Silver Duke of Edinburgh Expedition

River Wye

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Training

The next problem we were faced with was training. All 6 members in the group had experience on the water but the level of experience differed from a few hours paddling with the scouts and explorers to living in a house that backs on to the Basingstoke canal! We decided to work toward achieving our two stars which was completed with the help of Graham Redrup. However this was not enough as shortly before the expedition the scout association changed the rules governing paddle expeditions, we now had to gain a permit for canoeing on the river Wye, not an easy river to paddle due to sections of fairly fast moving water. Having gained our canoeing permits we were officially allowed to do the expedition.

During the preparation period we completed some practise expeditions. The first of which was a day canoeing from the start of the canal in Greywell to Marks which is in Ash Vale. This was to judge how far and fast we could paddle in a day and whether canoeing the expedition would prove feasible, which it did as we completed the paddle in good time. The second practise expedition was again to canoe the canal but the other way, through the locks. At this time we had not finalised where we were going to paddle and some of the other options contained lots of portage which we would have needed to get used to. This expedition was nickering, and is possibly the reason we chose to paddle a river with NO locks!

The 3^rd practise expedition was again on the canal but was done with an overnight stop at Runways End campsite. This was to hone our camping skills and to gain some experience of doing more than one day canoeing, after a nights sleep under canvas. This expedition went very well, and now we were almost ready for the expedition. However we had not practised paddling on moving water which is what the Wye is. To gain this experience we headed south towards Littlehampton to paddle the River Arun, although tidal it is renowned as being the fastest flowing river in the south of England. Having realised that paddling on moving water is all fine going in a straight line but that when you turn round it becomes more difficult. With all the bits of paper and experience that we had required we headed for Hoarwithy a tiny town in Herefordshire which banks onto the River Wye.

Day 1

We canoed for a few hours on the first day through some lovely countryside. The river flowed between hills at first but later opened out into rural farmland. We arrived at our destination… the White Lion pub campsite way ahead of schedule (the river was flowing faster than we anticipated) and spent a lovely evening sitting and chatting in the pub garden and campsite it was quite fun. That night we had some very tasty food; pasta with Philadelphia cheese and tomato soup, cooked under guidance from Mark and enjoyed by all.

Day 2

Upon waking up to the start of a sunny day, we cooked breakfast which was bacon, eggs and beans, we said goodbye to the manager of the White Lion and packing up we set off down the river in the three boats.  The majority of the river was fairly fast with small amount ‘rapids’ although we enjoyed these parts the most.  With in the first hour or so of paddling Joe Hutchins had counted sixty swans, give or take, of which Sam was terrified of.  With more and more flies annoying us we stop for past our actual lunch stop but found a nice sheep field at a U bend in the river and so stopped there for sandwiches, crisps and a drink.  Setting off half an hour later looking forward to the rapids later we set off again. Paddling quickly we took a break but rather than stopping we rafted up and shared the food out. After rafting up no one wanted to split and so we stayed together and enjoyed the sun swapping positions now and then to change the person that steers. After drifting for over an hour and figuring out where we were we split and paddled about 2 mile to meet Graham and Bill, both on the water with canoes, at the rapids. After a short break and talk about the rapids and what to do we set off in single file to go down them.  Joe J and Tim went first with no problems although neither of the other 2 boats could see them and so had no idea. Mark and Sam went down next and then Joe H and David went down however Joe H and David ended up passing Sam and Mark due to the fact they basically sunk with an entire boat of water and only to find out the next day they had made a hole in the bottom of the boat.  After bailing out the water we carried on for the next 10 minutes to the campsite which we got off at, at about 5 and got the cod for the toilet which was for the next 10 minutes very busy.

Day 3

On the final day we set off a little bit later than usual around 11:20ish, we had some problems at the begging of the final day because Mark realised that his canoe had a hole in it we lost about half an hour fixing it up. After that we had a lunch break and because of the quick flow of the river we rafted up and had lunch for about an hour. After about another hour and a half paddling we got to sum more rapids which we went up and down on a few times. About another hour and a bit of paddling we then got to the end were the river had become tidal we got there at low tide so it was fairly hard to get all the equipment out but we managed it in the end.

“The part I enjoyed most about our expedition was when we we’re yet again hours a head of schedule so we lashed our canoes together and let the flow of the river take us away while we laid down and ate a leisurely lunch for a couple of hours. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience.”

            Joe J

 “The expedition was good fun, on a lovely river in an amazing part of the country. I like Joe enjoyed the time we spent as a team socializing and chilling out, however the best part for me was paddling through Symonds Yat rapids, where it was amusing although tragic to see Mark and Sam’s boat swamped. I plan on returning to Symonds Yat in the foreseeable future, but with a different boat and less kit!”

            Tim

 Overall the 2^nd day was the best day off the expedition. With a mix of good fun, hard work and eating it turned out with lovely weather and the rapids were great.  Plus I was missing work that night which made it all the better.  Thanks to Graham and Bill for the help on the rapids and equipment we used.  The food for the day was great and no one was tired so it was very lively.

            David

We found on our expedition that apart from the day of the journey down, and the last day, it rained EVERY DAY. However this stopped it getting too hot to paddle though on the last day it was quite nice and sunny and warm. We found that we had over-estimated the time it would take for us to cover the distance as we discovered on the first day when we realised at lunch time we were quite a lot further ahead than we thought we were. We also discovered that there were rather a lot more swans than we were expecting, and due to previous experiences with the canal swans we were wary of them, completely unnecessarily apparently. (I've forgotten exactly how many it was, like 233-234 wasn’t it?) We also saw a wide variety of other wildlife and waterfowl, such as mandarin ducks, sand martins, caddis flies (couldn’t really miss those) and others. There were some unfortunate incidences such as Mark and Sam's wooden canoe becoming damaged on the last day which was soon temporarily mended on a small muddy beach pretty much just around the corner from the last campsite, and mine and David's canoe becoming stuck twice on a section of rapids we'd taken to avoid the fisherman and it looked deeper too. It’s probably a good thing the others went the other way especially the wooden canoe, as the large rocks forming the slow rapid were really quite large. Not once in the whole trip and then twice within five minutes in the last couple of hours of the last day. Still, it was pretty good especially as on the last day we got a bit tanned due to the sun, and to come back and tell people we got it in WALES!

            Joe H

This expedition was more than just about achieving my Duke of Edinburgh award, but also of the personal achievement of completing it in my hand built Canadian canoe, an adventurous tech project of mine.

            Mark

Written By: Tim, Joe J, David, Sam, Joe H and Mark