Anglia Afloat « The Adventures of Clive Tully

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Paddling the Suffolk / Essex border

Tuesday, August 12th, 2014

Last week saw me on another paddling assignment for Anglia Afloat magazine, this time on the River Stour, which for much of its length forms the Suffolk / Essex border. I’d been wanting to go for a while, but was prevented by lack of available co-paddlers. The Stour has a number of portage points to provide paddlers with safe passage around locks and weirs, and while my inflatable kayak is very portable in its packed state, lifting it in and out of the water is about all I can manage when it’s operational. Now I have an ingenious canoe trolley called a C-Tug to enable me to walk my kayak around obstacles. With wheels, axle, support pads and straps all clipping together in under a minute, portages are now no longer a problem.

I set off from Rushbanks Farm camp site near Nayland, heading upstream towards Bures. Just over 300 years ago, the river was one of the first in the country to be “improved” in order to make it open to navigation as far upstream as Sudbury. At times I had barely enough clearance for my kayak, both in width and depth, making it hard to imagine that barges once frequented these waters.

But it was incredibly beautiful. Where the river opened out more, sometimes the plantlife in the water was so abundant it was like paddling across a meadow. The air was alive with translucent blue damselflies and larger dragonflies darting about from one plant to another. I negotiated the portage at Wormingford Mill, carrying on upstream as far as Bures Mill. At times, the water was so shallow I had to have several goes at finding the right point to continue, particularly as the water was running quicker over the gravelly bottom. Coming back was a lot easier – not exactly shooting the rapids, but the kayak does tend to cope with a really shallow draught more easily when it’s going with the current.

It was just a short 7.5 miles round trip taster, but it was enough to inspire me to make a few return visits to explore the river further.

The kit
Kayak: Advanced Elements AdvancedFrame
Personal Flotation Device: Palm Taupo
Accessories: Riber throw line (used with karabiner for mooring), dry bag, PFD

Tags: Anglia Afloat, kayak, River Stour
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Anglia Afloat

Saturday, April 19th, 2014

The last few weeks have seen me pretty busy doing things for Anglia Afloat magazine, my new regular outlet. On the paddling front, it was taking my inflatable kayak away from the Broads for a trip on the River Cam in Cambridgeshire. Not the bit you might think, fighting my way past punts along The Backs in Cambridge (although that is on my hitlist for a future trip). Instead I paddled the lower reaches, starting from the Fish & Duck marina at Pope’s Corner, where the Cam flows into the Great Ouse and Old West.

The plan was to paddle around six miles upstream to Bottisham Lock and then come back. In the normal run of things, that would be quite an easy trip, but after a winter of horrific rainfall, the sluice-controlled flow of the river had been increased, so I was paddling upstream against a pretty stiff current. And as luck would have it, the wind was coming straight at me as well. The result was a pretty tough paddle, and every time I stopped for a breather I would be going backwards instantly. I didn’t quite make it as far as Bottisham Lock, but at least when I did turn back, I had very little to do other than occasional course corrections. It worked out as five miles of strenuous paddling upstream in 2.5 hours, and back again with virtually no paddling in just two!

More recently, I had an assignment to cover a visit by HRH The Princess Royal to the Herbert Woods boatyard in Potter Heigham. Herbert Woods was one of the pioneers of Broads boating holidays, and so the company marked the 60th anniversary of his death with a Heritage Day to which Princess Anne was invited. Two of Herbert Woods’ daughters attended, including one who’d flown in especially for the event from her home in New Zealand, and boat builder Dennis George was presented with a long service award for 50 years working for Herbert Woods.

For me, the nicest part of the Heritage Day was seeing the boats they had on display, from their very latest cruiser Sovereign Light, with bow and stern thrusters, and beautifully fitted out inside, to the oldest Herbert Woods cruiser still afloat – the 1927 built all wood Spark of Light, just oozing traditional charm.