CSCC Reports 2013: River Wey - December 2013

Despite gales lashing the East coast for the previous few days, Sunday dawned bright and clear...and the with the hope of a dry paddle Richard, David and I set off from the boatshed for New Haw and the Weybridge Loop.

The low turnout had the bonus of minimal faffing about and by some miracle we were on the water for just after 10 am....YES BEFORE LUNCH..."Unheard of" I hear you cry 

We were greeted by the rumble of the M25, but this was soon left behind as we passed the suburban gardens.....wondering if the proximity of the M25 would offset the added equity of a waterside property....and on to the first portage at Pryford Lock.

The navigation becomes much more rural past Pyrford and we enjoyed the peace and SUNSHINE of a beautiful December morning. Slipping quietly past the house of John Donne and on to Walsham gates where we transferred over to the natural river for the downstream leg of the journey.

The section just below the Gates has several trees down, and it needed some careful route choices and a bit of elbow power to get over some of the submerged branches, but after about a mile the river cleared and it was easy paddling.

This section of the river is really amazing, you just wouldn't believe you were so close to London (at least not until you pass under the M25 again ).

Kingfishers darted ahead of us, Mallards imitated jump jets as they exploded vertically from the water, and Herons launched into ungainly flight to loop around behind us and resume their staring match with the surface of the water...

Lunch was taken downstream of an old mill site, the buildings now converted into private houses, fantastic place to live, though as its effectively an island... a bit of a flood risk.

Pushing on we passed through the grounds of the Brooklands museum where we were able to glimpse a few of the aircraft displayed there...before once again passing into countryside and peace....and so we meandered our way down to Weybridge and the Town Lock where we once again portaged back onto the canal for the return leg up to New Haw.....though not until David had spent a few minutes looking for his his car as he mistakenly thought we had arrived at our destination

Accompanied now by dog walkers and joggers we made our way back to New Haw...and a well deserved pint in the pub...whose name I cant remember (must have been a good pint)

Many thanks to David and Richard for coming along and making it a very pleasant day on the water.