The Happy Little Dude Goes Climbing

Ben was having his breakfast and I started to say, 'well Ben, shall we.....'  when he interrupted me to say, 'Go Climbing!'  So we did!

        

Ben seemed to really enjoy the day. Although he didn't reach the top he did get pretty high up the wall.  I had to go up and get him down from the slab, but he could be lowered down the vertical walls... what fun we had in the cafe afterwards chatting to Ned and Charlotte (2 friendly staff members) and eating chips and chocolate... an odd mix I know!

Can't wait till the next trip!

Open Canoeing Accross Scotland pt 4

(Mark getting the canoes back down to the Middle Tummel)

The next day began with Mark, Tony and I lowering our boats to water level. Dave elected to portage after looking at the first rapid.  This section of the Tummel was the most technically demanding.  It would involve 2 portages, 2 rapids that we elected to line our boats down and some excellent white water paddling and poling. In fact, pretty much everything expedition 

canoeing has to offer - problem solving, riverside decisions, teamwork, and physically demanding work hauling expedition laiden boats.

                                                                   
(Mark and Tony lining down a                                                          (Tony seal launching at the Linn
rapid in the middle Tummel)                                                               of Tummel)

We eventually joined Dave at the bottom of this section of river where the Tummel widens out and becomes Loch Faskally near Pitlochry, and yet another dam to portage!

The Lower Tummel flows out of Pitlochry and confluences with the Tay at Ballanluig.  It's mainly 
grade I shingle rapids intersperced with salmon fishermen and long flatwater sections.  We decided
to push on down as far as we possibly could and managed to get to the Tay - Isla confluence at Isla 
Bridge (where Dave and I had left our cars).  We arrived at Isla Bridge at about 9pm after a mammoth days paddle.  The bivvy here was the worst on the trip unfortunately it was by a road, yet we were so tired that we slept the sleep of the righteous!

The next day Dave elected to drive home after running the shuttle for my car.  I left my car at 
Waulkmill Ferry.  We enjoyed a fabulous paddle on the Tay to Perth.  We enjoyed the paddle through Campsie Linn and Stanley, playing and surfing a little on the way.  In fact we were enjoying the paddle so much that Mark and I passed our get out by about 3 miles!  Tony lives near Perth so he paddled on as far as salt water. 

However, this gave Mark and I the opportunity to practice two of the as yet untried open canoeing techniques, upriver tracking and poling!


(Myself (L) and Mark at my car at last)

Open canoeing across Scotland pt3

(Mark at our shared bivvy on the banks of Loch Rannoch)

Loch Rannoch near Kinloch Rannoch and the surrounding area is dominated by the dome of Schiehallion (in Gaelic ‘The Fairy Hill of the Caledonians’). The loch has a silvian feel, with pine covered hills on either side. Day 3 saw us paddle the remainder of Loch Rannoch and portage the dam at Kinloch Rannoch.  From Loch Rannoch there was more water, we enjoyed the paddle along the river into Dunalister Water and the next Dam in the Rannoch - Tummel hydroelectric scheme.

(Tenboats Tony on a section of the upper Tummel)

The Dam at Dunalister Water indicates the start of the Upper Tummel, the river contained some great grade 2 - 3 paddling. Dave elected to portage along the road whilst Mark, Tenboats and I decided to paddle. The first rapid at the get in was a technical grade 3 indicating the type of paddling we could expect for the rest of the river. We negotiated the river in about 2.5 hours by paddling, lining and poling. We portaged one rapid which looked about grade 4. Eventually we met up with Dave at Tummel Bridge and began the paddle on Loch Tummel.

The wind was quite strong (F4 - 5), and almost directly down the loch. The sail down the loch was probably the most exhilerating sail we’d had and we covered the length of the loch in about 1.5 hours! We portaged the dam on the left and found a bivvy site high above the Middle Tummel.

more of our story later!

Open Canoeing Across Scotland Pt2

(Dave, Tony and Mark sailing rafted canoes on Loch Laiden)

At the end of the R.Gaur we come to Loch Laiden.  This loch is quite a long and complex loch, often finding the exit of the loch and start of the R. Gaur can be quite difficult.

Once on the loch, after a quick pole repair.  The wind was with us and we quickly rafted the boats up and set up to sail the loch.  This manner of crossing open water can be the most efficient and easiest method.


(relaxing whilst sailing down Loch Laiden)

At the end of loch laiden we managed to find our way onto the R. Gaur. We paddled for about an hour before we decided to bivvy.

This saw the end of the first day, we felt a little dishartened at the water levels however, we were happy to be underway and happy with the 'team'.

The next day would see us paddle and pole the R. Gaur until it comes to Loch Eigeach. Loch Eigeach is quite a small loch, terminating on its east end in a dam.  We managed 
paddle the loch quite quickly with the wind in our favour.  During our wind assisted paddle down the loch we spotted what we believe was a Golden Eagle.  We quickly portaged the Dam, looking at the river below we decided to portage until the flow was a bit higher. The river below leads onto Loch Rannoch at the 'Bridge of Gaur'.  With a length of 10 miles Loch Rannoch was the largest loch on our trip.  Again we found the wind in our favour and we quickly
rafted up and sailed most of the length of this loch to Kinloch Rannoch, where we found a fabulous lochside bivvy.

