LadyInBed
Well-Known Member
If you are following a river, ditch bike and use a canoe.
Else buy OS map and look for bridges
Else buy OS map and look for bridges
Need to occasionally cross rivers - what to use?
- Thread starter WinterFire
- Start date
WinterFire
New Member
Thanks for all these replies.
@LadyInBed - I need to travel too far, and if I tried to do so along the river then passing weirs etc. would be very difficult in some circumstances. This is work I do in my own time, and often have three hours of daylight to do it in. Losing an hour or more through rowing/paddling all the way would be too inefficient. I need to get to places that I am simply not able to get to on land - so bridges don't help.
@SAPurdie - those options are interesting, but stand up things are perhaps less useful than sit in boats due to the risk of falling off They're interesting options, but I'm not sure they would be better than a standard vinyl boat.
@TheEcho - that's a very interesting article, particularly since they said that the Seahawk wasn't just a pool thing in quality/robustness. (The Lidl boat did feel like a pool thing to me.) However, I note that the Seahawk leaked, but due to a nick where they had removed the rollocks with a hedge trimmer. Lesson: Don't take a hedge trimmer to an inflatable boat. The author feels confident in taking that boat on a Scottish trip. That makes it sound like a plausible choice. I watched the lilo journey on the Australian river, and noted the vinyl boats bumping rocks. They didn't go down immediately, but that's not long enough a trial to really say how things would work for me.
@Norman_E - I'd love something like a convertible recumbent bike/ canoe, but suspect that it will cost with a capital C
@LadyInBed - I need to travel too far, and if I tried to do so along the river then passing weirs etc. would be very difficult in some circumstances. This is work I do in my own time, and often have three hours of daylight to do it in. Losing an hour or more through rowing/paddling all the way would be too inefficient. I need to get to places that I am simply not able to get to on land - so bridges don't help.
@SAPurdie - those options are interesting, but stand up things are perhaps less useful than sit in boats due to the risk of falling off
They're interesting options, but I'm not sure they would be better than a standard vinyl boat. @TheEcho - that's a very interesting article, particularly since they said that the Seahawk wasn't just a pool thing in quality/robustness. (The Lidl boat did feel like a pool thing to me.) However, I note that the Seahawk leaked, but due to a nick where they had removed the rollocks with a hedge trimmer. Lesson: Don't take a hedge trimmer to an inflatable boat. The author feels confident in taking that boat on a Scottish trip. That makes it sound like a plausible choice. I watched the lilo journey on the Australian river, and noted the vinyl boats bumping rocks. They didn't go down immediately, but that's not long enough a trial to really say how things would work for me.
@Norman_E - I'd love something like a convertible recumbent bike/ canoe, but suspect that it will cost with a capital C
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Daydream believer
Well-Known Member
I've just remembered that I have, as part of an organised event, floated down a river on one of these:
£5.99! And, interestingly, made by Intex.
Could be dodgy on one of those if there were any randy crocodiles about looking for a mate!!
Hydrozoan
Well-Known Member
We have a couple of these: https://www.advancedelementskayaks.co.uk/product.php/542/advanced-elements-firefly. Strongly built, but just 7kg.
sjdtuk
Well-Known Member
How about an inflatable paddle board. They are pretty robust.
