Woke up in good time for us to reorganise our bags for our bushcraft canoeing expedition and get breakfast in. Then drove off just a few miles up the road to the Canoeman’s HQ in Wroxham. On the way, stopped for a sandwich at a café by the roadside as we needed a packed lunch. They said they could make one up, 5 minutes they said. Boy, did I realise I was in Norfolk – I was desperate to get going as we were running a touch late, but there was no hurrying them …
But we did get to the meet-up on time – a touch nervous I was, but relaxed somewhat when I realised we weren’t going to be transporting our luggage in our canoes – visions of my sleeping bag submerging into murky depths when we capsized rapidly disappeared. And also relieved to see another middle-aged woman among the group of mainly chaps and some young kids.
We were ferried to our starting point, Aylsham, in a minibus where we were decked out in lifejackets, given some brief prelims then shown to our canoes. A bit more worry when I thought I was going to have to be in back and steer but Dave was game to give that a go. Then it was off – we were second into the river Bure and paddled about 10 yards to wait a few minutes with the first canoe while the instructors came up behind us. The few minutes turned into about 30 minutes as the guys in the canoe just behind us had gone the wrong way and, despite the almost impossibly shallow water and odd bits of impassable barbed wire didn’t realise they were going the wrong way for quite some while …
Once we really got going, there was a little bit of bickering in our boat as we got used to that bloody steering lark. But the day stayed fabulously dry with quite long sunny intervals as the afternoon wore on. The river was beautiful and serene with swans and cygnets gliding about and watercress lining the banks. We stopped for lunch near an old church, then more paddling until we got to a narrow inlet which we turned down. We picked up our luggage from a campsite two fields away on the other side of the bank, and paddled the few yards back to where we were stopping for the night.
Then the fun started – the instructor rigged up a lean-to with a big sheet of tarpaulin, then got us collecting firewood (lots and lots otherwise we’d go hungry). Then he gave us the most basic of instructions on how to create our shelter from a sheet of tarpaulin and some bits of manky string – I lost it as soon as he started explaining the knots. Dave and I found a spot and bickered some more as we tried to remember how to do it, but in the end, we managed quite well – a bit of twine between two trees with the tarpaulin threaded through it – then pegged down with improvised twig pegs. The best bit though was finding the mosquito nets which Dave managed to find a way of rigging up inside our tarpaulin – so that we had what was basically a fairly rudimentary tent.
Dinner was cooked in blackened pans straight on top of the, by now, roaring fire – pasta and sardines. Then some more stuff about how to light fires and making feather sticks. Thought we heard thunder once but must have been fireworks - which was good, I'd have had a total fit rough camping under trees during a thunderstorm. Luckily the forecast rain didn't arrive and we sat around the lovely warm fire before heading to the ‘tents’.
The night was as uncomfortable as I thought it would be, not because I was cold – the clouds kept it very warm – but a roll mat is not the most easy of things to sleep on – and I had to go for a pee at 2am and then again half an hour later. Didn’t really sleep, probably dozed off a few times and then probably got a bit of deep sleep as the birds started up their racket and it got light.
Cooking on a campfire
http://365project.org/boxplayer/extras/2012-07-07
7 July 2012
River Bure, near Aylsham, Norfolk
