As I woke this morning, the first thing I could see and hear was the rain, forming little shadows on the outside of the outer flysheet. However it soon stopped and we decided over breakfast that today we would do the canoeing we had come to do.
We checked down with Chris at the Symonds Yat Canoe Centre and arranged to go for the afternoon trip.
We had a couple of hours to spare so headed off to Coleford to visit Clearview Caves, an ancient underground iron mine. Quite an atmosphere down there. No guide us such, just sort of amble through at your own leisure and read the rather tatty notecards!
The caves took all of 45 mins to do and we were soon outside again. A quick trip into Monmouth for some provisions then back to Doward Park to drop things off in the coolbox before heading off for our canoe run.
We got ourselves togged up in life jackets and onto a mini bus with several other groups and were taken to Kerne Bridge about a 10 minute drive away. We then set off on an 8 mile steady row back to the canoe centre. We had a few wobbly moments when we hit a bank and Barnaby almost had his head severed by various overhanging branches. We stopped part way down and I promptly half fell out the boat and got sopping wet. Good job the weather had turned round and I dried out soon enough. It was great to get to some of the calmer points of the river, such as below Yat Rock where we had been looking down from yesterday. Barnaby has promised to blog about the fimily singing troupe that sailed past us. We were soon back and finished, and totally knackered. Another BBQ, a few Jack Daniels and then it will soon be time for bed. I have decided after last nights problems of trying to attach a pic to the blog that it's not worth the touble so I shall link to them all when I am back home again.
Tomorrow we plan on doing Puzzle Wood and possibly go and have a look around Ross on Wye.
We checked down with Chris at the Symonds Yat Canoe Centre and arranged to go for the afternoon trip.
We had a couple of hours to spare so headed off to Coleford to visit Clearview Caves, an ancient underground iron mine. Quite an atmosphere down there. No guide us such, just sort of amble through at your own leisure and read the rather tatty notecards!
The caves took all of 45 mins to do and we were soon outside again. A quick trip into Monmouth for some provisions then back to Doward Park to drop things off in the coolbox before heading off for our canoe run.
We got ourselves togged up in life jackets and onto a mini bus with several other groups and were taken to Kerne Bridge about a 10 minute drive away. We then set off on an 8 mile steady row back to the canoe centre. We had a few wobbly moments when we hit a bank and Barnaby almost had his head severed by various overhanging branches. We stopped part way down and I promptly half fell out the boat and got sopping wet. Good job the weather had turned round and I dried out soon enough. It was great to get to some of the calmer points of the river, such as below Yat Rock where we had been looking down from yesterday. Barnaby has promised to blog about the fimily singing troupe that sailed past us. We were soon back and finished, and totally knackered. Another BBQ, a few Jack Daniels and then it will soon be time for bed. I have decided after last nights problems of trying to attach a pic to the blog that it's not worth the touble so I shall link to them all when I am back home again.
Tomorrow we plan on doing Puzzle Wood and possibly go and have a look around Ross on Wye.
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