Kayaking in the Summer 2022

We bought an annual licence which entitles us to kayak on many rivers in England. The first river to paddle was the river Ouse, which runs through York. The logistics were quite complicated: you have to leave your bikes at the finish line, drive to the start, cycle home with the kayak at the end of the route, and then cycle back to the car at the end.

River Ouse, 4 June 2022

Theblue line shows our track on the river and cycling back to collect the car. Shift-click on the track link will open it in nakarte.me.

We started at Newton-on-Ouse. The kayak can be inflated very quickly, after about 20 minutes we were ready to start. The river Ouse is small here, with overgrown banks.

This is already the city of York. There are only three bridges in the city centre for vehicles and two pedestrian bridges: one along the railway in the north and one in the south. There are two more bridges on the ring road.

An ice-cream boat near the Museum Garden.

Lendal Bridge was built in the mid-19th century, and before that there was a ferry here.

The medieval Lendal Tower.

York Giuldhall.

There are no embankments along the river on this side, and the terraces of many cafes and bars overlook it.

And underneath are hidden secret passages, almost like Venice.

The embankment begins after the Skeldergate Bridge.

The famous King's Arms pub, which is always inundated in floods.

It's like the geese have been put in order.

We scared off a large flock of geese.

After passing the Millennium bridge, we finished at the University Rowing Club, where we left our bikes in the morning. Travelling through York on a kayak proved quite interesting. Everything looks quite different from the water. The only problem is that it takes a long time to wash, dry and pack away the kayak after such a trip.

Kayaking in the Lakes, 16 July 2022

We combined a mountain trip to the Lakes with a little kayaking excursion. We arrived in the Lakes late Friday night, camped for a night, hiked up Helvellyn and walked down to Patterdale. The hardest part was finding a parking spot close to the river.

The blue line shows our track. Shift-click on the track link will open it in nakarte.me.

Victor is inflating the kaykak.

Goldrill Beck is a small river that runs into Ullswater from the south. It was too shallow at this point.

We kept running aground and frequently had to get out and carry the kayak downstream.

Near the lake, the river became wider and deeper.

We finally got out into the open water of Ullswater. We kayaked for a few kilometres to a small island and turned back. It turned out not to be so interesting.