Paddleboarding 100 miles down the river Wye.. why not?
Many years ago (pre kids) we did a couple of days in a canoe paddling down the Wye valley. The rental company came looking for us as we were so late (we were floating rather than paddling most of the way I think) and she started yelling at us from the river bank as none of us had our life jackets on and we were jumping out of the canoes and generally mucking around way more than she thought we should. Other than the beautiful scenery – which was reminiscent of parts of the Mekong (minus the heat) and getting told off by the canoe lady that’s all I really remember of the trip.
So now it is time to go back. On a paddleboard of course.
Source to sea was the plan but I have been told it’s not possible which is sad. I’ve also been told I can’t wild camp anywhere which is very sad (loved camping on islands on The River Thames trip). But it’s a decent journey length of about 100miles (Glasbury to Chepstow) which should take 5 days. It may feel longer as I am doing it alone or I may find my inner self that has been hiding within just waiting for this moment of quiet reflection.
Having heard how badly polluted our UK rivers are (especially the River Wye) I thought I would try and raise some money for a charity that is looking to help solve this growing problem. I looked at a few and River Action UK seems like a great one – they are actively engaging and co-ordinating with different environmental groups nationwide to make things work, they are working with the industries responsible for the pollution to create change and no one is being paid crazy salaries (I checked on the .Gov website).
So if you have a spare few pennies please donate to Just Giving here