We had an early start to get the car shuttle sorted for this year’s annual ‘Doggy paddle’. This is a very popular 18 mile charity paddle organised by RLSCC (Leamington CC) in aid of Guide dogs for the blind. After signing in and making the most of the bacon butties on offer, we headed off down the Rivers Leam, then the Avon towards Stratford upon Avon.
There were twelve of us from HCC with a mix of Solo and Tandem open canoes and kayaks, we even had the sun shining for us and luckily for us open boaters we had no wind, Martin A was disappointed about this as he wanted to try his new sailing rig.
The first weir is at Warwick castle, this is a compulsory portage as its very limited access and you can only paddle through here on this event, as you can see on the photos you paddle right close to this very impressive castle.
The river from here down to Tiddington (just outside Stratford) is very rural, quite twisty and shallow in places (nice for poling), it passes through Charlcote park and there are three more weirs along the way, the next of the weirs is at Barford and then Hampton lucy, which is an ideal lunch spot with a bit of entertainment watching others shoot the weir with the odd swimmer. The last weir is Alveston where Dale entertained the crowds by shooting it standing on the gunnels whilst poling.
The last section takes you past the caravan park and under the main bridge to the end, in the centre of Stratford. This is a long but really nice trip, well done to everyone especially the newer paddlers.
Dave Clarke.
