Just Messing About on the River

At last we’ve done it. It’s taken us three years but now it’s over. The Thames Navigation, from Cricklade to Teddington, has been well and truly paddled.

It all started in the summer of 2001. F&M was at its height and we wanted somewhere to paddle. Many places were out of bounds, footpaths were closed and there were restrictions on a lot of the canal system. We needed a stretch of water where we could get in and out of the water without jeopardising any farmland. We tried some canals in Birmingham, which although did get us onto the water weren’t very satisfying.

So when we realised that there were no restrictions on the Thames, because of the navigation, we bought our licences and off we did go. We did a couple of day trips of between 15 and 17 miles and all was fine. Then on our next day trip we ended up at a pub, and as we had used their car park, it seemed to us that we had to at least go in and say thank you.

A few hours later, when we were still saying thank you, somebody chirped up, “wouldn’t it be great to go the whole length of the Thames, camping overnight, carrying all our gear with us”. As with any idea in a pub after saying thank-you for about four hours it sounded like something that had to be done. Unfortunately over the winter whenever we got together at parties, we would reach the same level of intoxication that equalled four hours of saying thank you, and the same conversation would ensue, “Wouldn’t it be great…..”

It got to the point where we didn’t need to be so intoxicated before someone said “Wouldn’t it be great….”. Eventually we could remember the conversation the next morning. So there we were on a Friday, 6.00am, overcast skies, the weekend before Easter 2002, in Cricklade. That first year we went from Cricklade to Oxford. The next year we went at the same time of year and paddled from Oxford to Henley-on-Thames. This year we paddled from Henley to Teddington.

That’s nine days of paddling over three years, to go 135 miles, existing on a diet of beer, whisky, chocolate, sausages, bacon and eggs. A lot of memories to cherish (although some evenings have been lost by a few of us), many different birds seen; Grebes that disappear under the water as you get close to them, a flash of turquoise as a Kingfisher dives, Buzzards that glide seemingly effortlessly overhead and, as we got closer to London, Parakeets. I kid you not, lots of them. I thought that they were in my bird book as a joke.

The problem now is where next? We’ve got used to paddling the weekend before Easter now. Coming soon to a river near you. Be afraid ….

Ned