In July 2020 my good friend Tam and I spent five days paddling 100 miles down the River Wye on stand up paddle boards. We started in the village of Glasbury, passed through Hereford, Ross-on-Wye and Monmouth, and finished at Brockweir Bridge, averaging around 20 miles a day. With summer low water we could often stand and watch the riverbed slide by, nudged along by just enough flow, and for most of the trip we had the river almost to ourselves.

The Wye changes character as it goes. It begins with open fields and Welsh hills in the distance, then a string of minor rapids that broke up the calm stretches and gave us free speed. Camping was a joy, especially the apple orchard at Byecross Farm, where the cider was plentiful and three friends celebrating 45 years of friendship pressed their apple brandy on us. Free beer from a fellow camper even changed our plans, and we ended up splitting the remaining miles over an extra day. Beyond Ross-on-Wye, the river enters the Wye Valley, with bare rock faces and forested hills, the most spectacular stretch of the journey, followed by the Symonds Yat Rapids and then the brown, tidal water at Bigsweir, where the tide times decided exactly where we finished.

It’s a beautiful, accessible river with sections for every ability, and this is our day-by-day story of paddling it.