Day 7 Flat Holm to Patch Bridge
Posted by glyn brackenbury on Friday, April 26, 2013
I woke up this morning on Flat Holm to thick fog. I knew it was foggy before I opened the tent, as I was sleeping 300m away from a fog horn.
Had a great chat with the Flat Holm warden, who's very keen to encourage paddlers to come and visit the island. I'll definitely go back, as its history is fascinating, with cannons and bunkers strewn all over the island.
Had a great chat with the Flat Holm warden, who's very keen to encourage paddlers to come and visit the island. I'll definitely go back, as its history is fascinating, with cannons and bunkers strewn all over the island.
I left at low water with the tide still ebbing to move into the flow. 70km today, and I don't think I could have covered that sort of distance without the tidal shove I was getting as I'm starting to feel the mileage in my shoulders now...
I'd planned to stop in Portishead to meet a friend and buy some lunch, but a conspiracy of currents kept me offshore, this meant paddling the entire day on a bowl of porridge, which for a 17st man, I can assure you is not enough. This encouraged me to keep my head down and pace up, I had the sail up and made good progress towards the bridges.
I've never paddled this section of the Severn before. The tides are huge, large standing waves, and big eddylines litter the river and you get moved from river left to river right as if you were on a whitewater river. Great fun. Took my mind off trying to work out if my deck bag was edible.
Arrived at Sharpness with both locks shut, so I thought I'd be clever and carry on with the tide, then hop over into the canal. However the 10 ft wall negated any "hopping" so I paddled back upstream to the IRB Slipway and trolleyed up to the canal.
7 km later I arrived in the dark at The Tudor campsite in Patch Bridge, I wasn't aware the tudors were big on camping.....
Don't know where to tomorrow, I'll see how the shoulders feel!
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.
