Pennywort patrol

We had a report of some Floating Pennywort on the upper Cam in February, but a fallen tree and then the introduction of coronavirus restrictions made it difficult to get out to check

Thankfully, when we were able to do a Pennywort Patrol, all was clear. It was blissful to be back on the river.

You can read about the Pennywort eradication project on the Cam Valley Forum website here , and this blog here and here

Shelford to Cambridge

Lovely paddle and campout from Shelford to Cambridge, just a few days before coronavirus restrictions started

On the way, we cleared a few remaining tangles of tree branches, that had reappeared since Cambridge Canoe Club's working party on the stretch past Trumpington Country Park

Its now a very nice paddle

Big Trip

For a couple of months end 2019, we had our "BigTrip" down under to see Tom's brother, Bill in Tasmania.

 Bill lent us his little van and a couple of bikes, so we did a wonderful circuit of Tasmania (dodging wild weather) camping out much of the time. Australian style wild camping is a bit more organised than we're used to, but still very nice!

 We managed to hire a sit-on kayak to explore some of the Pieman River on the edge of the Tarkine wilderness area of NW Tasmania. 

  Much of this beautiful wilderness area is being destroyed by open cast mining and logging.

 Save the Tarkine are campaining to get it world heritage protection and deserve supporting

Menai Straits

We were able to keep the Cambridge Canoe Club kayaks for a few more days. There were Force 5 winds out in the bay by Puffin Island.....

 but it was beautifully sheltered in the Menai Straits ...

A sea kayaking course

23 of us from Cambridge Canoe Club came over to Anglesey for a 3 day course with Phil and his team from Anglesey Adventures.  We stayed at the very pleasant kayak friendly campsite Anglesey Outdoors

This was very useful for helping us get used to single kayaks

 Lots of opportunity to practice cutting into tide races...

..handling surf and swells in force 4 winds......

    and rescue skills!...

  On the way back to the campsite, the kayak gortex came in handy..

More Pennywort

Pennywort eradication going well.  We had funding from the local water company, landowners and the Environment agency to prune back the trees that were trapping the pennywort on the upper Cam and making it impossible to remove.

You can just see the team of 3, working from 2 giant punts and half hidden in the trees. They're working from right (upstream) to left. The green patch on the left is floating pennywort


And we've a growing team of kayakers and others that are helping remove the little strands that emerge, before they have a chance to grow into monster mats

More details about  eradicating Floating Pennywort here

Culbin, Affric and Skye

Now in cycling mode, Culbin forest, near Findhorn is a nice place to explore.

We then headed back west to Glen Affric, and then Skye, picking up various bits of our lost property on the way before returning home