Exmoor Lockdown Diary 75 - Remembering One of the Most Enjoyable Series I've Worked On

First TV launch of the flatner at Appledore

One of the best series I ever worked on during my years as a staff journalist was a joint endeavour we did with ITV Westcountry entitled Up The Creek.

We did exactly what the name suggests. We went around the creeks and estuaries of the South West region exploring tidal waterways. 

We started writing rowing and filming in autumn when most boating tourists had gone home and the nooks and crannies of the creeks were left in the complete and utter peace which seems to be their main lot in life. 

Back then I wrote: “Many creeks are tree-lined so we can look forward to fantastic autumnal displays of colour being reflected in the still waters of the protected inlets and flooded river valleys.

Having said that, we start in one of the least sylvan estuaries up in the north of the region. Indeed the final reaches of the Torridge are escorted north by the treeless flatlands of Bideford Bay. 

Preparing to film on the Camel Estuary at Wadebridge

And by the time it reaches its North Devon sister the Taw to form one giant gulf, things can get pretty lumpy and bumpy out there in the wave torn shallows of the sand bar called Sprat Ridge.”

Certainly, the mouth of the Torridge in a gale was no place for the Bristol Channel flatner I borrowed from Watchet Boat Museum. 

The 12-foot John Short was exactly the right sort of craft for the inner parts of the estuaries, but it would have been madness to row out over weirdly named Zulu Sands the other day when we began filming for this series.

Next we went to Wadebridge in Cornwall with its long bridge.  Passing under the arches in a small boat you could see how it’s not one bridge, but two. Even a cursory inspection shows how the downstream spans are a lot older than the adjacent upstream arches. 

The old structure was widened in 1963. There used to be 17 arches but the widening work meant four had to be built over, although the one on the Egloshayle side was used as a cellar.

After that we went to the Helford Passage, the Fal, the Fowey, the Yealm, the Dart and the Exe. If people are interested I’ll put up some more detailed notes of these wonderful voyages. I would dearly love to do them all again.