sort of saw her but she was on the bank waving at me but I had my head down paddling away and almost missed her.  We had a brief chat and I aimed the kayak in the direction of West Pinchbeck.

When I finally arrived I saw that it was a mooring that was a bit higher than I’m used to but I had to get out (Wendy was already there waiting with the car and a much needed bottle of water) so I wobbled and got out without too much in the way of problems.

All in all a lovely journey.  7 1/4 miles and about 2 hours 45 in the end.

Martin

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Saturday was Kayak Club at Ferry Meadows / Peterborough.  The session lasts from 10am to approx midday and there’s a nice group of people ranging from about 8 to 16 or so and it’s led by qualified instructors.  It’s about a 50 / 50 mix of youngsters and adults and the kids certainly keep us oldies on our toes the way they nip around.

This saturday we didn’t do the usual exercises / games but went on a bit of a trip.  Ferry Meadows lake is a short paddle away from the River Nene and you just have to go down the small stream (see pic to the left) and after a bit of a slide down the bank you’re in the river itself sharing the water with other water craft and a mixture of birds.

The weather on saturday started badly – it was raining quite a bit and I was in two minds about going but I’m glad I did and the sun came out and ended up quite warm.  So much so I found myself wishing I’d put my sun cream on – I’ve certainly found that sun and paddling turns me red even when it’s cloudy but it didn’t dampen my spirits.

One of the exercises Richard put us through was the good old escape where you force your kayak to roll over and you have to get out before drowning.  Always handy but kills your hair do!  And yes, I meant to do this and wasn’t my lack of kayaking skills being shown…

Next week I’ll be in Ferry Meadows but doing my 2 star BCU course.  Two days of being on the water should be fun.

Martin

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