SUP on the Mole
The SUPer Club’s mission: to take paddle boards
where no man has taken a paddle board before. The River Mole, home of “Psycho Swan”. ![]() We met at a recreation ground in Esher KT10 8NA where the Mole runs close. ![]() We paddled off up stream from the bridge on a peaceful open stretch with Garsons Farm on our left and open meadows to our right. ![]() After about 15 minutes paddling the river started to close in a tad which tested the steering skills of Julian. ![]() As the Mole narrowed into a pleasant byway the trees started to overhang with more attitude and then ![]() the first true obstacle came into sight in the form of a tree dissecting the river and only leaving a slight gap with it submerged by only 3”. From now on the Mole took ![]() on a whole new personality as it became more overgrown twisting and turning ![]() giving no clue as to what may be around the next corner. I felt that we should be wearing our “pith helmets”. ![]() Then the river was blocked completely with a fallen tree. Was this the end of our trip..? No Surrender, we forged our way through the aquatic undergrowth ![]() one by one and then the river opened up once more as we reached Whiteley ![]() Village and the Burhill Golf club. You could say that the River Mole “meanders” An adjective for “winding river”, named after the “Meander River” in Ancient Greece which has a winding pattern. However, if the explorers looked a little closer to home we may well have described these twisting paths with the adjective “Mole”. Just a thought..! Back to the paddle, ![]() we decided to have a break for refreshments, we all had a water bottle apart from Gordon, who as always came prepared in style and this time pulled out a can of lager and a bag of doughnuts, what can I say..! Now is was time to head back and forge our way back through the obstacles, only this time the light was beginning to fade a tad. We got back to the section where the river was blocked completely and it all looked so different from the up stream side so we just took a “punt”, no pun intended, and we pushed our way through only to find it was most definitely not the way we got through before..! (all thanks to me I have to say) after having to lay flat on my board and wriggling under an 18” tree trunk I got through (I should point out that at this point we couldn’t touch the bottom of the river with our paddles), followed by Paul and then Gordon made ![]() his run and suddenly we saw Gordon struggling, losing his balance and we all held our breath and Gordon grabbed hold of a branch which saved him until like in slow motion the branch slowly but surely came away in his hand and Gordon was lowered ![]() into the river as if on a “Witches Chair”. :lol: ![]() After much scrambling, Gordon was back on his board and we all continued back down river, ![]() around the twists and turns as the river once again opened up into a more ![]() defined shape and there in front of us was our nemesis “Psycho Swan” and his family of wife and signets. At this point I was in front so I headed to the opposite side of the river but Psycho was having none of it ![]() (this was no time to take photos) but this was Pyscho from our last encounter) I increased my paddle rate and heart rate, I was closing in and keeping to the right and Psycho was coming at me from the left bank at a rate of knots, we closed in on each other and at the last moment Psycho let me through and the rest of the group closely followed. ![]() We made it back to our starting point. The only thing that was missing was a pub at the end. |