Hampstead Lock To Oak Weir 6th October 2024
Today’s trip was one of the furthest afield daily trips the club undertakes with a journey of 1.5 hours from Watford to get to the Medway River, so an early start was necessary, with car sharing where possible. The river can present different challenges, and the flow is driven by the number of sluices open. Today was a gentle day.
A group of five, plus Phil’s three companions (Coco, Ziggy and Hetty) was led by a friend of the club, Liz, under the guidance of Dave. Liz did all of the preparatory work and briefing then lead the group ahead of her leadership assessment later this year. This is Davepaddles helping its friends as we aim to help more people to get on the water with new paddlers being started and experienced paddlers being developed.
Suitably briefed the mixed group of paddlers, four kayakers and a paddleboarder, set off quickly passing the first sluices and heading up river.
It was a nice light, but cloudy day with an occasional attempt of the sun coming through.
The temperature was just right. The scenery was nice and we were entertained by Kingfishers on several occasions with the flash of iridescent blue as they crossed and flew up the river. We saw very little other birdlife and just a couple of barges and a few house boats. Otherwise, we had the river to ourselves.
One minor incident was when Hetty, one of Phil’s girls took a dive into the water. Safe in her buoyancy aid she was soon recovered by Clare, one handed. Shame all rescues are not that simple! Hetty didn’t score many points for the dive as although she completed the two somersaults, they weren’t in Pike position and her woolly jumper and buoyancy aid ruined the water entry. We scored her just 6.9s. Safely recovered, her wet clothes were removed, she was placed in a recovery blanket.
The trip continued at a steady pace through the leafy banks with the occasional minor reroute to avoid fisherman. At the first lock a group of three burly fisherman were active with eight rods and were using significant size other fish as bait. Dave, an ex-fisherman, explained that they were seeking large Pike, so maybe Hetty was lucky she wasn’t in a Pike’s position when she fell in!
Onwards up the river we passed a three-story wooden diving platform and a couple of potential coffee stops, before arriving at the second lock and lunch stop. That lock was also manned by several fisherman who all stopped fishing when we arrived. Curious?
After lunch on a nice picnic table, we returned down river slightly faster, saw some more Kingfisher activity and some other paddle boarders. The trip was five hours including lunch and was a leisurely one with lots of conversations, so very relaxing.
Liz did well with her leadership and looked after us well. Others will benefit when she qualifies later this year. Clare did well to paddle the 14k on her first away day other than AquaPaddle. The rest of us enjoyed the paddle in their company.
So a nice place to paddle in good company.
Write up by CRH
More pics below.
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We didnt see a single Kingfisher yesterday 🙁
The first one did half a dozen flights ahead of us. We had three other sightings.