While most people were enjoying watching the 70th Jubilee celebrations on TV or having street parties to mark the occasion, Mark Stancer of Your Adventure Challenge and Steve Ennis took Chris Roff on a three day adventure challenge kayaking 85 miles along the River Wye, starting out on June 2 at Glasbury-on-Wye and finishing below Monmouth at a tiny village called Redbrook on June 4.
The trip was a fundraiser for MacMillan Hereford as a tribute to Chris's Dad, Nigel Roff, who passed away in April 2022 after a short battle with cancer - the team at Hereford MacMillan had been incredibly supportive.
We were blessed with beautiful weather over the first two days - suncream was the day’s essential travelling companion and we were left constantly marvelling at the glorious course the river takes you on. We'd never kayaked on clearer waters than the stretch between Glasbury & Hereford. The local birdlife know a thing or two about happy fishing grounds and while we get our fair share of herons, egrets, cormorants, kingfishers and the like on the Avon, we'd never seen such an abundance of wildlife on the Wye during our first day.
The first day saw us kayak through Hay-on-Wye who had "A" list celebrities in town for the book Festival in the shape of Hilary Clinton - the town was packed, but the river was incredibly quiet and devoid of any motorised boats and exceptionally few canoeists or kayakers. We had many occasions where we might paddle for an hour or two without seeing another person - it really was completely tranquil, and each bend in the river brought another outstanding view and further wildlife to be admired and gazed upon.
Day 1 ended at Hereford Rowing Club where we were met by Chris's family and friends and members of staff from MacMillan Hereford.
An early night followed in Hereford where we ate out in a local hostelry before getting underway again on day 2 for the next stretch to Ross-on-Wye. We could hardly believe that a journey that might take no more than 30 minutes in a car could take 30 miles by river.
As you might imagine the river meanders enormously on this stretch through bucolic countryside that looks untouched by modern life. By now, we'd also got the hang of the relatively straightforward rapids that you can encounter, and I was reminded of my "O" level geography lessons from 40 years ago that informed the water runs best on the outside bends.
We also marvelled at the rivers stock of fish - salmon were leaping out of the water every other minute of the day and Mark got the fright of his life when a 7-8Ilbs salmon landed on his kayak almost causing him almost to capsize with the shock of taking on an extra passenger!
Our final day saw us complete the most touristy stretch of the river around Symonds Yat - the riverside pubs were doing brisk Bank Holiday business, and we had to be on our toes to negotiate the tricky rapids at the far end of Symonds Yat. Once on the last leg to Monmouth the traffic on the river disappeared and before too long, we had reached journey's end at Redbrook and the welcoming sight of a deserved pint at Redbrook's Boat Inn.
The three days had been blessed with perfect weather, we raised £2,000+ for MacMillan Hereford and Chris did his much-missed Dad proud by completing the journey having had no experience at all of kayaking. The three of us were sure of one thing, we'll be back on the Wye in the near future to savour the beauty of the surroundings and abundant wildlife the river gives the traveller to enjoy. If you haven't been, you owe it to yourself to diarise a day trip.