Page 6 - Natural World Summer 2018

PEOPLE & WILDLIFE

Fancy a paddle?

Britain drips with water, observes Matt Gaw, who has canoed on rivers all over
Britain. But he wonders whether we have lost our connection with our watery past

A lthough the river is straight, Bradfield Combust before travelling ditches and ponds. Nearly all have
almost canalised, in the slowly through the Brecks to reach been shaped by humans in some
morning light it is beautiful. the flatlands of the Fens. A couple of way, bent to our purpose and needs.
Sun scalds the surface, the ripples miles downstream it meets The
reflecting gold pencil lines onto the Great Ouse, whose name so neatly The path rivers take depends on
bank. Two buzzards lope into the air, captures its sluggish demeanour. It is the lie of the land and the underlying
circling and mewing. There are teal, part of a network of 42,700 watery geology. Water wells up from
the wobbling gas flame of kingfisher miles that spread like blue veins springs, or gathers as rain, snowmelt,
and, from over the fields, lapwing. under the nation’s skin. mist and dew, before streaming
downhill.
This Su olk river, the Lark, bubbles Britain drips with water: rivers,
through chalk at its source near streams, bogs, marshes, lakes, canals, In the uplands, the water cheese-
wires into the earth, forming

6 NATURAL WORLD SUMMER 2018