Inland waterways of Wales Photo: Justine Curgenven

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Editor's Note: Justine Curgenven and Fiona Whitehead started at Porthdafarch Beach on Anglesey on 16th July 2001 and traveled clockwise around Wales, kayaking first through inland waterways and then out in open sea.

"I told you the locks would be a nightmare" Fiona grinned. I hated her for smiling and I hated her for being right.

The rain drummed relentlessly onto my face and found secret passages through my clothes to my skin. Eleven 3 metre high walls of black stretched out in front of us. Eleven! The locks were all a couple of hundred metres apart, which was just too close to heave our kayaks into and out of the water in between each one. There was nothing for it except to face the fact that we had to carry each fully laden boat a kilometre and a half up and around the whole lot!

"Wouldn't it be easier to paddle them than carry them", a portly man in a captains hat cooed from his cruising narrow boat. I smiled sweetly.

I think we'd have broken down by now if we hadn't each had a small set of wheels from Nigel Dennis in Anglesey. Fiona invented a system where we put the wheels under the front of the boat and attach ourselves to the back end with a short length of towline. We looked completely ridiculous wiggling along cobbled towpaths pushing our kayaks with our pelvises. It was exhausting and absolutely not to be recommended, but it worked and it spread the damage out over our whole bodies so our wrists and hands got a bit of respite.

The idea for this trip came to us over a bottle of wine on a freezing February day when the icy waters outside didn't appeal. We both liked the idea of circumnavigating a country and were talking about what had been done. Suddenly we both perked up, "I wonder whether it is possible to kayak all the way around Wales" And out came the maps! Five months later here we were half way down the canal system wondering whose stupid idea it was in the first place.

"Most nights we slept in pub gardens, or farmers' fields..."

On 15th July, we started in Beaumaris on the Menai Straits and went clockwise along the North Coast of Wales. After only a day and a half we were on the river Dee and just outside Chester. The tide was about to turn, so we bivvied at the most horrible camp spot that I have ever used. We had to put dry bags under our bottoms to stop ourselves rolling down the 45 degree slope into the murky waters, where no birds dared feed. I guess beggars can't be choosers and we had decided to camp wherever we ended up every night.

Day 3 saw our first "character building experience". Ordnance Survey kindly gave us all of the maps for the trip, except we had been sent map 177 instead of map 117! While we had the ability to navigate very accurately around Central London, we were unable to look up the exact location where you can jump over a lock straight from the River Dee onto the Shropshire Union Canal. And so we ended up carrying our boats up Chester weir and paddling 5 km's up the River Dee in the wrong direction! When we arrived back in Chester we were told that we'd have to carry our kayaks about a mile up a hill to the canal. Thank you so much Michael for the use of your car and roof rack.

We endured 4 days on the canals, and they were all character building experiences. We spent well over 10 hours a day paddling and portaging, paddling and portaging. It rained and rained, and whichever direction we travelled in the wind just kept swinging around to be a head wind. We ate all day! I don't think I have ever eaten so much food! Most nights we slept in pub gardens, or farmers' fields and the Kelly family in particular looked after us brilliantly. They made us toast, drove me to the shop, fed us wine (it didn't take much!) and, most importantly, let us have our first wash.