Maidstone Canoe Club

The mighty Exe & Barle trip is back! - 10th-11th October 2026.

Staying at the Exe Valley Caravan Site in Bridgetown near Dulverton and paddling the River Exe and Barle predominately. This yearly occurring trip has been the first whitewater trip for many members at the club! The rivers are grade 1 to 2 unless in spate, if really big we will choose a more scenic paddle for the less adventurous.

We will be running it as a peer paddle for the already experienced participants as well as a led trip for the less so, all details on the calendar.

Following recent government announcements of the ban on disposable BBQs due to the recent extreme heat and drought we have renamed the Joss Bay BBQ trip to the Joss Bay Picnic & Paddle, please bring a picnic with you, there is a cafe on the beach but being a bank holiday its not gardened to be open

https://maidstonecanoeclub.net/events/d06af205-b869-4444-8c7a-90264bde4bfb/joss-bay-paddle-picnic

Blackberry Picking

One of Seamus Heaney’s most famous poems - “Blackberry Picking” - is set in August.

By an astonishing coincidence, one of Maidstone Canoe Club's most famous events - “Pool Session” - is also set in August, on the 20th. Book here!

Only one of them has a Nobel Prize for Literature though:

https://maidstonecanoeclub.net/events/1ef39f86-5148-4d6a-bdda-9cdd9dcf3ccb/pool-session?instance=1

Late August, given heavy rain and sun

For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.

At first, just one, a glossy purple clot

Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.

You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet

Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it

Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for

Picking. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50981/blackberry-picking