Kayaking the WHOLE River Thames, Source to London Barrier

Рет қаралды 13,290

Күн бұрын

Пікірлер: 34

@nickcowley Жыл бұрын

If you're planning on doing a similar trip or just enjoyed the journey feel free to leave a comment or question below. Thanks for watching.

@gasaxe2532 9 ай бұрын

Where abouts does the river become navigable by kayaks , and would you recommend any good launch point’s ?

@nickcowley 9 ай бұрын

It can depend on water levels, Cricklade is probably the first area where it becomes navigable, when we did it this wasn't possible. Lechlade you're pretty much guaranteed. We launched from The Red lion Castle Eaton, they charged a small launch fee, although I have a feeling they were going to stop allowing people doing this. 'Paddle points' is an excellent website to check out.

@padraigmonaghan7180 2 жыл бұрын

So good! Well done lads!

@stevenmcgee5683 Жыл бұрын

Nice adventure that

@Mortimore008 2 жыл бұрын

Superb video man, I've walked it and documented it this year, but it was nice to see it from a different perspective. Cheers

@nickcowley 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you, glad you enjoyed. I'll be sure to check out your perspective and see what we missed!

@AyaanThe0ne 18 күн бұрын

Looks like Ed Pratt is following in your footsteps! He's doing the same thing

@nickcowley 18 күн бұрын

@@AyaanThe0ne Maybe he got the idea from us 🤔

@AyaanThe0ne 17 күн бұрын

@@nickcowley That was what I was thinking!

@jjp4360 11 күн бұрын

Except Ed is doing the whole thing without leaving the water - wading - swimming - kayaking (except to camp obviously).

@nickcowley 10 күн бұрын

@@jjp4360Yes fair play to him for wading and swimming! We didn't have time to do that, we needed to finish the trip in time to get back to work 😅

@simondjangothe4349 6 ай бұрын

Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your video. A new subscriber.

@nickcowley 6 ай бұрын

@simondjangothe4349 Thank you for the support 👍

@aircreed 6 ай бұрын

I'm the 100th Subscriber!!! The video was fantastic.

@nickcowley 6 ай бұрын

Thank you for the support!

@michaeldavies2819 5 ай бұрын

Very enjoyable 👍

@richardobi-jh8jo 6 ай бұрын

about 2 years ago which i really enjoyed i did a canoe (inflatable) trip from Stains to Henley the some weeks later i did it from Oxford to Reading next week i will do Kemble to Oxford if it doesn't take too long... i'm thinking 3-4 days ? Nice Video guys 👍

@nickcowley 6 ай бұрын

Those are both really nice sections of the river you did! Kemble to Oxford, yeah i'd say 3-4 days. If you look in the description we listed our mileage, we took 3 days to do Kemble to Sandford lock, which is just past Oxford. The upper Thames is great, enjoy!

@ChrisW_Essex 7 ай бұрын

did they just dump the bikes at the start?

@nickcowley 7 ай бұрын

We preloaded a car up with the kayaks, and then were met at the launch point, bikes went into the car

@Hammertime054 12 күн бұрын

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻😎brilliant

@cappleby22 Жыл бұрын

Did you have to do much planning for the journey? Or was a lot of it made up as you went, did the plan change much if there was one?

@nickcowley Жыл бұрын

We did put a lot of planning in, particularly as we were both novice kayakers, so we were a little unsure what to expect. We had rough mileage and areas we wanted to get to each day, wild camping along the route. We pre booked into one campsite roughly half way anticipating we may be in need of a shower, which was definitely a moral booster! The London end probably had the most planning as there isn't really anywhere to camp downstream of Chertsey, for those nights fortunately we had some friends and family we could stay with, we left some inflatable roof racks with them before setting off so we could transport the boats. In London there was the tide times to consider, we had to make sure that we caught the outgoing tide from Putney. Also we had pre planned where we would get out at that end (Greenwich Yacht Club), there really isn't anywhere to stop and get out of the river downstream from Putney. Having said all this, the plan wasn't rigid and we weren't concerned about completely sticking to it, apart from the London end. There were a few days where we did less mileage and others where we did more. We were restricted to doing it in 12 days, so the hardest part was not stopping at every pub on the river!

@DanFairweather-qs6pt 11 ай бұрын

Hi Nick. My brother and I are thinking of canoeing the Thames (source to Teddingtom lock) with are 14 year old sons this summer. How many hours a day did you paddle for, what sort of distances, and do you think younger people could manage? We will camp along the way and are estimating 8 days in total..... Dan

@nickcowley 11 ай бұрын

Hi Dan. I’ve added the miles for each day in the description. 19 miles was our longest and 11 miles was our shortest. We roughly had an average moving speed of 3 mph for the non tidal part. We did around 9 to 12 hours a day but that is including breaks and getting around/through the locks - these really do slow you down, even carrying around some locks could take nearly 15 mins. I’d recommend getting up and on the water early, that helps with chipping away at the milage. The kids, its hard to tell really, there is quite an accumulation on the body, and it takes a while to loosen up in the mornings, but then again they may be better off in that regard. Generally I would say its more of a resilience thing as opposed to fitness. The beauty of the Thames is it’s so accessible, so even if you do have to cut the trip short there’s plenty of options. Good luck!

@oldgreg1 6 ай бұрын

Did you not notice the grey smelly water you were paddling through????

@nickcowley 6 ай бұрын

@@oldgreg1 I wouldn't choose to go through London again...

@jonathanmaher6663 4 ай бұрын

@@nickcowley Why is that? Where would you cut it?

@nickcowley 4 ай бұрын

@@jonathanmaher6663 I would keep it to the non-tidal part of the Thames, so end in Teddington. London was an experience but not the nicest part of the river to be on in a kayak!