After work last Thursday I packed some kit into a couple of dry bags, strapped a kayak to the roof of my car and headed out to camp along the river Medway.
I’d planned to stay at a campsite on Friday night, but discovered that wild camping is allowed at some of the locks and the weather was forecast to be better on the Thursday night.
So just over half an hour after finishing work I arrived in the car park and was faffing with putting my overnight kit in the kayak for the first time. It proved simpler than packing a bike, thanks to the cavernous interior making it easy to just shove big dry bags inside.
I had a solid couple of hours until sunset by the time I was on the water. I hadn’t yet decided which lock to stop at, unsure about how far I wanted to paddle and how much effort portaging across the first couple of locks might be.
The dry canoe pass of the first lock nearly claimed my boat between the exposed brushes, but thankfully nothing fell out and the rope I’d attached was long enough to hold up the side too.
Thankfully this was the only lock that I’d have to portage, all the other canoe passes were open. Though in the end I only went past one more lock before deciding to stop – much sooner than I’d been thinking initially, but it just felt right.
I drug my boat out of the water, thankful for the rope, and spent the next few hours just pottering around the lock.
The sunset wasn’t spectacular, and I wasn’t very far away from home, but I was outside, eating dinner with a view along the river and I couldn’t think of many places I’d rather have been.
I had a nice chat about paddling & wild camping with a couple who were unintentionally wearing matching maroon t-shirts.
Once the sky was dark enough I shimmied into my bivvy bag, got used to the noises around me – which was mostly just the roar of the water running thorough the lock gates – and settled down to sleep.
As ever with sleeping in a bivvy bag I woke often during the night, but woke in the morning having felt like I slept really well. Being able to open my eyes and see the stars or just look around is something I really like over being inside a tent.
I was grateful that I didn’t have to defrost my pain au chocolate this time and my morning at the lock was as chilled as the previous evening.
I woke at dawn, and enjoyed the silence being filled by the dawn chorus shortly afterwards. The next few hours were spent just being, before I eventually felt ready to get back in the boat and paddle.
The next lock was as far as I felt like going, which wasn’t even as far as I’ve been on a day paddle previously, but I was enjoying the slow pace and Type 1 fun.
Having turned around and paddle upstream, portaging the lock I’d slept at it wasn’t long before I was back at the car.
I set out at about 18:00 the previous evening and was back before midday the next day – almost too short to even describe as a trip, but the positive impact of an overnighter punches well above what you’d expect.
This will probably be the first of many such trips along the river (and further afield too). I also expect to walk to the locks to camp sometimes, knowing that wild camping is allowed.
A lovely reminder that it doesn’t always have to be multiple nights, or far away from home to feel like a little adventure.