A Bike-Rafting Estuary and Coastal Adventure. Bikepacking/Packrafting. Beach Camp. River Blyth.

Morning folks and welcome back. I'm out on a two day little mini bikepacking adventure this weekend with Martin Vildmark. I'm going to go and meet up with him shortly. I'm meeting him in Halesworth and then we're going to continue riding down to the River Blythe where we're going to put our bikes on our packrafts and paddle down the Blythe to Southwold and then go and find somewhere to camp. Should be really, really good. Very excited. I spent the night last night in a small woodland near Halesworth just so that I was here to meet Martin this morning. I got the train up yesterday. I didn't really want to drive and leave my car unattended for a couple of days in a town I don't know. So yeah, the train seemed like best option. Well, we've got to the River Blythe. This is Blythford Bridge and you can see the river just behind me there. It is tidal, but we're just at slack tide, high tide at the moment. So the plan is that we'll use the tide to help us along as we're going in that direction towards the coast. So I think we're going to go downstream a little bit, head up towards where those trees are in the distance and try and get in over there. Martin says there's a fence that's down. So yeah, hopefully we'll find an easier, an easier place to get into the river. Been the first time having my bike on the raft. Yeah. I want to give myself the best chance of not getting wet. Well, that looks about the best spot I think so far. Well, we're all set up and transformed into waterboard mode. Um, it takes a bit of time, obviously, you know, taking the bikes to pieces, taking the wheels off, strapping them down so that nothing wobbles free. I don't want to be losing anything overboard while we're paddling along, especially once we get into the estuary a little bit later on. Um, but I've managed to get everything kind of squared away. I'm quite happy with how tight it all is. I've got some stuff inside the pack raft. I've got a big airtight zip, um, at the back so I can put stuff inside the tube, you know, the inflatable bit of the pack raft, which is handy. So I've got my camping gear in there, my tent, my sleeping bag and everything. Um, everything else I kind of need to have in the boat with me. I've got a dry bag with camera gear and whatnot. If I need to change batteries and things, I need access to that. So that's in there and we're kind of ready to go, Martin. I think so. I think so. I think we'll spend enough time fannying about, haven't we, getting everything set up. Well, we're floating. Well, it must be something about pack rafting with Martin. The last time we were out on the wave it was a bit like that. Reedy, overgrown. Oh, and it absolutely stinks. Made it. You can see that tide mark on the reeds. It's got to be a foot, hasn't it, from high tide. Yeah, it has. We're out into the wide part of the estuary now. Um, it's just a big wide open expanse of water, or it looks like it is, but it's actually really shallow. It's mud flats and lots of posts and things sticking up out of the mud. There's a clearly defined channel of posts with starboard and port markings on and it's really important to follow that channel otherwise you're going to end up in the mud. Martin was saying that this area here didn't always look like this. This was created during the 1953 storm surge. Flooded loads of villages, lots of people died and this area here was created. The banks of the river were breached and the water stayed, you know, what it's like now. It used to be kind of open fields and a proper river bank. We've got the wind behind us and we're traveling with the tide and actually even if you stop paddling you still go along at quite a decent speed. You know, a few corrective paddle strokes here and there to keep you on course, but actually if I just stop paddling completely the boat will turn but I'll still be carried along nicely. This is the life. Lovely. Gorgeous isn't it? This is the end of next year. Oh that is absolute heaven. Well we're in Southwold and we've come to the Solbay fish company. We're not having fish and they do the best fish and chips in Southwold by far, but Martin's treating us to a seafood platter which has got all sorts on it. Smoked fish and prawns. Everything that lives in the sea. Fantastic. The sea on a plate. One of those with our boys. Yep. Absolutely beautiful. Well lunch was absolutely spectacular and I'm stuffed. Probably didn't need a portion of chips to go with that enormous seafood platter but it was good wasn't it? It was a starter. You can't beat the food there. You really can't. That was amazing. Absolutely spot on. Up here where it says no entry. The tide along here is absolutely glorious. The tide is coming in but there's a good amount of firm wet sand at the bottom of the beach to ride