Waterworld!...

The great thing about a kayak is, when the road stops, you don't have to! With a large part of Britain sinking into the sea after our two months of rainfall, I decided not to let it get me down and went exploring instead.

Some car parks near the River Tame seemed a good enough place to start as they were relatively shallow.

I felt sorry for the owner of this nearly new Nissan. We had spotted it the night before when we came down at one in the morning to watch the main 'bulge' of flood pass through Tamworth and then only the topmost of the roof was showing.

I checked the prices on the ticket machine.....no mention of kayaks.

The water was only up to the top of the wheels here but I wanted to get to the far side of the old bridge up ahead. A drainage channel goes from left to right up by the arch and the current was whipping by. It was so low under the arch that you would have to lie down to get underneath, the thought of getting trapped put me off.....

....so I headed off onto the other car park. This one was a bit deeper and led over to the high bridge where the River Anker and River Tame join.

On the surface all appeared calm, but there was a confusion of eddies and current that were really unsettling. I took a break hanging onto this sign.

The kayak kept bashing the tops of signs and bollards as I paddled off into the parkland. I was glad to reach the deeper water.

Now, which way to go?

NOT that way! It looks quite choppy and then I noticed the saplings being ripped from the ground!

This way I think. I've got the world to explore.....waterworld...