Paddling my kayak in Worcester floods and onto the Malvern Road!

Every year there are floods from the River Severn and River Teme in the city of Worcester, Worcestershire.

Sometimes they are small and expected and sometimes they are monumentus and a complete surprise.

Dave paddling in the Worcester Floods on the River Teme

Worcester has flood defences to try and combat these floods including pumps on the Hylton Road and flood barriers and bunds on the Powick Hams.

Even with the best laid plans, the water can rise and flood across fields and roads. In fact, the Powick Hams is used as a flood plain to dissipate the water and avoid it rising across the road.

And, of course, with floods comes the potential to paddle into areas not normal open to paddling!

But first, a word of caution. Floods are dangerous for lots of reasons. Safety must be your primary concern and if in doubt, get out!

Watch the video below to see the potential hazards:

OK. Let's look at a trip Dave did in October 2023.

The rivers were up and the floods had already rose above the usual levels for that year and time.

The River Teme is about 250 metres away from the house so Dave trolleyed up his kayak and walked down to the closest point the river is accessible.

It was really in flood and easy to get in as it had flooded onto an open grassy area.

The first few paddle strokes are always a test to see how the water is moving and how much control you have of your craft.

Dave kayaking off into the Worcester floods

It's a time to check out hazards like trees, river flow and fences - all now part of the river environment.

The stream which normally runs past the open grassy area was completely flooded through the hedge into the Powick Hams.

A careful few paddle strokes and his kayak emerged through the hedge into the field.

This is usually a field used mainly for dog walking, but today it was a swimming pool!

The water was a couple of feet deep and extra hazards appeared like barb wire fences! Not good!

The flow, although not strong, was enough to wedge a kayak against a hazard so care had to be taken.

In the distance was the footbridge over the bypass. Dave headed to this and was surprised to be able to paddle over the car park in the layby by the bridge!

The flooded layby by the Powick island in Worcester

Cars were able to pass over the road island on the bypass, but not able to use the carriageway coming from Malvern due to it being completely flooded.

So this was the challenge. Could Dave paddle round and get onto the road?

Carefully picking a route across the field, through the gate (over it actually as the river was that high!) and onto the road was easier than expected.

Plenty of hazards though including submerged branches, fence posts and metalwork.

The water was about 8 inches deep on the road and just enough to paddle on. He paddled up and down waving to the cars driving past!

Dave kayaking on the Malvern Road in Worcester

In the 15 minutes he was there, the water level had dropped about 2 inches. Time to make a way back!

As the flood is expansive, it's hard to find normal geographic markers (rivers, banks, trees etc) so finding a way back was not easy.

Once out onto the Powick Hams, he paddled direclty across to a tunnel usually used by dog walkers. It was flooded to within 2 foot of the roof!

Dave carefully paddled through and made it over to the other side of the bypass.

There were no other people about (because it was flooded!) so it did make the trip more dangerous - even more reason to be safe and careful.

Arriving back at the put in, the water had dropped about 3 feet since he got in.

That's the power of floods. Quick to rise and quick to fall.

This was a brilliant trip and interesting to see the power of the floods in Worcester.

Here's the video of his trip:

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