Whether your just out on a pleasant day’s paddle or a multi-day journey, touring kayaks and even sit-on-tops are perfect for exploring the waterways of the UK. Here’s a few suggestions on some truly classic and some of the best canoe & kayak touring trips and destinations in the UK to get you started.

Once you’ve caught the canoe & kayak touring bug there are plenty more out there, just waiting for you to discover and go canoe & kayak touring.

Below, we list the best UK canoe and kayak touring trips.

1. River Thames

Old Father Thames, immortalised for centuries in prose and verse, is probably the most famous river in the UK! But although it flows directly through the heart of the capital there’s a whole lot more to the River Thames than just London.

It becomes officially navigable at Cricklade in Wiltshire and the upper stretches of the river offer some beautiful potential for paddle touring.

Further downstream the Thames begins to grow in stature.

There are plenty of easy access and egress points along the way and some lovely riverside pubs.

Henley, famous for its boating regatta, and the section between here and Marlow is picturesque and green.

Further down stream at Runnymede you can moor up and then take a short walk to where the historic Magna Carta was signed; and the section between there and Windsor is a popular stretch for paddling day trippers.

Shepperton and Sunbury are great spots to start a Thames paddling tour from and you could journey down stream further to the historic palace at Hampton Court.

After the lock at Teddington the Thames becomes tidal, so it’s a more serious venture, but more experienced paddlers will love the unusual view that the river offers of our capital city, and cruising past such powerful landmarks as the House of Commons with Big Ben looming and the London Eye just downstream is certainly a special paddling experience.

2. River Trent

The River Trent is another of the major rivers of England.

Its source is in Staffordshire and it flows through the Midlands until it joins the River Ouse at Trent Falls to form the Humber

Original Source: Canoe & Kayak UK >>

Since the dawn of kayaking and canoeing, paddlers have been buying and selling canoes and kayaks from one and another.

It makes perfect sense, one woman’s outmoded cast-off is another man’s ideal beginner kayak to use and abuse while he’s learning.

Throughout time there’s been a booming trade, propped up by a steady stream of supply and demand.

Sometimes after a few years of paddling a specific boat something will change, you’ll get better, lose weight, gain weight or just alter your preferences slightly and suddenly you’re using the sale of your current paddle craft to finance the purchase of your new one.

Conversely, if you’re in the market for your first boat, it’s unusual to go straight out and buy a state-of-the-art, brand new model before really acquiring a taste for exactly what it is that you’re after.

The market is huge, and it’s pretty much a given that at any one time there’ll be a buyer out there for your boat, and a boat out there suited to your needs. It is just a matter of looking round a bit.

We are fortunate in the paddling community that the second hand market is also a pretty safe one – it’s certainly nothing like trying to get a fair deal on a second hand car!

There is a much smaller pool of people in the paddling world for a start, and as such word of mouth reverberates very quickly around internet forums and the like if somebody isn’t playing fair.

And then, of course, there’s the fact that on the whole paddlers tend to be decent, honest people!

Nevertheless, there are some potential pitfalls and downsides to second hand kayak & canoe trading, all of which are easily avoidable if you know what to look out for.

With this in mind we’ve put together the following guide to help ensure that any second hand deal you enter into is safe, convenient, fair to all parties and that you end up with what you wanted at the end of it.

We’ve also got some top marketing tips for you if you’re looking to make a quick sale, so that you can

Original Source: Canoe & Kayak UK >>