The blond guide to kayaking
or
The Lugg, a dead sheep, a dead swan and two capsizes!
It was a beautiful start to the day with lots of sunshine on the journey to Leominster with Paul C. We met Graham, Clive, Steve and Frizz Ease at 10 am and after all the usual getting ready and ferry [this time Graham did remember to bring his spray deck!] we got on the water at about 11.
Almost straight away I managed not to negotiate a tree branch and tipped over. I stayed in my boat and tapped the bottom waiting for rescue…. and I waited…. and waited….. about an hour later when I really had no more breath left I bailed out. Graham was actually very close but couldn’t get a good angle to my boat because of the trees.
So back in my boat and dripping wet we carried on. We portaged the first weir which looked really nasty this time and paddled onto the next. I got lots of tips and advice on the way some of which I may even remember – let the river flow do the work, better to steer with a forward stroke rather than a backward stroke, using a hanging draw to turn… I got lots of practice breaking in and out, looking for eddies, and avoiding trees [evil things! I did try to park in an eddy with a dead sheep but avoided the dead swan which I think had got caught on some barbed wire.
The next weir was a natural one with a big wave at the bottom so I went down it hell for leather which was the wrong thing and I went over again! I thought about trying to roll but didn’t because I thought I would fail which is silly because it’s better to try and fail than not try at all. So I regret that. The guys rescued me again and I did a couple of very shaky ferry glides then got out and had a hot drink and watched the guys play in the wave. Paul was camera man and he caught a few of them surfing it and Frizz Ease going over and doing a very nice roll in the white stuff.
The next two weirs I went down I took Frizz Ease’s advice and went slowly down them and only paddled when I needed to which was just before the wave. It was much better doing it this way, I felt more in control and I may have even relaxed a bit! The guys had more of a play in the waves and the one in the pretty lilac boat did a nice bit of surfing. After this we headed off and the trip ended back in Leominster where we started.
As ever, I had a brilliant time and would do it all over again [minus the blond bits of course!]
Note there are a few clips on our You Tube site and photos below (ed).
