British Canoeing, the organising body of all forms of canoeing in Britain, has issued a new ‘challenge’ for the month of August. In short, they are challenging individuals and groups to paddle a distance of either 30 miles, or 60miles in or on any compatible craft of your choice. Once you’ve paddled the chosen distance all that you are required to do to claim your award is to provide basic details of the journeys that make up the distance and they’ll send a sticker on to you..
You could of course just total the mileage you log through the course of the month, and for many the target mileage would be only a fraction of what they would do in the normal course of events. But the challenge would be rather more difficult for those like myself whose monthly mileage is rather more limited. My monthly mileage this year averages out somewhere around 25 miles. Not a fantastic total by any means but most of it is at a fairly high work-rate. I had thought that I’ll take up the 60 mile challenge Which seems a little more appropriate.
My club’s base is on the Basingstoke canal at Mytchett, which is coincidentally almost halfway along the length of the canal. From Mytchett in a westerly direction you eventually mcome to Greywell which is the start of the navigable canal. In fact the last mile can only be managed by paddlecraft as the depth of water isn’t sufficient for the deeper draughts of powered craft. The actual end of the canal is the partly collapsed Greywell tunnel which is now a Bat sanctuary. Going in the other direction from Mytchett the end of the Basingstoke canal empties into the Wey navigation at Woodham junction, just a half-mile upstream from my old favourite place, New Haw lock.
The distances are conveniently compatible with the challenge as the signpost tells. From Mytchett the return distance to Greywell is 36 miles while to Woodham it’s 26 miles making an overall 62 miles. But that’s only half the story. The ‘going’ towards Greywell is much more open even including views over a couple of lakes and open water stretches known locally as ‘flashes’, the most eccentrically named of which is ‘Great Bottom Flash’. The best feature though is that there is only one lock that would have to be portaged at Ash village.
On the other hand the canal going eastwards towards Woodham junction becomes much more closed in with overhanging vegetation and steep sided cuttings. In places it’s almost oppressive. The name ‘Deepcut’ just a couple of miles from Mytchett, should give a clue to the topography It also runs through a lot more urban territory with properties backing onto the canal and towpath especially near Woking. The other thing on this side is locks. Lots of them, 28 in all, just like a mini DW. Some of them are close enough together to do in a single portage but still hard work for all that. The last time I did a trip along that part of the canal it was a weed infested pit that was hard to paddle through, so it could rightly be called a ‘challenge’.
The challenge that I originally envisaged though is to do the Greywell trip first in my canoe which would probably take a whole day. Then camping and recouping overnight and on to Woodham the following day but using one of the club’s lightweight kayaks. Even this is probably a bit too ambitious as the question really is whether I’ve got sufficient ‘go’ in the arms to do the whole trip in two days. Realistically I think it’s going to have to be split into two separate trips with a few days between for recuperation.
With all of this in mind I’d taken a club canoe out for a short trip on Tuesday evening doing about four miles in the hour. It was a double of about the same size as my own but being a composite construction weighed in nearly double. That’s the first time I’ve been out in a canoe since before Christmas and the four miles that I did were heavy going. At the finish of the 4 miles it didn’t stack up very well against the 30 that’s needed.
I need a bit more practice but I’ve got a Hare & Hounds to get out of the way first.
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