DATE: Friday 23rd April 2021

LOCATION: The River Leam - Royal Leamington Spa

PARKING: Willes Road - W3W ///scary.safety.former or Mill Road - W3W ///since.status.send

GET IN/OUT: Leam Boat Centre - W3W - ///number.jams.washed £2 Launch Fee, doesn’t always apply!

PROVIDER: KEW Paddlers

DISTANCE: 7.19M - 11.57Km

TIME: 3 Hours at a leisurely pace with breaks

CONDITIONS: 18°C clear blue skies

PHOTOS: KEW Paddlers Facebook Page

A new route for us and one we thought we’d track for anyone else that fancies a flatwater paddle somewhere different. Thanks to Hinckley Canoe Club members for giving us some details of the route!

Feel free to comment below on any alternative route findings for this as we’re pretty sure we missed the field we could have walked through.

It was roughly an hours drive from Kettering to Leamington with little bother along the roads; on arrival, we parked up on Willes Road (B4099) and walked through the park with our gear.

A brief hello to the staff at the boat centre to give them details of the route we were paddling and we headed off, turning left out of the boat centre on to the River Leam heading downstream. Our first portage was at the Mill Passage Weir - W3W ///lists.colleague.played River Right.

We would usually have run this shoot but we noticed something sticking out the water so went to investigate, we think it was a metal bar or a chunk of rock but weren’t completely sure, we couldn’t move it and we knew it could make a nice hole in the boats if we didn’t make the gap on the left.

Continuing along the river, there is lots of wildlife to see. You’ll also pass by Royal Leamington Spa Canoe Club. Before you know it, you come to the second stepped weir, W3W - ///skill.space.jacket which has two openings at the low levels we had, both suitable to run, but we chose river left due to the higher volume of water running over it caused by the smaller gap.

Once past the weir you’ll head out on the River Avon turning left getting out just past the first bridge for the portage onto the canal W3W - ///agreed.dangerously.toned. Once out head back under the bridge following the track to the left and up the metal stairs. Getting onto the canal looking from the top of the stairs head left towards the all-important pub stop.

Heading for The Moorings pub forgetting that COVID requires booking, we floated outside dreaming of a cold one…

Heading onto what seemed to be the longest part of the paddle and seeing a massive rat running along the canal bank we stopped for lunch and moved onto the portage for getting back onto the River Leam.

As we noted at the beginning we think we could have portaged sooner but heading down the bank through the trees wasn’t so bad. We did it here W3W - ///sandbags.talker.junior

On the last leg, it was clear we were nearly back the number of paddlers from the boat centre out enjoying themselves. This was a very nice part paddling back under the trees chatting with lots of people trying out canoeing and kayaking for the first time.