Whitlingham Broad - New Mills Yard (River Wensum)
Published: March 2009 | Written by: Roz Green
I was blessed in being accompanied by two of my offspring – my older son escaped what would have been to him this torturous event (he’s all brain and no brawn) as he lives in Birmingham. My youngest, Matthew Pearce (all brawn and........ouch!), is a ‘lapsed’ paddler too and it was good to see him back on the water. Over the past few years I have occasionally attempted to lure my oldest, Zoe Green (brain and brawn in equal measure, lots of, of course), to the club to give paddling a try but to no avail. So Mother’s Day gave me the leverage I needed to get her into a boat at last! Unfortunately Sally’s lovely sons weren’t able to make the trip but her husband Chris nobly dusted off his kit too to accompany her – watching them raft up together during the paddle with the excuse of swapping paddles was so touching lol!
At 8am (and I was almost fully awake) Matthew and I left Lowestoft to meet Dave Cassell at the clubhouse to pick up the boats, and then I attempted to follow him to the furthest car park in the quite busy Whitlingham Country Park, where we were the first paddlers to arrive – and those that know me will realise what a novelty that was for me!
We were gradually joined by another 10 paddlers, including Alan and Paul Jary, the trip leaders. My daughter was brought from Oulton Broad by Matthew’s father, as he wanted to photograph her inaugural experience of paddling. He took several photos of the whole group as we gathered together at the water’s edge and on the water before we set off at approx 10am.
I started the paddle in some discomfort as my little used semi- permeable drysuit, which was much much tighter than when I last wore it well over a year ago (it must have shrunk!) threatened to cut off my circulation, particularly at my neck ( can I hear a few ‘if only’s?). Seems like I’m returning to paddling just in time! However I battled onwards and wholly enjoyed catching up on news with Sally, putting society to rights with Brother Alan, and taking in the less than usual paddling surroundings that this city trip allows, under the gaze of many more surprised onlookers than usual too. On reaching our destination – New Mills Yard – Annette clocked our journey with her GPS as 4.1 miles with an average pace that had started at 3mph and reduced to 2.7mph.
As we started back Zoe and Matthew paddled a little ahead. This proved to be rather fortuitous for a young ‘lady’ reveller who was relieving herself at the water’s edge at the bottom of a flight of steps, as Zoe was able to warn her that a number of paddlers would be passing by shortly. This was an unexpected confirmation of what I had previously assured Zoe - that paddling enables you to see things that you wouldn’t normally get to see!
We pulled in at Cow Tower – a 14thcentury military tower which formed part of the city’s walls - for a lunch stop, helped by the ever gentlemanly John Rickett. Concomitantly (sorry but it’s my favourite word) Dave gave us a brief local history talk on the area opposite. He told us it was the ‘Lollards Pit’ – a chalk pit where many innocent victims were stoned and burnt at the stake as religious heretics, or witches (where was Germaine Greer when they needed her?
There is now a pub close by, so the practice of getting stoned continues still to this day). Dave informed us that the remains of manacles have been found there. It was at this point that someone totally lowered the tone by remarking that it had been converted since to a massage parlour (sorry – that was me, again...). Refreshed and a little less tormented by the beer ‘n’ roast beef odours we repeatedly encountered, we paddled back to Whitlingham, getting off the water at about 2pm with the sun still shining.
Sincere thanks to Alan and Paul for organising and leading this delightful and serene trip (i.e. no books falling from the sky to dodge, no disorientated swimming dogs/cows to rescue, and no unintended capsizes!).
A big personal THANK YOU to Dave Cassell for transporting an open canoe for my ‘kids’, thereby making this Mother’s Day yet another one to remember with affection. Thanks to my daughter for coping so admirably with the paddling and to Matthew for looking after her so well on the water – we’re all now keen to do more paddling. Sally and I requested a repeat for next Mother’s Day, and several members would like to do it again one balmy/barmy night this summer, when our usual display of twinkling light sticks may well get some Riverside revellers to question their sobriety!
NB The actual definition of brawn is ‘physical strength in contrast to intelligence’, not stupidity, and of course that’s how I meant it.......ouch!