For Lammas on August 1st, Wild Church took to the water for our much loved canoe pilgrimage. Pilgrims converged from around Devon, at the Malsters Arms on Bow Creek at Tuckenhay, which is just down the way from our previous pilgrimage end point at Ashprington. Here our wonderful guide, Hugh from Canoe Adventures, soon had us safely kitted out with buoyancy aids, appropriate lengths of paddle and then arranged in balanced pairs along the length of our giant open canoe with our most experienced paddler, Isabel from the BLC, at the front to set the pace & lead the way.
Soon we were paddling quietly downstream towards the Dart, past cormorants and leaping fish. We also took time to simply drift silently; to commune with the river and all the wild creatures that make the Dart their home. This enabled us to be blessed with an extraordinary encounter, as a great bull seal swam close to the canoe! We hardly saw him until his broad curved back suddenly arched out of the water nearby and then up came his curious, whiskered face with its soulful eyes. It was a moment of real magic, which I will never forget.
Our next stop came when we paddled into Stoke Gabriel to the sound of church bells and where we paused to visit dry land again. Some of us walked along the shore and up through the community orchard to the churchyard with its beautiful ancient yew tree. Here we were warmly welcomed by the congregation of St Mary and St Gabriel Church and were just in time to join them for another kind of communion. I think we were the only communicants to have come by boat and I didn’t realise until we left (a little early in order to catch the tide) that I’d gone up to the altar rail still wearing my life jacket – it gave such good padding for sitting in a hard wooden pew!
As we slowly made our way back to our boat and set off upstream, we paused again for a picnic lunch. The menfolk bonded over the storm kettle as they brewed up the tea and the rest of us dozed in the sunshine or did a little wild foraging for samphire along the shore. After lunch we gathered in a circle, around a river stone altar constructed by Tam, and reflected on experiences and wild wisdom harvested for Lammas. There was a powerful sense of community with each other, the river and all those (both human and more than human) that we had met along the way.
As we set off homewards, we were now working again the tide and to add to our efforts, the heavens unexpectedly opened and a positively biblical downpour descended on us. I don’t think I’ve ever been so drenched so quickly, as the water both poured over us and bounced off the surface of the river… it was somehow wildly exciting and exhilarating! It also motivated our paddling efforts and, with Tam leading us in every watery song we could think of, we sang, paddling and gasped our way soggily back to Tuckenhay in high spirits… and then dispersed rapidly for the dry and warmth of pub and home.
Words & images by Sam. For more photos, see our facebook post here