River Medway Canoe Trip – Part 2. Tidal Island Wild Camp. U-Boat Wrecks. Burntwick Island.

In this video, I am down in Kent for a three day wild camping canoe adventure on the tidal river Medway with Andy from Kent Survival.

In this episode, we rise to a stunning sun rise and the start to another adventure filled day. Packing away quickly in order to catch the ebbing tide, we leave the fortress of Darnet behind and head off in search of some more history.

Passing old crumbling jetties and the watchful eyes of seals relaxing on the foreshore, we pick our way towards some unexpected relics from the past. The rusting hulks of three German u- boats sit in the mud to the north of the River Medway. UB122, UB76 and UB93 were being towed up the river after World War One, having been sold for scrap, unfortunately, the tether broke and the subs drifted up onto the mud banks, where they remain to this day. We were able to get closed enough to UB122 to film some clips, but not to the others sadly, as the tide was too low.

After a short rest break, we headed across the choppy, wide expanse of the estuary to our camp spot for the night – the history rich island of Burntwick. Hide out to smugglers, home to shepherds, a holding station to quarantine disease infected ships, final resting place of poor old Sidney Bernard – a Royal Navy surgeon who died of yellow fever after treating the sick on board one of those ships, a victorian rubbish tip, site of a defensive boom battery and World War Two submarine net station and now a haven for wildlife.

A good filling dinner, a couple of well earned beers and a comfortable nights sleep set us up for our final paddle back to the Jetty at Queenborough via the chilling ‘Deadman’s Island’

Thank you Andy for a great weekend of adventure, laughs and memories, despite the mud and thank you to the Nation of Darnet for the information and use of the plans and map of Burntwick (and the use of the Bishop’s basket!)

Please head over to Kent Survival to watch Andy’s video and his take on the trip.

**When we arrived, we discovered there were nesting birds on the island, and although we took precautions to make sure we didn’t disturb them, I would strongly urge anyone wanting to visit any of the tidal Medway islands to do so later in the summer, after the nesting season**

I hope you enjoy the video.

Thanks for watching!

Links

Andy’s Video of the trip (Kent Survival)
https://youtu.be/XTY7kj4xfRA

Wildcamp Phil’s video (the inspiration for this trip!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QClThkYoPKw&t=1266s

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Simon, a bloke in the woods
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Music:

Cattails – Thatched Villagers By Kevin McLeod
Sugar Pines By Wes Hutchinson