on and it's yeah well it's just like riding on a dirt path. It's firm enough. Got my budgie smugglers as well so we might have to blur the swimming out a little bit. There we go. We've stopped at our earmarked campsite for the night. It's just on the beach at the back of the beach underneath these short cliffs here about two miles north of Southwold so it's just far enough that there aren't very many people on the beach. The odd dog walker. We're not going to set anything up just yet because you know it's going to be obvious what we're doing if we if we do that so we're just going to sit and chill. Enjoy being on the beach in the sunshine. The sound of the waves crashing on the shore. It's absolutely blissful. Yeah we'll just kill some time relax a bit and then we'll think about getting set up once you know everybody else has cleared off the beach. Now that camp is all set up I'm gonna get some dinner on. I'm actually starting to feel a little bit peckish now so I'm gonna get my stove out get some water on to boil and rehydrate myself some dinner. I've brought along a Norwegian arctic field ration to have for my dinner tonight. These are fast becoming my favorite backpacking food. You know there's a whole meal in here and there's a drink and there's other bits and pieces so yeah I brought one of these this is a chicken kebab stew flavored one so I'm looking forward to that. I'm actually going to open this now because there's a drink inside and I feel like I need a little sugary drink so I'm gonna tuck right into that. Right let's get lots of rice. How's yours Martin? What is yours? Lapskal so it's beef and potato. It's like a very typical sort of northern Scandinavianist Norwegian I think it's actually a Sami originally Sami recipe but it's it's more it's just like mashed potato, carrots, a bit of pepper I think. Nice. It's really good but it's just after that lunch today I'm struggling to find a space for it. In coffee it'd be all right but it's too strong to drink it. Well folks it is pretty much bedtime because the rum's all gone. Yeah Martin brought some rum and I brought some rum. Martin's rum was definitely the winner. Fire water. It was it was fiery yeah yeah very good but uh there's something about sitting here and just listening to those waves crashing on the shore fantastic and what a day it has been. That paddle through the estuary just blew me away it was just stunning you know where the estuary widened up and you couldn't really tell whether you were in the river channel or not the posts were there but they weren't necessarily easy to follow you know there were sort of tight turns that you had to do almost really you just kind of keep between them but just stunning. You were coming the other way. Yeah yeah yeah and then at least the port and starboard were on the right side. Yeah that didn't help but yeah that was just uh gorgeous out there um you know just full of wildlife all those seabirds and things I mean I haven't you know I've said this before I haven't got a clue when it comes to um you know recognizing which birds are which but um there were plenty of them out there and they were they were lovely to see yeah even the bit before we got to the estuary where the uh where the channel was uh was really narrow that was well it was almost like the wave wasn't it yeah very much it reminded me of our paddle yeah through the jungle through the jungle yeah yeah that was good really nice and uh and a fantastic ride uh to end the uh the kind of journey today along the beach yeah I wasn't really expecting that to be able to just you know ride along at pretty much normal normal pace really along the seal pup on the beach as well and the lunch that seafood platter in Southwold that was something else I mean I've eaten in that place a couple of times more than a couple of times I've only ever had uh fish and chips but the seafood plateau there was well that was something special it really is it really is well worth it yeah it's probably been one of my most favorite local trips that I've done in a long time it's something I've as you say you know just biking the whole concept of just biking there getting on the packraft yeah and just getting out and coming out here it's just uh all under your own steam with your own efforts and I say it so many times but packrafting does massively open the doors to adventure and don't it does yeah what we've done today has just been a absolute cracking cracking thing combining pedals with paddles it's yeah it's just been brilliant it really really has been to finish it off with a good bit of rum on the beach yes can't beat it yeah good night folks and I'll see you in the morning morning folks had a very good night's sleep slept through solidly till this morning woke up about half past five to that beautiful sound of waves crashing on the beach and um the sun shining