Sudbury to the Sea (S2C)

First of all I'd like to thank The River Stour Trust (RST) for putting on a well organised event. Tea and buns at the end of each day is a nice touch too.

The day started for me, my youngest son, Bigrich, Greg and Stan the dog at The Granary at 9am. The boats were offloaded and we made our way to the slipway ready for the off. The carpark started to get quite busy with many craft including a couple of coracles.

We set off into perfect weather, sunshine and very little wind. There are several portages early on where the RST had people to help.

Along the way we spotted a Quentin sticker belonging to Mabbo who'd done S2C last year with his son. This year was with Mrs M.

The picture below shows one drop of well over a metre and the approaching banana boat took this on successfully.

The boat was fibreglass and flexed and wobbled its way down, it was pointed out later that it didn't have any gunnels, hence the flexing.

Lunch and around 6 miles into the trip was Bures. This is the view approaching the road bridge.We pulled the boats out at Bures cricket club.

Once checked in (each boat has a number which is logged at various stages) we were fed and watered and watered again as we headed off to the pub.

Stan the dog, who came along for the whole trip.

Below - the scene before lunch, probably only about 20 odd craft or so. By the time we came back it was a different story with lots of boats coming and going. Even the coracles had made it - hats off to you guys.

We met up with a couple of other Ipswich Canoe Club members who were in sea kayaks. Some of the ICC crew plus Mr and Mrs Mabbo.

We arrived at Wissington for the overnight camping stop around 3:30pm where we were helped out and pointed in the direction of tea and buns. I recently bought a pocket stove that I'm well impressed with. Good heat and very fuel efficient - down side is it blackens the pots... I also brought my home made meths stove made from a coke can which again worked really well however I need to improve my pot stand but that's another story.

The pocket stove in action.

In the evening the campfire was lit and the singing began... Next morning we headed off at 9am with my oldest son in the boat this time. We were also minus Bigrich who had a prior engagement doing the River Gipping cleanup.

There are stretches along the lower section that are very shallow, so shallow that getting out the boat is the only way forward. For some reason the mornings paddle seemed quite long and tiring so the lunchtime stop at Stratford St. Mary was most welcome. We also ran into Mabbo and missus again in the pub - deja vu.

The section from Stratford down to Cattawade (the end point) is quite familiar to me and the ICC members being our local and so we set off into familiar territory. The wind really got up in this last section and I was glad that it was with us for the most part.

Again the RST did a good job handing out cups of tea and cakes plus a certificate to mark the occasion. All in all it was a really enjoyable event and good to meet up with Mabbo and missus who hopefully we'll see on the water again. My kids also loved the "boat on a rope" I made, it kept them amused for hours.