The Dove Trip 2019 aka Stratford to Bidford on Avon – March 2019
Out timing was impeccable – unloading the boats and negotiating the endless snake of park runners proved to be a challenging and comical start to our Plan B. Water levels and issues with car parking had resulted in the cancellation of Plan A on the Dove, so Stratford was our new destination.
With the imposing red brick theatre commanding the view directly opposite to our launch site, our journey along the Avon began.
With two open canoes (Sue and Mike), a sea kayak (Richard) and a further 7 kayaks (Marc and son Ewan, Carolyn, Alison and Chris plus our trip leaders Neil and Dave) our party headed away from the park towards the first challenge of the day.
Not long into our trip the waterway divided into a lock on one side and Lucy’s Weir on the other. After an inspection by our leaders, we each descended the weir with instruction on the best line to take to avoid the fallen tree mid way across the weir. We descended the weir to the left of the island and left the playboaters to enjoy the delights of the weir and stopper on the right. Our choice of weir was an early test of our paddling skills – and thankfully everyone negotiated it safely. Ewan’s descent was particularly impressive as his kayak was blown towards the tree and we held our breath as he skilfully negotiated the obstacle.
Chris too had a close encounter and managed to stay dry.
The river then straightened out for a while and we quickly learned to read the water, opting to paddle the water most sheltered by the banks where the waves were smallest. It was soon apparent that the weather was going to add spice and challenge to our day. Richard’s choice of a potential sea faring craft was looking to be a sound choice with all of the waves!
A small number of birds, mainly swans had braved the elements but it wasn’t a day for nature watching. We did, however, pass a number of rather large houses with significantly large gardens and our wildlife spots included a panda, two gorillas, an eagle and a crocodile. Sadly, the rumour was that maybe not all of these were real …
It wasn’t long before we reached the next lock, Brake lock and our second weir came into view. Unusually the normal increased sound of fast flowing water was masked by the constant roar of the weather.
A more diagonal line was advised for shooting this weir and once negotiated there was a faster flowing section of water to give a bit of sport. Once again everyone safely negotiated the weir but unfortunately the faster flowing water enabled the river to claim its first and only swimmer.
From here the river continued on but we questioned our progress as pedestrians appeared to be making faster progress than us as we tacked from one bank to the other in search of calmer water.
Consequently, it seemed to take a while to reach Lullington lock and weir, but with water levels higher than usual the rocky weir could be negotiated. Well by Dave Clarke on our behalf!
Handy benches proved popular for our lunch stop whilst our swimmer took the opportunity to change into dry clothes in the privacy of Dave’s fluorescent emergency shelter. The banter flowed almost as swiftly as the river.
Rejoining the river below the weir was fun as the water was moving p where we had one car parked. Sue and Carolyn decided this was the end point of their journey, so they waved off the remaining paddlers who would continue on for a further 4 miles to Bidford on Avon.
We passed the garden of a rather attractive black and white timbered house we passed was what appeared to be a “mock Tudor” black and white trampoline. Who knew such things existed?
Our journey took as past impressive back gardens and boat houses, waterside caravans and moored canal boats. After a further couple of weirs of Welford and Pilgrim weirs we were all beginning to struggle.
We were all thankful to get our first glimpse of the bridge at Bidford and after a particularly tricky negotiation of impressively large waves, our convoy passed through one of the bridge’s stone archways to reach the bank of the car park at our journey’s end. As the result of great team support, boats were soon on dry land, drained and loaded into and onto the vehicles. Our group reunited with Carolyn and Sue for a “debrief and rehydration session” in the pub and an opportunity to thank our leaders for a really well organised trip. A perfect way to wind up our river adventure.
Oh botheration – I wasn’t going to mention the wind! There certainly was wind, lots of wind and a head wind at that for most of the trip. Thanks to our HCC leaders who have given us all character building memories from the trip. A special mention too to Sue and Mike who valiantly battled on against the elements. I am sure we all slept very soundly that night!