I think that we were all starting to go a bit stir-crazy with all the rain we’ve been having lately. But Saturday finally brought bright sunshine and warm weather, so we threw one of the boats on the roof of the car and headed for the Thames at South Stoke. Both the girls love canoeing and it’s a great way of getting the whole family out together.
The Thames was flowing pretty strongly, so we set off upstream in order to see what progress could be made against the current. Keeping close to the bank allowed us some shelter from the main flow and after 20 minutes or so Brunel’s amazing skew bridge came into view.
Something that we’d not seen before was the hatching and first flight of the local Mayfly population. Every 20 yards or so another Mayfly would be drying its wings on the surface of the water and preparing to take off (often unsuccessfully…). Luckily for them, the murky water of the Thames sheltered them from the local fish population!
After plenty of paddling against the current, we reached our turnaround point and headed back downstream. The journey back flew by, taking us probably only 15 minutes to cover what had taken us 40+ in the other direction. Back at the slipway, we got the M-Kettle on the go, using some twigs and bits of wood to brew up hot chocolate for us and the kids.
