Day 10 Holt Bridge to Swindon
Posted by glyn brackenbury on Monday, April 29, 2013
What a difference a day makes. After the trauma of paddling uphill all day yesterday, I was desperate to clear the Severn early this morning. The remaining 5 miles were relatively painless and I arrived in Stourport-Upon-Severn, feeling pretty good and swapped onto the Staffs and Worcs canal.
I negotiated around 30 locks today, and I've now developed a pretty good system, so each one only takes around 5 mins. The locks on this canal are what I'd imagined they'd be like, mostly short distances, with no real significant height gain, compared to the industrial caverns of the Severn. Being a Sunday there were 100's of people using the towpath, so I found myself chatting at almost every lock about the trip. I was joined by a couple of cyclists for a chat for a while, it's really odd being able to chat whilst paddling, after essentially being on my own for a week.
I'd decided that today I'd try and find some accommodation at the end of the day, to allow me to recharge stuff properly. The difficulty was trying to get close enough to Woverhampton to be able to find somewhere to stay, without actually going into the city. I'd targeted Swindon (not the one in Wiltshire), as a potential venue as it had a couple of pubs. As I approached the bridge I was greeted with shouts of coffee and cake, which even with my radio on will always get my attention, and on the canal bank was Andy the MD from Skern who'd driven up from Devon to come and say hello.
He has friends, Mike and Fiona, who live two miles away, and within minutes they'd found somewhere close by that I could securely store the boat, and whisked me off to their house, to stay the night. I'm exceptionally grateful to them for their hospitality, in taking in a rather smelly kayaker (the kit's getting a bit fresh now), particularly as it would appear there is nowhere to stay in Swindon....
A bit more of the same tomorrow. I should change canals again, and start heading back NW. I've given up trying to work out where I'll be, it's much harder to work out pace and timings on the canal network compared to the sea, as there are so many things that can affect your progress.
Been paddling for 30 years mostly as a surf and whitewater boater. Living on the N coast of Devon and growing upon Anglesey has meant that the sea has never been more than a couple of miles away.
