River Crake In Canoe - A Creeking Caper

The River Crake is a short river in Cumbria, U.K. It flows from Coniston water to the sea, which it meets in part of Morecambe Bay.

Please be aware, there is allegedly now an access agreement in place for the River Crake. When we set off on this trip on the River Crake, we were not aware of any access agreements in place. The night before the trip I had checked the results in Google for "River Crake" and "River Crake access" - the top results yielding sites with information which actually said there was NO AGREEMENT, there was unlikely to be one "before Hades freezes over" and year-round access was not a problem. This is not what we were told by a gentleman at Bobbin Mill near Spark Bridge (see 24:47 in the video).

He was very reasonable and said it "is on all the websites". In fact it clearly isn't and since then I've struggled to find mention of an access agreement anywhere.

But there is the following document, which I have unearthed: http://www.canoe-england-cumbria.org....

This document is dated earlier than the updates on some websites which say there is no agreement, so the situation is still somewhat confusing.

Clearly the system of promulgation of guidance as to where paddlers are welcome in England and Wales, and where they are not, leaves a lot to be desired. Even when you try to do the right thing (and think you have checked and made sure everything is OK), it can be hard to find accurate information. Apologies for any irritation caused by us being there. I'm the last person who wants to disrupt natural environments, sensitive habitats or recovering species populations.

Regardless of this, I hope you find this video useful as well as entertaining. It highlights the issues of paddling this river in summer on a number of levels and highlights two major tree hazards which exist in the river as of summer 2017.

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