Lighting up the Thames

The twilight paddle will soon need to be renamed, as each week it’s a bit darker than the last by the time we’re out on the water.

Perhaps we can call it the Twinkly Light paddle* – in appreciation of the fancy lights our very own Katy designed and constructed (let’s not forget her trusty sidekick, Ian, who helped with the sawing and velcro-ing).

The pillbox containers on the shoulders look a bit bizarre in the daylight, but as soon as the sun sets and we switch those little beauties on…et voila! The coolest thing since sliced bread. Keep your eye on this page for some pics of the lights in action.

Regardless of what they’re called, Wednesday nights on the river are pretty darn fantastic. Here are some pics to show you what I mean – if this slide show doesn’t tempt you to join us for an evening paddle, I’m not sure what will.

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*Editor’s note: Moments after penning that name I’m already cringing when I look at it, so perhaps not! 

What I found on the Thames (sometime ago)

The letter S… and yes, we really did find this on the river, even though it may look suspicious coming so swiftly on the keels of the letter Q.

So what to do with the letter S? Write a song, a sonnet, or a soliloquy? Or better yet, see how many words to do with kayaking start with S…

sweep stroke
stroke
sun
sea kayak
skeg
scout
sculling
sculling draw
shaft
spraydeck
squall
standing wave
stern
squelch
slack tide
spring tide
sit-on-top
stern rudder
stopper
strainer
stroke
safety
shuttle
sunshine
sunburn
snow
swamp
set
starboard
stoked

Some more?

What we found on the Thames – brought to you by the letter Q

This week’s twilight paddle is brought to you by the letter Q.

(Health warning: the quality of this post is questionable because of our attempts to write it with only the letter Q. At the very least though, click the links to watch some good footage.)

A quintet of kayakers paddled to Putney (which comes just before Kew and Q) yesterday evening. They completed their quest to find something interesting on the Thames when they came across the letter Q.

They paddled home on the dark, quiet river which the boys compared to a Navy Seals exercise.

Quite a find.

We generally expect to find fairly bizarre items on the Thames, but as the sun set under Putney bridge, a giant blue Q floated towards us. Perhaps someone had lost their giant fridge magnet or was trying to mould their own alphabeti-spagetti? While discussing our latest find, it emerged that several of us had never watched any of Sesame Street‘s ‘brought to you by the letter ___’ animations, resulting in a nostalgic youtube trawl and a good way to pass a rainy afternoon.

Quiddity. My new favourite word.

What I found on the Thames #3

This Saturday was a good day for object-hunting on the Thames.

What I found on the Thames this Saturday

Toy guns, juggling balls and quirky christmas baubles were just a few of the best finds the river offered up to us between Cremorne Riverside and Waterloo bridge.

What I found on the Thames today

It’s not every day one comes acorss a neon orange squidgy duck thing that lights up when you shake it… but this is seriously what I found in the Thames today!

Click on the image above to watch a short video clip of the duck in action.