A typical day trip, (e.g. to Shepperton), works roughly as follows:
- meet up in the morning with car driver, (departure time depends on where we are going, etc.)
- pick up club boats and equipment from Barn Elms container, (if required)
- drive to venue, travelling time can be approx.:
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- Shepperton 45 mins
- Wandle (Putney to Merton 30 mins minimum!)
- Thames weirs - 40 mins to an hour depending on which weir
- Lee Valley - 1 hour 15 mins
- paddling - drive to river, offload all gear at top of river, shuttle cars to bottom of river, paddle river for a couple of hours or so, change, collect car from top and that's it! For Shepperton or weir paddling there is no need to organise a shuttle.
- visit pub or tea shop for late lunch
- do more paddling if time and interest or
- return to the club container to offload boats and equipment and then everyone goes home
We often go to Shepperton as there is convenient car park next to the river, a big island to paddle round, (to give a feeling of a journey rather than there and back), the Wey channel to the small weirs, possibly portaging to the other channel for the return, or the main Shepperton weirs and slalom gates, (i.e. lots of variety). The Pub is then next to the main car park or teas by the lock, (summer only). This is an ideal first time out for beginners on a river trip as the water is static compared to the Tideway at Putney. Also if we go on a Saturday, we can drop into the canoe shop for a bit of gear shopping afterwards.