Returning to the get-on car park at the end of a long day to find it locked shut with shuttle vehicle still inside...(it's still there)
Falling in and being waist deep in an obnoxious cess pit early in the day.. and wearing day clothes with no spare trousers?
A co-pilot who jumped ship shortly after this photo was taken... (they still shoot deserters in some countries).
Impassable strainers composed of televison sets, computer monitors, dead dogs, suitcases, motor cycles, shopping trolleys, early kayaks, tractor tyres and of course trees!
Trees. Where would we be without them? Deciduous, coniferous, poisonous... this obscure ditch had it all and is probably the reason why obscure London ditches remain so.
Why spend the weekend relaxing when you can explore new and challenging possibilities for club trips which will obviously never come to fruition?
Can you guess which river we stressed out on?
Clue: That is a British Airways Hanger in the background, that is.. So you can also add aromatic hydrocarbons to the cocktail of unpleasantness.
10 comments:
I really can't guess why I thought it would be a good idea not to go on this trip
It looks too narrow to be the Crane at Heathrow, although the hangar looks familiar.
Given your blog title of "Croydon", I suspect it's the Gatwick Stream.
Anon. It is indeed the Crane at Heathrow, you have won a free passage down the river at any time. The Gatwick Stream; I hadn't considered this as a trip to compliment the Crane, but would imagine it to be a trickle at best.
Do you know otherwise?
"Anon" here again!
The River Crane is my local river, 200 metres away from my front door! However, like you say, it's not a river I would choose to paddle. I haven't done so for 20 years, but I know others who have paddled the entire length more recently. Not really industrial pollution, but not very 'clean' either. If you like industrial archaeology, it's an interesting waterway to explore.
I presume you got on at Cranford Park, adjacent to the M4. The park used to be open 24 hours, but the nonces and doggers started using it for nefarious purposes. It wasn't a good place to be after dark. Unless you were lucky, and the church in the park had an evening service.
The cess-pit is a well-known trap, set by fishermen who don't want canoeists on "their" river :-) Back in the 1960's, record-breaking fish were caught near Baber Bridge, North Feltham - and recently, the river has been re-stocked with some good-sized fish.
Actually, much of the surrounding ground of the river is very boggy, and unpleasant. Indeed, the nature of the ground meant that the Picadilly Line extension to Heathrow couldn't tunnel through, and the line crosses the valley above ground. Some of the valley is protected under the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, funded by DEFRA. There's several stretches that have some very rare wetland flora and fauna - and the lower reaches are a protected habitat for water voles!
You should report the "strainers" to the Environment Agency. The river is critical in flood management of the surrounding areas.
Six miles downstream would mean you probably got out at Kneller Gardens, Twickenham (Whitton). It's amazing how much can be deduced from a single photograph and a few words!
Spot on with your observations; I'd spent an afternoon scouting on foot (it was 'up' back then) it looked OK, but on the day I'd say we encountered 20 strainers which were either impassable, took upto 10minutes to clear a path or find a spot to limbo under. Really wouldn't fancy running into any of those during a spate run given the lack of eddy's. The various local authorities have made a brave effort to introduce wildlife corridors/nature trails, only to fall foul of local chavs who were in abundance especially below Baber Bridge on the estate. Having googled the gatwick stream, I actually know it well and have seen it out of it's banks after heavy rain,thought it was just an open drain but I see it feeds into the Mole, now that can be a pleasant paddle and is actually my local river.
PS - A Google Images search for the Gatwick Stream will yield some results - oftem more than a trickle! I've not paddled it, although I hear tell that some people have.
PPS...
"...only to fall foul of local chavs who were in abundance especially below Baber Bridge on the estate..."
Oi! That's where I live, that is! Although I do tend to agree, the area isn't the most salubrious of places.
The area has an "interesting" social history, with most of the residents of the estate being third generation descendants of London East Enders who were moved out during and after the second world war. Although many properties are now in private hands, due to the Right to Buy, about half still appear to be owned by a housing association. Using a multiple index of social deprivation will reveal that particular "Super-Area" to be amongst the bottom 18 percent of the UK :-(
And there's more...
Did you portage the "40-Acre Tunnel" beneath the railway lines on Hounslow Heath? Until very recently, the river was gated and locked, not to mention being blocked inside the tunnel with abandoned cars! I used to take a short-cut through the tunnel to school, back in the 1970's...
Last one for now, honest!
Back in the late 1960's I used to play alongside the River Crane, in the area known as Donkey Woods. It runs beside the North Feltham Trading Estate, where NADGECO, the NATO Air Defence Ground Environment Corporation, had laboratory premises. There were some "scare stories" in the local press about drums of hydrogen cyanide having been found dumped in the woods, adjacent to the estate. We stopped playing there - but I now believe that there wasn't any cyanide, it was a tactic to keep people away from their test site...
The tunnel provided a refreshing 200metre interlude from strainers, I was expecting concrete not lovely brick. Not putting down the estate, I spent a good few years living on one just like it and my mum's still living there, but there was a strong chav army taking turns to blaze up and down the towpath on the back of a trail bike, lucky we kept our heads down and portaged through the island so didn't risk getting bricked for sport! If we wanted that could have stayed on the Wandle!
Post a Comment