Paddling Closer to Home

My local stretch is the upper reaches of the river Mersey as it winds its way across its flood plain in south Manchester. I was brought up hereabouts. Throughout my childhood the river and the surrounding swamps and rubbish tips used to smell quite bad.

These days the tips have been cleared and replaced with nature reserves. This urban river runs much cleaner too. In recent years more paddling has been taking place. Macclesfield and District Canoe Club hold their Mersey Descent event each year and Manchester Canoe Club also hold races on the river. A tremendous effort effort has been put into creating a Mersey Canoe Trail with portage steps around some of the more tricky weirs. A map can be downloaded by clicking this link. It was great to meet someone paddling as I was out for a walk on Sunday. We stopped to chat, talked about the weather, then went our separate ways. Its just great to see my local river coming back to life!