Deben Canoe Club

Easter on the River Wye 2022

 River Wye Easter Weekend 2022

Having overcome the queues and sourced enough fuel to get down to the Welsh border, Tim, Mike, Siobhan, Shou-Wen, Scott, David M, Ken and David R made their way to Whitney-on-Wye for the Easter weekend of paddling on the idyllic River Wye. Based at The Pound B&B/Campsite alongside the Boat Inn pub and restaurant, the group took up the B&B in its entirety with the remainder camping/caravanning on the adjacent campsite.

 The weather was good for the time of year with mainly blue skies and sun cream more in demand than cags. The group paddled a variety of short kayaks and one open canoe and varied in size from 6 to 8 paddlers dependent on who could escape from work when and onward travel requirements.

Good Friday saw us venturing upriver into Wales to start the journey from Glasbury via Hay on Wye and back to Whitney. The river was a little lower than usual but had a good flow and without very much effort on our part we were back at the camp in good time for tea and cake having covered nearly 11 miles in the sunshine.

 

 Picture 1: Good Friday and Easter Monday – Glasbury to Whitney-on-Wye

Saturday and Easter Sunday saw us up to full strength of 8 paddlers as we made our way down to Hereford via the lovely campsite at Bycross Farm, Saturday’s finish point. Each day was around a 12 ½ mile paddle and the sunshine brought out the insects which, in turn, brought out the Sand Martins which were seemingly around every bend in the river with their nest holes high up in the river bank. Apart from the usual river dwelling swans, geese and ducks we were also treated to Red Kite, gangs of Common Buzzard soaring on the thermals, Grey Heron, Kingfisher, Little Egret (becoming more common), Cormorant, Goosander, Mandarin Duck, Little Ringed Plover and Pied Wagtail.

  

Picture 2: Saturday – Whitney-on-Wye to Bycross Farm

The lift out at Hereford involved a slightly different type of paddling to get to the bank than we had been used to because of the low water level. Partly because of this and to allow those that had missed Friday’s paddle to experience this picturesque part of the river downstream from Glasbury, we repeated the journey on the Monday. No sooner had we left the launch point than we were confronted by a lamb which had fallen down the river bank to the edge of the river and couldn’t make its way back up to the field. David swung his open canoe into action and managed to get the lamb, with accompanying mud into his boat, before dropping downstream to a lower part of the bank from where it could be reunited with its mother. The remainder of the paddle passed uneventfully and we arrived back at Whitney to pack up our gear and make our way home.

  

 Picture 3: Easter Sunday – Bycross Farm to Hereford

Many thanks to the participants for making the weekend so pleasant and entertaining and, of course, to Tim for organising the whole thing.  

 

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