Kayak - The Stour River Part Ii: Pea Soup

After a less than glamorous start we found the next hour or so a wonderful experience. It was a beautiful day and the Stour is a tranquil slow moving river deep in the English countryside. The vistas are magnificent as you make your way through the famous painter Constable's countryside. The Stour River twists and turns and meanders to its final destination at the port of Harwich one of the biggest ports in Europe.

One of the major problems paddling a river after there has been a long hot dry spell is the build up of weed and algae. This river weed is not dissimilar to pea soup and smells a whole lot worse! Upon rounding a bend in the river we were faced with a huge patch of 'pea soup' that spanned across the entire width of the river.

Nick, one of the paddlers in the group was not as athletic as the rest of us, and as a result was lagging some way behind. Whilst waiting for him to catch up we let the kayaks drift up to the 'pea soup' using it as an anchor. We took the opportunity to have a quick sandwich and a drink.

Not wanting to hold us up, Nick decided not to stop and to push on through the weed in order to make up some ground as the rest of us looked on.

The further he paddled into the duck weed the harder it became to paddle. The more he paddled the more the weed tangled up in his paddles and as he lifted the paddle to take a stroke the weed fell into his boat. We could not help but laugh at his plight.

He eventually became stuck in the middle of the weed. Unable to paddle any further due to the thickness of it. However his predicament soon became ours when we made our attempts to get him out. Upon seeing how difficult it was to paddle through the weed we decided to portage up the steep grassy bank.

At this point we realised one of the most important kayak accessories to have in your kit bag is nettle spray! As we climbed up the river bank in our shorts we all sustained many nettle stings which soon stopped us laughing.

Another important item in your kayak accessories should be a decent rope. Luckily I had brought a rope with me but unfortunately it was not a good quality one. We threw the rope to our fellow stranded paddler who in turn tied it to the front of his inflatable kayak. As we tried to pull the boat the rope snapped and kept snapping every time it was retied.

At one point Matt slipped down the bank and fell waist deep into the stagnant weed. By this time Nick had worked out that he could edge forward by bumping along but it was a slow process and was extremely tiring.

It took nearly half an hour for him to eventually get to the other side of the pea soup and he was shattered by the time he had done so.
His inflatable kayak was full of weed and absolutely stank of rotting vegetation.