River Wear - Bishop Auckland to Sunderland Bridge

[Mark R]

Read full River Guide

[ansogura]

Paddled the stretch from Barnard Castle to Page Bank. Found it to be exactly as the guide described. A lot of bankside litter. Plenty of coffee/lunch spots. A nice little car park at Page Bank immediately on the left as you drive over the bridge from Spennymoor. We got out just below the obvious outfall. Bank is quite steep with lots of brambles, but short so not too difficult. Only one angler encountered, a young lad who was friendly enough. Met another guy who was planting willow saplings to provide shade for his fishing. As an angler he had a very refreshing attitude "I can't see what the problem is with canoes, infact I've often thought about getting one myself" Would that they were all as enlightened as that. We tried to encourage him to get in contact with Bishop Auckland Canoe Club. Further downstream we had a very pleasant chat with a fellow paddler (though not in his canoe) who was out collecting firewood for his stove. It transpired that he was a member of the afforementioned club.
Altogether a very pleasant day out.

[Jan13]

Did this in Canadians yesterday. It had rained heavily the night before and as a result, we had what was the almost perfect trip for open boats.
The levels were up. Quite a fast flow all the way with a continual series of Grade 2 - and quite a number of short G3 rapids. I do think we were lucky with the levels though - may have been flatter and more scrapey without the rain.

A pretty river but with quite a bit of litter reflecting its' proximity of urban areas I suppose. However, the nicest thing was that everybody we encountered seemed really friendly and interested in what we were doing - including even an angler at the put-in who wished us a "safe journey." Couldn't believe it! But it made for a good atmosphere for a change.

As stated - would be a really good first moving water trip for kayakers.

[helenastle]

Ran this today in touring kayaks - lovely run, though very scrapey, wanted an extra 6 inch of water! Watch out for a tree just previous to the rail bridge (54.73, -1.6), blocks all but about a foot of the river.