I WAS looking forward to this stretch of the Tas – from the bridge at Lakenham, heading upstream. The plan was to make it to Caistor St Edmund and perhaps get some good pictures of the Roman walls into the bargain. But sadly, what looks like a decent channel on the OS map, is in parts little better than a field dyke. It starts well next to the railway line (see above) but it soon gets too narrow for a comfortable paddle.
Throw in some barbed wire across the river and some get-off-my-land security guards at the Arminghall car boot sale (pictured) and this one proved a bit of a wash out. In the end the fluorescent jackets agreed that while the landowner owned the riverbed, he didn’t own the river itself. So I ploughed on. But thick reeds right
across the river soon made me wish I hadn’t bothered. The Tas Valley is beautiful and the river does seem to be wider up at Caistor. But despite the high praise of Literary Norfolk, I’m afraid today cured me of any Tas-mania - at least when I’ve got a paddle in my hand.
* More Kayaking Kapers here.
That's a shame. Will you try further down, or are you just limiting it to how far you can get from Norwich?
ReplyDeleteI'll try further upriver some day I guess.
ReplyDeleteBut it won't make it in the book so it will have to wait a while.