90 Mile River Wye Canoe

Sunday 10th April.

Began at Glasbury in Wales, where me and Lee loaded up our boat with food, BBQ, clothes and camping equipment. Didn't start until 2.30, and had a clear blue sky. River was low, which meant the rapids where not fast flowing, which meant hopfully we would not capsize with all our stuff. Paddling was slow going and could only manage about 4 miles every hour. We stopped at around 18 miles to set up our camp and BBQ. At this point we were not sure we would make our 90 mile target to Bigsweir.



Monday 11th April.

On the river by 7.30 to put in a long day of canoeing. This meant sore hands, backs and bums as we continued on to Hereford. Long break at Hereford to restock on food for the rest of the trip. This was about the 40 mile mark in total. Was a cloudy and cold day, but had put in a lot of hours. Stopped for a coffee at 7.30 and still unsure if we would make it. Had to be at the finish by 4pm the following day for pick up and return to the start. We decided to put in another hour rather than stopping. That night we paddled until after 9pm and used head torch to canoe by and set up a camp. Was nearly 11pm by the time we stopped, but this set us up well for the next day.


Tuesday 12th April.

On the river just after 6am this morning. Was still cold and misty, but soon warmed up with paddling and another sunny day. After the first 10 miles we knew we could make the finish in time. We went through Symmonds Yat and lots of nice scenery. Eventually making Bigsweir about 2.30pm. So really it only took us 2 days to do 90 miles, which we were told was very quick.