The end of 2015 and beginning of 2016 saw me out in my two-seater inflatable kayak twice within four days, both trips with my co-paddler Amy Woodyatt. The first was in some spectacularly un-December-like weather, starting on the outskirts of Norwich at the Rushcutters Arms on Thorpe Green, and paddling up the rivers Yare and Wensum into the city centre. I’ve done this trip a few times now, and I really like the fact that it’s totally different from my more common sorties out in the Broads. Once you get within the confines of the city, you have the proximity of buildings, and indeed the occasional interaction with people on the river bank. I also like the floating history lesson – you get to pass beneath several hundred years-worth of bridges crossing the River Wensum, from the medieval Bishops Bridge to Peter Jarrold’s Bridge, an ultra-modern pedestrian / cycleway which sweeps across the river in a curve with very little apparent in the way of support.
At the head of navigation is New Mills, where water comes gushing through sluices, providing the only white water in Norwich. It provided some amusement for a few moments as we had several goes at nosing into the turbulent waters, then allowing the kayak to be spat out of the mini-maelstrom. Our average paddling speed is usually around 2.5 mph, but for the first couple of hundred yards downstream from here, the current can whizz you along so quickly you get to break the 4 mph speed limit!
Our second excursion of the week was on New Year’s Day, launching from Catfield Dyke, paddling across Hickling Broad, along Deep Go Dyke and halfway through Heigham Sound before turning back. Not surprisingly, Europe’s largest wetland nature reserve was deserted. During the winter, the southern end of the broad is home to wintering wildfowl, so we stuck to the main navigation channel rather than meandering around the reedbeds and disturbing them. Paddling back across Hickling Broad, the wind decided to pick up, fortunately behind us. Just as we had with our journey back down the Wensum, it’s always nice when you get that extra helping hand!
My first paddle of 2014 turned out to be the kayak trip down the River Yare I’d been planning for over a month. Planning, because I wanted to be able to leave Norwich at or soon after high tide, which had to be at a point in the morning to enable me to do the 14.5 miles from Norwich to Cantley in daylight hours. Places to launch a kayak or canoe in Norwich are fairly limited, and some involve quite a long drop at anything other than high tide – besides, I wanted the water moving in my direction. And I wanted the wind coming more or less from the west, as I knew that too would be a factor on the lower stretch of the river. When those factors all came together, I was even given the added bonus of sunshine!
I found quite a few sporty rowing types out on the Yare near Whitlingham. Everything from single-seater jobs all the way up to eights with a chap shouting words of encouragement from a following motor boat. I never could see the attraction of rowing, only ever getting to see where you’ve been. I like to see where I’m going!
A little further on I encountered a chap paddling a sit-on-top kayak, so we stopped and chatted for a few minutes. He mentioned he’d launched from Postwick Wharf a little downstream, where boss of local canoe holiday operator TheCanoeMan Mark Wilkinson was fishing. Having recently interviewed Mark over the phone for my paddling feature in the January 2014 issue of Anglia Afloat magazine, this seemed rather a strange coincidence. So we too had a chat when I arrived there.
Brundall was more or less halfway. With two possible take-out points close to railway stops, this would be my escape route if I found it too hard going. But so far I was doing well.
I was getting pretty tired by the time I pulled in to tie up at the Reedcutter Inn, next door to the sugar refinery at Cantley. Four and a half hours paddling time, and 15 minutes of stops, so I’d managed to average well over 3 mph down a very nearly deserted river. Appropriately enough, the beer I had here was called Endeavour!
The plan is at some point to try a few longer linear trips using public transport for the return journey. My first one is likely to be from Norwich down the Rivers Wensum and Yare to Cantley, around 15 miles of paddling. After a beer or two and meal at the Reedcutter Inn, it’s just a couple of minutes walk to the station for the return trip to Norwich.
I had a trial run last week, starting from a very nice pub called the 
There are 12 bridges over the Wensum between its confluence with the Yare and New Mills, and they vary from the ultra-modern footbridges like the Lady Julian and Peter’s bridges, to the medieval Bishop’s Bridge, and my favourite, the cast iron St. Miles Coslany Bridge, built in 1804. But apart from seeing just how many pigeons nest underneath them, you do get a completely different perspective on these historic structures when you see them from the water.
With the sun setting just after 9pm, we did the final half hour with the light failing, but it was rather lovely to see the Yare totally deserted. We made it back in to the Rushcutters within 10 minutes of my estimate for the trip, with time in hand to order a meal as well as a beer! It did highlight a minor problem with the improvised mounting for my navigation light, but that’s something I’ll hope to have cracked before the next trip!
