Canoe to Glastonbury

[Staberinde]

Browsing Utube I came across this video...

This guy intends to canoe over 200 miles from his house near Holland Broke in Essex, along the English coast, then up the Thames estuary where he'll join the Kennett and Avon canal at Reading, travelling all the way to Bradford on Avon, then completing that last bit of the journey to Pilton by bike.

I've just joined his Face Book group > here < and he has a blog > here <

I'm really going to enjoy watching his progress. When I first saw the title of the vidio, I thought it was a spoof. Has he realised how hard this journey will be?

Hope he makes it.

[sisterofmercy]

Is he the nutter who brings a canoe to Glasto EVERY year? I swear there's always someone on the news reports during Glasto who's carrying one.

Good luck to him though, sounds like a gruelling journey.

[mikeb]

I'm always suitably impressed by anyone who does such seemingly 'daft' things that I couldn't ever do due to lack of balls (so to speak) and/or lack of ability Will defo be interesting to watch his progress on this l'il trip that's for sure !

Mind you, he's perhaps picked the 'wrong' year to do it I reckon ... should have done this in 2005 when not only could he have canoed to Bradford-on-Avon but pretty much all the way to the site and potentially even right up to his tent

No bike required and all that

Edited May 3, 2010 by mikeb

[TheBoyInTheBubble]

I'm just thinking how tough will that journey home be. I struggled last year to lift my legs onto the train let alone canoe for six days. Highly, highly, highly impressive (if slightly dangerous).

[vespa]

it won't be all under his own power though, looking at his photos he is an excellent and talented craftsman

not only is a canoe for river and canels, but it also turns into a trimaran sailing canoe for the sea which is every impressive

[Staberinde]

it won't be all under his own power though, looking at his photos he is an excellent and talented craftsman

not only is a canoe for river and canels, but it also turns into a trimaran sailing canoe for the sea which is every impressive

[ding dong]

is that a canoe in your pocket or are you just pleased to get to Glasto?

[strudders]

What a nice chap......

[Rufus Gwertigan]

Also, he must have some kind of support team travelling with him.. surely?

Judging by how big the cano-amaran is, it looks like a pain to carry over locks and fences.

[meatyparson]

He wants to tidy his room up, its a bloody disgrace !

Cant believe he is gonna canoe back home after too ! crazy sod

[Josepipe]

Let's hope he doesnt suffer the same fate as this guy:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8682719.stm

[strudders]

Update....

Simon Whitehouse 15 June at 22:13 Reply

Hi everyone,

Many of the local among you will have already heard on the grapevine of the events of today!

I left holland on sea this morning just after 7am, and was able to use my sail in a favourable north easterly breeze to make good progress towards the river thames. The weather forecast before I left was for fairly benign conditions, much like those at the beach when I departed, for the duration of the day.

I now know in retrospect that after my departure a strong wind warning was issued, which was soon upgraded to a gale warning for the thames estuary. not good for being a long way from anywhere in open water, in a tiny boat.

Anyway, to cut a long story slightly shorter, at 1130 this morning I was airlifted off my canoe by an RAF air sea rescue helicopter. The boat was also recovered. I had travelled 20 miles in horrendous seas, most of which were of a similar height to the mast, and would have been quite happy to continue had it not been for a succession of particularly steep waves eventually filling the boat faster than I could pump it out, leaving me in a situation which i could not self-sufficiently get out of.

So there are two things to do from here on- firstly, I need to comment on the professionalism and good nature of those who came to my aid, I am obviously very grateful to them indeed. My initial feeling of extreme guilt at the amount of public expenditure I had caused was put at complete rest by the watch manager at Thames MRSC coastguard station, who pointed out that if the helicopter and lifeboat hadn't been helping me, they would have been aimlessly buzzing around on exercise anyway- so they apparently found it rather good to have something 'proper' to do. This also extends to laying to rest any guilt I had about the ecological impact of the services who came to my aid- again this would have occurred anyway, whether they had rescued me or not.

Secondly, I am now considering my options. I have the boat back at home, more or less undamaged. Most of my worldly posessions which i was carrying at the time will be none the worse after hanging on a washing line for a couple of hours. The wind forecast for tomorrow is worse than today, so making another attempt at the open sea stretch of the journey tomorrow morning is out of the question. Leaving home on thursday would be too late to be sure of making it to the festival. So my current thinking is that I may drive the boat to london tomorrow evening, and continue by water as I would have done anyway from greenwich onwards on thursday morning. that way I will cover the vast majority of the route I had originally planned in the kayak, restoring my sense of achievement somewhat at the very least. Driving to london would mean burning diesel, but it would also make up for lost time and put me back on schedule. As an alternative to this though, I could quite possibly cycle to somerset on saturday, sunday and monday. This would doubtless make me feel remarkably silly, having not achieved something which I set out to achieve, but would be a completely ecologically sound and entirely hassle free option.

Thanks for reading- spewing thoughts out to others works wonders for putting them in the right order. and watch this space for updates.

And---- particularly, watch this space for the awesome if slightly shaky video footage i took while dangling from the helicopter winch wire and spinning round in mid air, including an aerial view of the half swamped boat! it'll be on youtube just as soon as my camera charger dries out....

peace to all.x

[Mark E. Spliff]

You win this year's psycho adventurer prize. Good on you for doing something different. I've got no problems with people doing stuff like this and occasionally getting into bother - most of the staff of the volunteer and professional rescue services are adventure sport nuts themselves. The vast majority of emergency services resource is taken up by fighty drunks, dozy drivers and couch-potatoes with clogged arteries. Plus, you obviously had some decent communications equipment - VHF or epirb?

I reckon you are excused any short-cuts necessary to get you there by boat. Might I also suggest using an inflatable yak? I use one on the Thames all the time and it's great for lock portages and fits into a small rucksack (with a 4-piece collapsible paddle.) It would go inside your tent and nobody else would be any the wiser.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

[mikeb]

Might I also suggest using an inflatable yak? I use one ...

[Staberinde]

You win this year's psycho adventurer prize. Good on you for doing something different. I've got no problems with people doing stuff like this and occasionally getting into bother - most of the staff of the volunteer and professional rescue services are adventure sport nuts themselves. The vast majority of emergency services resource is taken up by fighty drunks, dozy drivers and couch-potatoes with clogged arteries. Plus, you obviously had some decent communications equipment - VHF or epirb?

I reckon you are excused any short-cuts necessary to get you there by boat. Might I also suggest using an inflatable yak? I use one on the Thames all the time and it's great for lock portages and fits into a small rucksack (with a 4-piece collapsible paddle.) It would go inside your tent and nobody else would be any the wiser.

Good luck with whatever you choose.

[miniand]

I was about to rib you about the use of a helicopter using more fuel than driving to glasto until i read your last post...

But as you said they were on exercise I used to work on the north sea and occasionally theyed drop a bloke on the deck of our ship for practice, one of the captains i sailed with used to dash out and leave a crate of beer on the deck for a target for them. They do a great job. Hope your not pegging your ticket out on the line

[Mark E. Spliff]

Mark, this guy (the canonist) doesn't actually read here, did you know that ? Look him up on Face book if you want him to read your quote.

Or maybe you did know that and were just sharing your views with us? if so, sorry - no harm done