It may not be of Roald Amundsen proportions and I don't think that Chinese supertankers will be fighting the Canadians over its use but to me it was a minor victory in the quest to paddle every inch of the Nene and its many backwaters.
According to the OS there should be quite a major channel to the south & south east of Wadenhoe - Point A - thus making a true circular trip from the car park at the top of the mill stream - Point B - possible and thus saving a walk through the village doing your drowned rat impression from Point C back to Point B. Point D is simply me getting carried away but it's the upstream end of the official canoe route.
In half a dozen, admittedly half-hearted, attempts to find it I had never managed to work out how to get there and given that the riverside pub is so close it was always easier to have a pint......no doubt just like Amundsen would have.
Even Google Earth wasn't very encouraging.....a mass of trees and not a glimpse of water
Anyway, an afternoon out on the Nene can't be all swash-buckling, derring-doing, rufty-tufty explorer type stuff so I saved that for the end..........Point B or Wadenhoe Mill as it's better known.....a great place to launch
Looking down from the same point - about as high as it can go and still get under the bridge
Until two weeks ago you would have been faced with a wall of strainers as you went through the bridge - but after some attention from a couple of blokes whose identities are known to me, there is now a safe route down the mill stream for paddlers
In summer this is a narrow reed lined oasis for birds and insects - the church at Achurch in the background
I have an idea for a book, indeed a whole series, about the adventures of Danger Weir - featuring Hippos that live in trees and all sorts of fantastical characters along with an old sea dog called Neil who lives in a narrowboat from where he runs an international spy organisation or a gentlemen's drinking club, I haven't decided yet
But for today it means nothing more than time to drop into the Lilford backwater - so peaceful you can imagine lighting your pipe in one of those Condor moments, or was it Hamlet?....anyway, it was very nice
Lilford backwater is served by five small weirs - in my book(s) Danger Weir would liberate them from their orange shackles and allow paddlers to do dangerous things on them
There's the small matter of remembering to duck at the gauging station
But a delightful backwater which I had entirely to my unsociable self
Time to turn upstream as it meets the navigation near to the pile that is Lilford Hall
Woods with a fresh carpet of snowdrops
Probably one of the Nene's prettier bridges - there are some right horrors that would have Prince Charles going on about bunions & carbuncles
It was then nose to the grindstone against the wind and tide although I did manage to upset a lady by suggesting her mongrel had corgi in it - I was told in no uncertain terms that it was a Lancashire Heeler - that'll teach me to be sociable
This is heading upstream to Point D - aka the official canoe route - notable mainly for the beautiful church on the hill behind
I did my best to turn the weir into something beautiful but I reckon this sort of thing needs a burbling brook with water falling over moss covered rocks
T'other way - not too shabby
Wadenhoe lock - still under repair - I quite fancy doing a Duke of Edinburgh and pulling a tasselled rope to unveil the new guillotine gate - which would have an otter with a paddle painted on it
Pub
Private Keep Out sign on a chain behind the tree - I've often paddled down here and wondered where the water came from to feed the backwater that the OS think lies beyond...... the answer is through a sluice beyond the private sign and hidden by the wooden fence on the right - this has a sign saying 'don't climb over' so I didn't
After a little bit of rufty-tufty explorer type swearing at briars and stuff, the promised land hove into view
And just to make my day it was a proper little ditch
You may recall the second photo in this diatribe and recognise the low bridge below the mill - dozens of times, probably more have I launched here and never known or noticed this little backwater hidden up behind fallen trees
When you think about it there is little interest in the landowner clearing these trees as they would almost be inviting the hoi polloi
to wander up and have a nose at their garden & house.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little tale and to save you googling it, here's what a Lancashire Heeler looks like.....
I'll stick to Patterdale Terriers for now but I could be tempted
Regards to you all,
Dick
According to the OS there should be quite a major channel to the south & south east of Wadenhoe - Point A - thus making a true circular trip from the car park at the top of the mill stream - Point B - possible and thus saving a walk through the village doing your drowned rat impression from Point C back to Point B. Point D is simply me getting carried away but it's the upstream end of the official canoe route.
In half a dozen, admittedly half-hearted, attempts to find it I had never managed to work out how to get there and given that the riverside pub is so close it was always easier to have a pint......no doubt just like Amundsen would have.
Even Google Earth wasn't very encouraging.....a mass of trees and not a glimpse of water
Anyway, an afternoon out on the Nene can't be all swash-buckling, derring-doing, rufty-tufty explorer type stuff so I saved that for the end..........Point B or Wadenhoe Mill as it's better known.....a great place to launch
Looking down from the same point - about as high as it can go and still get under the bridge
Until two weeks ago you would have been faced with a wall of strainers as you went through the bridge - but after some attention from a couple of blokes whose identities are known to me, there is now a safe route down the mill stream for paddlers
In summer this is a narrow reed lined oasis for birds and insects - the church at Achurch in the background
I have an idea for a book, indeed a whole series, about the adventures of Danger Weir - featuring Hippos that live in trees and all sorts of fantastical characters along with an old sea dog called Neil who lives in a narrowboat from where he runs an international spy organisation or a gentlemen's drinking club, I haven't decided yet
But for today it means nothing more than time to drop into the Lilford backwater - so peaceful you can imagine lighting your pipe in one of those Condor moments, or was it Hamlet?....anyway, it was very nice
Lilford backwater is served by five small weirs - in my book(s) Danger Weir would liberate them from their orange shackles and allow paddlers to do dangerous things on them
There's the small matter of remembering to duck at the gauging station
But a delightful backwater which I had entirely to my unsociable self
Time to turn upstream as it meets the navigation near to the pile that is Lilford Hall
Woods with a fresh carpet of snowdrops
Probably one of the Nene's prettier bridges - there are some right horrors that would have Prince Charles going on about bunions & carbuncles
It was then nose to the grindstone against the wind and tide although I did manage to upset a lady by suggesting her mongrel had corgi in it - I was told in no uncertain terms that it was a Lancashire Heeler - that'll teach me to be sociable
This is heading upstream to Point D - aka the official canoe route - notable mainly for the beautiful church on the hill behind
I did my best to turn the weir into something beautiful but I reckon this sort of thing needs a burbling brook with water falling over moss covered rocks
T'other way - not too shabby
Wadenhoe lock - still under repair - I quite fancy doing a Duke of Edinburgh and pulling a tasselled rope to unveil the new guillotine gate - which would have an otter with a paddle painted on it
Pub
Private Keep Out sign on a chain behind the tree - I've often paddled down here and wondered where the water came from to feed the backwater that the OS think lies beyond...... the answer is through a sluice beyond the private sign and hidden by the wooden fence on the right - this has a sign saying 'don't climb over' so I didn't
After a little bit of rufty-tufty explorer type swearing at briars and stuff, the promised land hove into view
And just to make my day it was a proper little ditch
You may recall the second photo in this diatribe and recognise the low bridge below the mill - dozens of times, probably more have I launched here and never known or noticed this little backwater hidden up behind fallen trees
When you think about it there is little interest in the landowner clearing these trees as they would almost be inviting the hoi polloi
to wander up and have a nose at their garden & house.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed this little tale and to save you googling it, here's what a Lancashire Heeler looks like.....
I'll stick to Patterdale Terriers for now but I could be tempted
Regards to you all,
Dick
A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope - Epictetus