Wednesday 12th July 2023: Today, under the sunny skies of Glasbury, our acclimatisation journey began. We set off bright and early, leaving London at 07:00am. The group is filled with anticipation and excitement for the upcoming four days. By 12:30pm, we safely arrived at our campsite and took a quick break for lunch before getting familiar with the water. After spending a couple of hours paddling on a section of the River Wye and using the sail in the good winds, we were all in good spirits and headed to bed early to prepare for the week ahead.
Thursday 13th July: Day one began with our group waking early, filled with excitement and a touch of nervousness about that challenge that laid ahead. After a swift breakfast, we prepared our canoes and gear for the day’s journey. We checked the weather and water conditions before setting off down the River Wye.
As the weather changed from sunny to drizzle and eventually heavy rain, we quickly equipped ourselves with waterproof clothes to stay dry. Our journey, spanning a lengthy 30 kilometres, progressed steadily, however there were several moments throughout the day where our canoes became grounded on the river bead due to the low water levels caused by limited rain in the months prior to the expedition. At first we were all reluctant to get out of the canoes and get our shoes wet, however it soon became clear to us whether we liked it or not we would be walking our canoes down the river. These events turned out to be quite entertaining for the group. Upon reaching our first campsite ahead of schedule, we wasted no time in putting up our tents quickly. Then, we enjoyed a delicious pasta dinner, which was a perfect way to wrap up the day’s adventure. With no injuries among us and in good spirits, we were ready for the next leg of our journey.
Quote from Jags “Well that went well… if it’s all like this it’s going to be a breeze!” Famous last words!
Friday 14th July: After an early night we all woke up and started the day well. Spirits among the group were apprehensive as our weather report told us we were in for a very wet day. We packed up our tents and equipment and then started to prep our boats for the day. Once we got our boats back into the water we set off, waterproofs on, making our way on one of the longer days we’d planned, not ideal for a day full of rain. When the rain started about 20 minutes after setting off it was relentless, paired with strong winds blowing towards us resulted in a slow place and low morale. A couple of people in the group were trying to boost everyone’s mood and energy but it wasn’t working. We decided to take an early break on a bank and put a hot brew on for everyone. This lifted our mood considerably and certainly helped our wellbeing as a few of us were feeling the cold. Once we’d had our hot drink and snack, we headed back down the river paddling for an hour or so whilst planning our next stop – lunch, which would be in Hereford under a bridge and most importantly some time out of the rain.
Despite this, a few members of the group seemed to be experiencing the early signs of hypothermia which meant that when we stopped in Hereford we had to erect the emergency shelter on the bank to aid our warming up and recovery. Lunch break was extended, so after approx. 1.5 hours we got back in the boats and continued paddling onto our next campsite. The last 5km of this leg entailed us paddling into 15mph winds which made it an even more arduous task for us. The relief on all our faces when we got to our campsite after 32km of paddling was a sight to see. Once we safely removed our boats from the water we sprung into the action plan we had made on route. This entailed erecting the tents as quickly as possible to get people out of the cold and warmed up efficiently along with getting dinner started. We sent all the cold people straight for hot showers (luxury!) and told them to get in their sleeping bags immediately afterwards until dinner was done. Once this was completed the 3 of us who sorted dinner, etc went for our showers and warmed up. By the time we were all heading to bed the rain had finally stopped and as a team we had the opportunity to decompress and debrief the day.
Quote from Daniel “This is certainly a birthday I won’t forget!”
Saturday 15th July: After a good night’s sleep and a positive weather report for the day (windy but not wet) we set off paddling our next 30km. 2km in we got to the anticipated rapids. We stopped before we got to them, assessed them and put on our safety helmets. We went down one boat at a time to ensure that if there were any safety issues our supervisor would be able to intervene and assist as necessary. Luckily, or maybe it was our pure skill, there were no problems and we continued with the day as planned. The wind was strong which was good when it was behind us as we were able to erect a makeshift sail and progress along the river as a raft. However the time we gained was subsequently lost when we then reached a point where we were paddling against the wind. We got to the next campsite on schedule and started to set up camp and get dinner prepared ahead of the final day!
Quote from Christine “After yesterday that was easy. I think we can do anything now!”
Sunday 16th July – The Home Straight! All up at 6:30am ‘bright eyed and bushy tailed’ and ready for the off at 7am. It was chilly and fresh but today was our shortest day paddling at only 24km. The group was in good spirits and we planned to do the remainder of our project filming at the ruins of Goodrich Castle which was great fun.
This was the most relaxed day and, as we were ahead of schedule, we were able to raft along for part of the route. The only obstacle we encountered were the endless fishing lines, it seemed that the whole of the south west of England had come out to fish!
We arrived at our final destination, Sterretts Caravan site, in good spirits. We were met by our assessor and we presented our project to him. We packed up, loaded our boats onto the trailer and were totally ready for our drive home. It was a lot of fun and a huge relief to have completed our Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award.
Group quote “We Did It!”
*We call ourselves the BDL (Bee Defence League) as unfortunately a bee was harmed during our practice expedition. The perpetrator was admonished and was very sorry for his actions and says he won’t do it again… even though he is still scared of bees!
The Ulysses Trust also wish to thank the generosity of the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust for supporting this expedition. www.rafct.com
