The Isis 10: The Fishes and Seacourt Stream

Slowly but surely people turned up for the trip on Friday evening. Simon and I opted for an open canoe and everyone else decided that sea kayaks were the way forward. Just as we had got our kit out of the shed the heavens opened and big dollops of rain poured down vertically suggesting this was going to be a damp one.

Luckily, it was the only shower we saw for the rest of our evening and we made our way up to The Fishes in good time, getting to know our new member Aimee. Simon and I were unsure about why Ben, Pete, Seiko and Paul in their sea kayaks, were being so slow and staying behind our much slower open canoe, but it suddenly dawned on us that it was probably because nobody else knew where we were going!

We rocked up at the end of The Fishes beer garden and hid the boats among the nettles. I made it my mission to tramp down a path for the others to follow so they received minimal stings due to their shorts, and we emerged from the nettle minefield onto the lawn. After some chips, purple coleslaw and a pint of coke for a whopping £3, we decided we couldn't afford a second round without a mortgage, even though they had posh moisturiser in the ladies toilets, and made our way back through the nettle field to our boats.

Our immediate challenge was a fallen tree and some shallow water for us to scrape and shuffle our boats over. After a while the water deepened and we continued onwards eventually meeting up with the Seacourt Stream and following the route from the Hinksey Park paddle until we started to get close to the Thames. Simon tried some bridge hopping with minimal success, but did manage to get some photos of a fantastic sunset. Thanks to a pee stop in a field (I had consumed a litre of Ribena and a pint of coke) we also found a good spot for a future Isis CC barbecue. A short paddle under the railway lines down to Kennington and a quick paddle upstream until we got to the Double and Lasher meant we finally made it back in the dark.

Another fab evening and a recommended route if you want a good paddle.

- Jen

Photos by Jen.