After a less than glamorous start we found the next hour or so a wonderful experience. It was a beautiful day and the Stour is a tranquil slow moving river deep in the English countryside. The vistas are magnificent as you make your way through the famous painter Constable's countryside. The Stour River twists and turns and meanders to its final destination at the port of Harwich one of the biggest ports in Europe.
One of the major problems paddling a river after there has been a long hot dry spell is the build up of weed and algae. This river weed is not dissimilar to pea soup and smells a whole lot worse! Upon rounding a bend in the river we were faced with a huge patch of 'pea soup' that spanned across the entire width of the river.
Nick, one of the paddlers in the group was not as athletic as the rest of us, and as a result was lagging some way behind. Whilst waiting for him to catch up we let the kayaks drift up to the 'pea soup' using it as an anchor. We took the opportunity to have a quick sandwich and a drink.
Not wanting to hold us up, Nick decided not to stop and to push on through the weed in order to make up some ground as the rest of us looked on.
The further he paddled into the duck weed the harder it became to paddle. The more he paddled the more the weed tangled up in his paddles and as he lifted the paddle to take a stroke the weed fell into his boat. We could not help but laugh at his plight.
He eventually became stuck in the middle of the weed. Unable to paddle any further due to the thickness of it. However his predicament soon became ours when we made our attempts to get him out. Upon seeing how difficult it was to paddle through the weed we decided to portage up the steep grassy bank.
At this point we realised one of the most important kayak accessories to have in your kit bag is nettle spray! As we climbed up the river bank in our shorts we all sustained many nettle stings which soon stopped us laughing.
Another important item in your kayak accessories should be a decent rope. Luckily I had brought a rope with me but unfortunately it was not a good quality one. We threw the rope to our fellow stranded paddler who in turn tied it to the front of his inflatable kayak. As we tried to pull the boat the rope snapped and kept snapping every time it was retied.
At one point Matt slipped down the bank and fell waist deep into the stagnant weed. By this time Nick had worked out that he could edge forward by bumping along but it was a slow process and was extremely tiring.
It took nearly half an hour for him to eventually get to the other side of the pea soup and he was shattered by the time he had done so. His inflatable kayak was full of weed and absolutely stank of rotting vegetation.
Kayaking along a river for me, ticks all the right boxes. It is a great sport that everyone can do. You are in the great outdoors keeping healthy and fit. You can power paddle and have a great workout or take your time with leisurely paddles stopping as and when for a cup of tea or a beer. For me there is nothing better.
The river Stour is a sedate river in Essex England and stretches for some forty six miles. This was the river for one of my first kayaking adventures which threw up some unexpected events.
On this particular paddle I was accompanied by four friends and we each had an inflatable kayak for the journey. Four of us had Sevylor Rangers and one had a Sterns Cordova
Due to a very hot summer the river was low and the rise had practically dried out so we started from a place called Henny Street which is about three miles further down river.
As this was one of my very first river runs and the first time I had ever paddled an inflatable kayak my friends and I had little experience and had not planned our journey as well as we might have.
As any experienced kayaker will tell you what is detailed in a map can look very different from what the river is actually like. It certainly does not provide information on river heights, conditions and the effects of the weather.
After spending a few minutes pumping up my inflatable kayak and loading up all of the kayak accessories, my friends and I were ready to go. It was early morning around 8am on a beautiful sunny Sunday. We began our journey near the Swan public house, much to the amusement of its patrons.
Within seconds of being afloat we were faced with our first dilemma. The river immediately forked into two separate paths, one blocked by an over hanging tree and the other by a weir.
One of my fellow paddlers decided to try and tackle the weir which was a daunting prospect especially as he had never shot a weir on an inflatable kayak before.
Needless to say he got stuck half way down due to the rubber skegs on the bottom of the inflatable kayak and the weir only having a few inches of water running over it. Luckily he was still high enough on the weir to get out and drag the kayak back up to the top much to the increasing amusement and ever growing crowed at the pub.
We then decided to take the route blocked by the tree which we did manage to negotiate but not before getting covered in leaves and pieces of bark. Thankfully all of the inflatable kayaks made it through this first obstacle without sustaining any punctures.
No sooner had we made it past the tree we came to a dead end and found ourselves in a small pond with nowhere else to go.
Confused about what to do next a local man appeared on the riverbank that seemed to be unhappy with regard to our presence in his garden pond. To our total embarrassment it now became clear to us that we were not in fact in the River Stour but in some ones back garden hence the reason the people at the pub found us so amusing.
Fortunately the pond owner quickly realised that we were hapless and inexperienced kayakers and pointed over to where the river was, a couple of hundred yards away.
Red faced and full of apologies we dragged our inflatable kayaks into the river proper and began our journey.
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