‘An escape route into another world’: canoeing in Suffolk

A paddle along the River Waveney offers captivating aquatic life in gin-clear waters that ripple like the colours of a painting

The willows and the cattle grazing on the flood plain are as timeless and tranquil as a Constable painting, but it is the pictures beneath the water that draw my gaze. As the canoe glides between tall clumps of true bulrush, the gin-clear river reveals a secret garden – tresses of trailing waterweed, water lilies and other delicate, dazzling green aquatic plants. Between them, fish dart constantly – plump chub, red-finned perch and shoals of minnows.