through the clouds it was absolutely gorgeous yeah what a place to wake up I just love it here I've never been to this little bit of beach here I've I've been to a beach a bit further up the coast which is equally as nice but this is a good spot and it's really quiet lovely made a nice cup of coffee this morning which I'm just enjoying as I wake up and then I'm going to get some breakfast on the go shortly bought another freeze-dried breakfast meal with me scrambled eggs I think it is so um that'll do that'll do the job before continuing on my way today I've got about 10 miles to ride to uh get to a little village where there's a train station so I can get my my train back home but um before then I'm just going to enjoy being on this fantastic beach I should have read the instructions properly I was only supposed to add 140 mils of water and I added way too much and as a result I've got something that resembles vomit in a bag before we set off I thought I'd just give you a little run through of my bike where I've packed everything because I know some of you will be interested to see you know how I've managed to get all my kit uh on the bike and avoid having a backpack this rear seat pack here is massive and that's got pretty much all my camping gear in so I've got my my mattress in there just kind of sits down at the bottom my sleeping bag is just stuffed in I didn't bring stuff sacks or anything for my gear literally just stuffed it into this pack so my sleeping bag is kind of there my tent and the footprint sits behind it and I've also got room in the back there for my first aid kit and my warm hat which I didn't end up wearing and then on top I've got my waterproofs and my uh my tilly hat there while I've got my cycling helmet on this middle pack here has got all my food and uh cooking gear in I had all my food in there and there's not a lot of it left now but there's still some snacks for the journey for the ride um I've got my stove fuel my transfer burner my lid for my cup is in there and my uh my spoon and my rum I've got some tools just in these little elasticated pouches on the on the side and on the other side there's a long pouch which has got my tent poles and my tent pegs in my cup is here and then I've got two liters of water which are just strapped to the frame here and then on the front of the bike I've got a top tube bag here which has got all my camera batteries and SD cards stuff like that in and my sunglasses and what's left of yesterday's breakfast I've got my pack raft strapped to the top of my handlebars here I've got some handlebars with a bar which kind of runs around so my pack raft can sit on there and it doesn't force down on this bag here which has got all my camera gear in so if I wasn't filming for this trip I wouldn't need that and I wouldn't need that and I could get away with just having the pack raft on I need to have this bag to keep my DSLR in to keep it safe and I keep my warm puffy jacket in there just to add a bit of extra cushioning just to protect it I've got my cooks are dangling off the front and my tripod just sits on the front here underneath these bungees with my fleece when I'm not wearing it that's a bit better isn't it yeah a bit easier we've left the beach now and we're just riding along smugglers lane which is a kind of sandy dirt track single track path which is going to take me up to cove hive martin's just there behind me he's going to take this route and then ride along the top of the cliffs I think up to where he's going so he hasn't got a ride along the the soft sand and shingle on the beach which is just hard work I've got pretty fat tires on my bike martin's tires are pretty pretty skinny so uh athletic athletic yeah so uh he's he's been struggling a little bit with the um uh with the the sand and sinking in so uh this is definitely the better route to go I think well we're here in cove hive and this is where we split and go our go our separate ways martin's going to head north and uh up to kessing land and i'm going to wind my way along those suffolk country lanes to the uh to the train station and home thanks martin cheers simon it's been absolutely brilliant I hope you enjoyed it it's nice to have a mate to finally come bike grafting so I don't look billy no mates all the time but no it's been brilliant really really enjoyed it fantastic yeah that that uh paddle along the river blive yesterday through the estuary was just sublime and uh riding along the beach and the camp was just fantastic what a place to to spend the night to the to the soundtrack of the seashore yeah beautiful lovely food that seafood platter yesterday that was something else that was and uh yeah good grub on the beach and plenty of rum and good company fantastic yeah so I'm gonna head on my way and uh I will see you on the next one thanks for watching and I'll see you soon