River Severn

River Stour

River Thames, St Patrick's Stream, River Loddon

The Blackwater Canoe Trail was launched on 9th November 2007. This was the second canoe trail to be launched in Northern Ireland.

Following the official launch in November – CANI organised a Christmas paddle to be held on 27th December 2007. We weren’t sure of the interest there would be for the trip given it was just after Christmas.

The whole trail is about 20km – but has nine access points and this meant that paddlers could decide how far they wanted to go.

On a grey 27th December morning at 9.00am there were already quite a few people gathering. By 9.30am the car park at access point one - Maydown Bridge was already full and the grass was covered in boats.

By the time everyone was ready there were over 30 open canoes at the event as well as a few kayaks.

With over 50 paddlers involved – there was a lot of coming and going and a number of convoys of cars with roof racks going through the village of Moy doing the shuttles. (I think that the locals had not seen anything like it before!)

There had been a fair bit of rain before Christmas and so the water levels were relatively high – with a good flow on the river. The first couple of kilometres are relatively fast flowing with a few Grade 1 type rapids. About a kilometre below Maydown Bridge, the river splits in two. Richard – our friendly native of the Blackwater told us that the right hand channel was the best – and it is marked on the map as the larger channel.

The right hand channel certainly was the best – but only in terms of entertainment! With a fairly fast flow on the river and a lot of overgrown branches – a few people quickly found themselves victims to the water fairies. Four boats in all were couped and some of swimmers were fairly young. Not all of the paddlers who swam were inexperienced – and there were rumours of one of the most eminent members of the CANI Committee having been seen doing a fine breaststroke!

However, lots of folk were on hand to help put people back into boats and get warmed up with spare clothes etc and soon all were on their way again down to access point two at Blackwatertown.

After Blackwatertown the river became much quieter and with a gentle flow and a pleasant following breeze the miles were soon eaten up to access point three – at the village of Moy. Most folk ended up in groups of about half a dozen boats and the craic was great. Lunch was held in a variety of places – some going on to the access point four at The Argory (a beautiful National Trust property dating from 1864) – about 10km into the trip, some stopping at Moy and others just getting out on the river bank. Most of the paddlers ended the trip at access point five at Bond’s Bridge – but about ten of the more stalwart paddlers completed the trip down to access point eight in Lough Neagh at Maghery Slip.

The day was superb with so many paddlers on the water and had a great feeling of camaraderie. This stretch of the Blackwater is a lovely paddle with plenty of woodlands and rolling farmland. A variety of wildlife was seen throughout the day – however, the close encounter with a pair of buzzards just before The Argory was the highlight for a number of people.

If you plan to come to Northern Ireland to do some paddling – then look up the canoe trails on www.canoeni.com, which provides fantastic information on each of the trails. The Blackwater can be done in a day – and would make a good stopping off point on the way to do an extended trip on Lough Erne.

CANI will be making the Blackwater trip an annual event and are looking at organising annual trips or events on each of the canoe trails over the next year.

Mike McClure

For more information and up to date news visit www.riversaccess.org

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