"River Walks"
by Neptune
|
|
Our summer holidays in the UK have taken us to many good river locations, here we describe some of our favorites. If you plan to visit any of them see the Google Earth note at the bottom of this page.
|
BARCOMBE MILLS, River Ouse (East Sussex)
This was a very pleasant afternoon walk along a slow flowing river with open meadows. The water depth is quite variable with some deep areas. The banks are rather steep, but we did find some broken patches where twillin could get into the river and splash around. In summer you can hire boats at the Anchor Inn although it would also be possible to launch either canoes or inflatable boats away from the weir. This is a river that we will be visiting again.
|
BOXHILL, River Mole (Surrey)
This is our local river and we have made many visits here, we mostly go to the Box hill section near Dorking. The water depth is very variable with some deep areas and some long very shallow streches. The banks are rather steep and overgrown, but there are some broken patches where you can climb down into the river and splash around. The area is mostly woodland and there are usually a few rope swings, which I like to play on. In the summer months when there is not much water current it is also possible to launch our small inflatable boat, but you have to be prepared to get out of the boat to walk the shallows. The stepping stones are a popular place for families with children to splash around in the warm summer months. There is another strech of the river Mole a few miles away, just outside Leatherhead town centre where the river is wide and shallow with a large open meadow, which is also worth exploring.
|
DOVEDALE, River Dove (Derbyshire)
We only discovered this river walk because there was a nice picture of the stepping stones on the cover of our map.
On the day of our walk the weather started out warm but thundery with no rain. There were a few families with children already there when we began our walk.
The river Dove is in a steep sided woodland valley, with the Open Derbyshire Dales towering above.
We started at the southern end of the trail heading north to Milldale.
So we had to cross those stepping stones first, the water was not very deep.
As we continued our walk we passed some large caves in the steep valley sides, I climbed up to take a closer look and a couple of photographs, then we continued along the river, there were a few places where there are rocks mid stream which form rappids and very small waterfalls we wadded in a few times to take a closer look.
We finally got to Milldale at lunchtime and stoped there to eat our small picnic lunch. In the afternoon the weather had improved and it became quite hot, so twillin spent much of the return jurney jumping in and out of the river, we also came across a couple of young lads who were enjoying their walk along the middle of the river.
When we got back to the stepping stones it was hot and sunny and they were very busy with lots of families siting around while their children were playing in the shallow water.
|
BOLTON ABBEY, River Wharfe (Yorkshire)
There had been a significant amount of rain in the weeks before our visit, so the river Wharfe was quite high with a very strong current going over the weire down stream of the stepping stones.
Although when we arrived it was not very busy, as the weather improved many more peopl started to arrive and setup Bar-B-Que's.
We stopped to take a look at the stepping stones which are quite high and I would guess they are standing in about 2 feet of water and the water was lapping over the top of a few of them and just to make it more interesting there were a couple of wobbly ones.
We continued our walk north on the western bank (Green trail) towards "The Strid". The path is mostly through woodland but is well marked and maintained.
The Strid is quite impressive, it is a very deep narrow rocky section with an imense force of water flowing at high speed through the narrow gourge, we stopped here a while to take some photos, but this is one section of the river you would definitly not want to fall in.
We crossed the river at the Aqueduct, not realising that the trail continued further to Barden bridge.
We stopped and sat on the banks to eat our picnic lunch. Our journey back was along the path on eastern bank of the river (Orange trail) which is at a much higher level than the river.
Unfortunatly we could not get to the the waterfalls on a nearby river, because they had closed the footpath.
When we got back to the stepping stones there was a long queue of young people crossing the river while their families watch, there were of course a few of them that fell in, but they did not seem to mind to much.
Twillin completed the day by continually walking across the river just upstream of the stepping stones.
|
PASS OF ABERGLASLYN, Afon[River] Glaslyn (Snowdonia)
![Afon[River] Glaslyn](../gallery/a10s02.jpg)
The river which is afon in welsh is in a wide glen with only a few scattered trees, the banks are very rough and rocky with lots of very large boulders mid stream.
![Afon[River] Glaslyn](../gallery/a10s03.jpg)
We headed north to Beddgelert along the winding foot path which was quite narrow at some points and we had to stop to let other walkers pass.
The main road runs along the other side of the river and on the day we were there the weather was quite hot and quite a few people had parked their cars at the side of the road and were sitting on the other river bank while their children played in the river shallows out of the main current..
Both me and twillin waded into the water a few times but the deep water sections were very very cold.
where the river split into two channels there was foot bridge and children where jumping from the bridge into the water, twillin waded into the water and said it was much warmer at this location.
We stopped here for a while and had a picnic lunch before starting our return journey.
|
OLD SHOREHAM, River Ardur(West Sussex)
We often visit this river in the summer months. This is a tidal section of the river Ardur where there is a very fast current flow. It gets quite busy near the road bridge because there is an outdoor activity center which launches canoes and sailing dingys.
When the tide goes out there are some large areas of mud flats and steep muddy banks me and twillin sometimes play football here, this is also where we filmed our mud skiing video. One day when me and twillin were walking along the foot path we saw a family collecting worms or muscles, but their two sons were enjoying slidding down the muddy river bank and getting covered in the thick mud.
|
WALLOWBARROW GOURGE, River Duddon (Cumbria)
This is another pleasant river walk, which we found in a walking guide book for the Lake District.
The river Duddon was quite shallow when we visited it, with lots of large boulders in the middle
The stepping stones are something of a challenge because although there is a steel cable as a hand guide, the boulders are quite slippery and of course the cable just swings about. So we both decided to just walk across in the river.
There was a small river with a waterfall feeding into the main river and we could not resist the temptation of taking a closer look and some pictures, the water was extreemly cold and even twillin could not stay there for very long.
Further down stream there is another set of stepping stones where we stopped to have a picnic lunch before splashing around and finally heading back along the river
|
LYNMOUTH, River Lyn(Devon)
It was early May when we explored the East Lyn river and West Lyn river where they meet at Lynmouth. The weather was quite good though not very warm. We started with the West Lyn river where it runs through the narrow Glen Lyn Gorge. You have to pay an entrance fee, then you get to see some water powered equipment, but twillin especially liked playing with the water cannons, even though you cannot get in front of them he did manage to get soaked just putting his hand in front of the nozzles, we then enjoyed the pleasant walk along the river. After lunch we explored the East Lyn River.
We started our walk on the north bank crossing the small foot bridge to the southern bank, we followed the path until it came to an end where the bank had collapsed.
The river runs through a much wider gorge and although the river looked quite small at the time, it can rappidly increase in size with water draining from moors.
We then walked back to the foot bridge and went along the north bank to the steep hill which leads away from the river. Our guide book says there are some possible swimming places upstream so I guess we will have to come back to explore more of this river in warmer weather.
|
We have created a Google Earth waypoint file from our GPS with all the locations of our featured river walks. If you have Google Earth installed on your computer, just download the '.kml' and open in Google Earth.
|
|
