Work in progress ...
The Beaulieu River
I split this river into two stretches, upper and lower, though it is possible to combine the two in one trip.
The lower stretch is from Lepe to Buckler's Hard and the upper stretch is from Buckler's Hard to Beaulieu.
Lower stretch:
General:
The beauty of this stretch is that it goes past the most extensive area of saltmarsh on the Beaulieu River. From April to the end of July, this means that we have to be very careful with regard to nesting birds, Certainly don't go mob-handed into the marsh itself at this time and please never land at this time; just take a suitably shaped bottle if you are desperate or if in tandem, practice hanging out over the side while your partner leans the other way (it is possible). There is a route through the saltmarsh which I will post later but please, give the birdies a chance and reserve that part of this trip for outside the breeding season.
Tidal information:
Launch sites:
The obvious launch site is from Lepe itself, since there is a large car park near the entrance to the Beaulieu River and another smaller car park about three hundred yards west, even nearer. These car parks have charges [details to follow] and the westerly one closes at certain times of year. They also give a potentially windy, adverse weather trip at least as far as the river proper, about 1km. Our weather comes mostly from the south-west (yeah Steve, this is Britain, they all know that) and until you get into the river itself, it can be quite choppy (with respect to a canoe) and it will be strong off your port bow. Please forgive the sailing nomenclature, it is where I come from. The Solent is well known for its "chop" and especially on warm afternoons in summer when you least expect it, a rather severe sea breeze can add several knots to the onshore wind, usually shifting the local wind direction to southerly so until you reach the bend at Needs Ore (nearly 3km from Lepe) you might have to work hard.
Depending on your start time, you might need to consider the ground at Lepe. As with most of the Solent shoreline, this is a mixture of sharp gravel, sand and mud. If you care about the state of your hull, try to leave it as long as you can after low water before you launch, though of course that might curtail the trip if you intend to do the whole river in one go. Wellies (sailing boots, nobby sailing people tell me I should say) are useful and if they are indeed proper sailing wellies, they will be fine for running around in a canoe, poling, dealing with wind when solo and so on. Do expect to get the bottom of your boat - the inside as well as the outside - fairly coated with thick, black-green, gloopy mud.
There are two alternative, free launch sites I know, though one of them can't take more than a couple of vehicles and the other maybe five or six. Moreover, if those dodgy parking places are already taken, tough, you would have to go back down to Lepe, cough up the fee and paddle the extra km.
Free site one:
Free site two:
Enough for now; as I said, a work in progress ...
