Dear Scouts,
Despite the weather, the river Wey trip last weekend was a great success. Sod’s law was, for once, in our favour, and we had both the wind and the stream helping us along, making paddling and rowing very light work. Due to a last-minute change to the trailer we changed our plans and took two canoes and two Salters skiffs.
We had some rain on Saturday, but it did not dampen anybody’s spirits. The Wey is much smaller than the Thames so the boats felt as if they were going much faster. The effect of the stream (which was slower than we often row on here at Petersham) was much greater, pushing the boats towards the outsides of the bends.
We had to work outselves through four locks, one of which is rarely used and was fitted with an ancient style of paddle gear. (Not quite as old as the navigation which dates from 1653!)
The evening at Send scout hut seemed to go much too quickly and was enlivened by a host of Hornets attracted by the lights. The scout hut is in a quiet spot beside the river and backed by woods, presumably where the Hornets lived.
Sunday was a busy morning, packing and cleaning before we could set out. The day remained dry and we had an easy run down through another four locks to Pyrford. This stretch of the river is narrow in places making it very entertaining when we met boats coming in the opposite direction. At Newark lock we saw the haunted priory (disolved in 1539 but still standing ruins). Pyrford Marina was kind enough to allow us to load our boats and we had an easy run back to Petersham to put them away ready for next weekend.
My thanks to all of the crew, especially to the Scouts for their good fun and helpfulness and to Karin and Ronelle for all of their hard work.
See you all on Friday,
John