We met members of Maidstone and Bewl Canoe Clubs at The Strand and discussed which route to take; given the near perfect weather conditions, no wind and a hazy Sun we decided to take the original route.
Crossing the shipping lane didn't pose any problems but we soon noticed we were paddling against the tide.
Hoo Salt Marsh is owned by the MOD so we couldn't land. The Napoleonic fort looked neglected and as we headed north many concrete barges have been abandoned to act as sea defences..
..together with a number of boats...
....which were worth exploring.
With the tide now with us we stopped at the remains of Cookham Fort for a snack.
Continuing up river, we passed Upnor Castle....
.. Chatham Dockyard...
and many working wharfs on the river.
Finally we found our submarine, not the Black Widow Black but a rusty brown
It looked like the Cold War had taken it's toll
We then had our lunch and watched the tide turn.
..said goodbye to U-475 and headed downriver and found a piece of Dickensian Chatham...
.....passed Chatham Historic Dockyard...
..spotted another submarine, this time a Royal Navy mini-sub
Further on, a door had been left open, so we went in for a peek...
As we passed the lock gates to Chatham Dockyard we found a paddle tug in need of restoration
and The Medway Queen almost fully restored.
Sorry for the number of pictures but this really was a great day out with so much to see.
Steve from Maidstone had a GPS on his boat and the total distance we paddled was 12 miles.
So maybe The Meridian's Ancients may have just made it.
Or maybe not...
