We parked up sorted our gear out and headed to the river . There was a fast flow so it wasn’t going to take us long .  Before we got on the water we went to look at the weir, Clive lead the way through the mud.  When we got to the bridge  there was not a drop of water going over the weir, Clive said he had never ever seen it like that before . Strange as the water was flowing very fast through the sluice gate just to the side . We met a guy who Clive knew in an open canoe there   and invited him to join us on our paddle which he did.

Back at our Kayaks there was a muddy, slippery bank we had to go down to get on the water . Wendy’s white trainers quickly became covered in mud and not so white ,  I slipped and slide down the bank on my bum, getting all  covered in mud.

Once on the water we all enjoyed a nice paddle and watching Clive balancing on his SUP and paddling .We probably could of gone the whole way without doing a sinlgle stroke and just letting flow take us at a nice pace . When we got to the end Liz, Emma and myself had a go at the stand up paddle. Clive attached his throw line to it so  he could pull us in safley if the current pulled us towards the bridge . Think it’s safe to say we were all a little wobbly but glad we had a go and had a good laugh doing it .

Reported by Claire Teagle.

As for Nafford, the reason there was no water going over the Weir, we eventually worked out, is that all 3 sluice gates were wide open and the water was thundering through. So much so that it was pulling water from the weir. Very unusual to say the least.

The trip will be a good grade 2 / grade 3 with two portagable grade 4s.  If you need to ask what this means its probably not a trip for you.  If you have been paddling over the winter and are confident on the Teme, Lugg, Symonds Yat, etc this will be a good trip.   It would be an ideal progression for our level 1 coaches, Matt S, Emma, Jane and people at a similar level.  I’m not intending to take Tom although Sophie and Emma would enjoy it.   Please get in touch if you would like any advice on the suitability of the trip with regards to your paddling.

The intention would be to get up to Llangollen for 10:00hrs which would mean leaving Worcestershire arounf 08:00hrs.  We can consolidate cars to minimise fuel when we have some numbers.  Let me know if are coming and we will take it from there (before Friday please).  If anyone did not want to paddle but fancied a day out in Llangollen a ‘shuttle bunny’ is always useful and Town’s falls and Serpents Tail are always entertaining to watch.

Happy Paddling.

The paddle to Strensham was really nice and as we approached the weir there were two official looking guys on the bridge with long pole trying to clear the logs etc. that were caught on the bridge. We watched them struggle for a while, paddle over, jumped out onto the weir and had it all clear in 10 minutes. We headed off and the wind picked up, infact it was quite a paddle. We got to Severn Sailing Club and decided to have a break.

When we got back on the water the wind was picking up even more and as we got to the outskirts of Bredon it was getting quite strong and we knew we had the long straight under the motorway and then again after the pub in Twinning. By now it was about 11.50 so we decided to stop and have an early lunch. Over lunch we discussed our back up plan, if we did not make it all the way to Tewkesbury we would try to sail back to Eckington Bridge.

After about an hours for lunch we starting rigging an ‘A’ frame sailing rig. Over lunch we had discussed the various ways we had done it previously, with mixed results so now we set to. It did not take as long as I thought it might and about 1.30, and with a health upstream wind, we raised the sail and off we went. It soon became apparent that we would need to make some ‘modifications’, this done we ‘set sail again. To all of our surprise it worked really well, far better that we expected, or had previously achieved.

We ‘sailed upstream past the Severn Sailing Club at a very reasonable pace towards Strensham Lock, dropped the sail, entered the lock. Sailed out of the lock then back to Eckington Bridge.

Over all our trip (link to map) of 4 miles took up just over 2 hours to get to the lunch spot and about 2 hours, including going through a lock to get back to Eckington Bridge and the three of us had a great day!!

Richard did take some photos and some video and as soon as this is available I’ll post a link.

Though it was very sunny when there was a break in the trees it was cold at water level, the river was flowing sedately for the most which was fine as we were all in boats that didn’t take a tremendous amount of effort to paddle. Apart from Jules, who completely misinterpreted the email sent out by Clive plotting the route, and mistook the long blue wiggly line on Google Maps from Ham Bridge to Knightwick for some other river and thought we were just playing on Knightwick weir. Subsequently he turned up with his Jackson play boat and had to paddle twice as far as everyone else!

But it was a good morning, practising breaking in and out of eddys and because of the gentle flow of the river really having to commit the boats to crossing the eddy lines. There were a few faster moving spots giving some opportunities to get some ferry gliding in and a couple of small weirs which everyone shot (and Laura vocalised every time she went through with something between a squeak and a scream!). A quick break was had on one of the few spots where we could stop – Paul even arranged for the sun to shine on us while we were eating and drinking – and after Jules had managed to get some life back into his feet and toes (just) it was the final push down to Knightwick weir.

Everyone shot the weir when we got there and a few decided to play for a bit. The weir was quite grabby so most of us opted to just float in relative safety and watch. Claire tried to encourage Jules to go over so he could get some underwater shots with his helmet mounted camera but he just wouldn’t do it, much to her disappointment. There was no way I was going to oblige either – it was flippin’ freezing!

A good morning was had by all, even Laura who hinted more than once that she could’ve been in bed instead!

Matt Soley