Kim and I headed off on holiday to South Devon in the last week of June. Now normally, the thought of looking through someone elses holiday snaps fills me with dread but bear with me, it is slightly kayaking related.

Having purchased an Ordnance Survey map, I convinced Kim that a nice walk up the Upper Section of the River Dart would be a nice way to spend an afternoon. The plan was to walk up to Pandora's Box / Surprise Surprise which is actualy marked on the map as Sharrah's Pool, have a rest then maybe have a look at the Euthanasia Rapid just slightly further upstream.

If you ever need to walk out on the River Dart from Pandora's Box then the path is on river right. It is quite wide and easy to follow and will take about an hour if you are carrying a boat.

Anyway back on topic. Kim and I walked up to Pandora's Box and took some photos. The river was so low that you could actually cross without getting your feet wet.

Kim even took her shoes and socks off shortly after this photo and waded into the river just so she can say that she has paddled in the Upper Dart at Pandora's Box.

The going gets harder as you head further up the river so we decided to head back.

Later in the week, I even managed to get Kim to have a paddle in a canoe. We booked an outting with Canoe Adventures who do trips out on the tidal part of the River Dart.

Phil was our skipper for the day and took us out with six other entrepid souls. It was a nice two mile paddle from Tuckenhay down Bow Creek and over to Stoke Gabriel for finest Devon Ice Creams.

On the journey back, we pulled over and lit a fire and had a snack before paddling back to our original port of call.

Definitely a good way to introduce your other half to the delights of pootling around in boats and showing them the errors of their ways for not having got in a boat before.