Accross Scotland by Open Canoe pt1

(Loch Ba)

Easter 07 and myself and 3 other open canoeist buddies from the 'song of the paddle' internet group finally met up at a car park on the A82 by Loch Ba, Rannoch Moor Scotland. We had arranged to cross Scotland from West to East, accross the wilderness of Rannoch Moor to the Lochs Rannoch and Tummel, down the rivers Tummel and Tay to Perth.

The team comprised of myself, Tony-tenboats (an active member of the song of the paddle group), Dave 'the Poling Gnome' and Mark VB.  Although only Mark and I had previously met each other the team very quickly demonstrated a common commitment to the expedition and to doing it in 'good style'.  To us 'good style' ment solving as many problems as we could on the water, making decisions about paddling or portaging based on our own judgement and the water levels, and doing it with total respect for the both the environment and the water.

(Tony on Loch Ba) 

The first part of the journey involves crossing Loch Ba and negotiating the Rivers Gaur and Garbh 

Gaur and Loch Laiden.  Rannoch Moor is probably one of the last remaining truely wild places in
Britain, it stretches out between Loch Rannoch to the West and Glen Etive to the East.  It covers about 50 square miles of peat moorland pocked with miniature lochs and rivers.  The largest of the lochs are Loch Ba and Loch Laiden connected by the River Gaur.  The 'Rannoch Moor Crossing' is concidered a great 'prize' by British Open Canoeists for its beauty, isolation, length and technical difficulty of the 2 rivers.   The trip was expected to last for 5 days.

The first day saw us paddle from the put in by the A82 accross Loch Ba, down the River Gaur
and accross Loch Laiden onto the River Garbh Gaur.  Loch Ba is a short but complex loch, it 
didn't take us long to negotiate this loch and join the river.  Although we had hoped that starting our trip in early spring would mean that we got the snow melt the river was low.  It meant that we had to negotiate alot of the river by technical poling and snubbing.  It was great fun, although
frustrating at times.
                                           
(poling)                                                                                         (Tony poling on the R.Gaur)

The next instalment coming soon!



 

the wharfe by open canoe

(Poling on the Wharfe somewhere)

Lew (from York Canoe Club) and I decided that we fancied an open canoe expedition down the River Wharfe in Yorkshire.  So one friday night early in November 07 Lew and I met up and got ourselves the grub and made the evil plan.  We were going to leave a vehicle at a friends house in Tadcaster and drive Lew's van round t0 Conistone Bridge on the Wharfe.  We would attempt to paddle as far as Tadcaseter over the next 2 days.
We arived at Conistone Bridge to find that the river was lower than we had hoped.  Initial progress was difficult and both Lew and I had to resort to polling/snubbing our canoes down river.  We quickly reached Conistone falls, where we had to dragportage our canoes over the double
drop. Unfortunately I snapped one of the ends of my canoe pole in the rapid immediately below this obstacle (hence the blue tape on the photo).

Several miles of easy paddling and poling brought us to Gaystrals Strid. A quick inspection told us that the upper part of this rapid had sufficiant water to make it paddleable.  Lew stood guard with his throwline whilst I paddled this winding rapid to the breakout at the bottom. Then I returened the favour for Lew.


(Getting in after 'lining' down the lower section of Gaystrals strid)

A mile or so more brought us to Grassington and the 2 wiers there, after which we dragged our canoes around Linton Falls.  There was a crowd on the footbridge over the waterfall (normally grade V) there, I assume they were hoping to see one or both of us paddle it.  The quickly dispersed once they realised we were going to drag our boats around it.


(Dragging the boat around Gaystrals Strid)

IMHO the wharfe below Linton is a much better river than the section we had just paddled.  It has many more interesting grade II/II+ rapids and the grade III Appletreewick Falls.  We paddled and poled our way down to Appletreewick Falls enjoying the variety of differing obsicles the river presented us with.  Since we both knew this rapid very well and once we came to the rapid we had good line of site to good eddies in the middle and bottom of the first section we elected to run it without inspecting.  I went first and after setting out (reverse ferry break out) in the middle eddy ran the first section without mishap.  Lew followed me down, not as graceful as my decent I have to say (sorry Lew).   The rest of this section down to Burnsal bridge went totally without incident.


(Cooking at the bivvy)

Neither Lew nor I had any experience of the next section of river between Burnsall Bridge and Bolton Abbey. Time was not on our side and it was beginnning to get dark.  We pushed on, this section was alot better than we expected.  It contains several gorgy type rapids in 'strid woods', we paddled or 'lined' down these rapids without incident.  By the time we reached 'the Strid', a famous gritstone gorge it was almost dark.  We had already decided that we were going to portage this infamous section as it is terrifyingly undercut left and right.  As we began the arduous task of dragging our boats around this rapid we were met by a group of lads from Birmingham.  They were impressed with our expedition laiden boats and decided to help us portage the strid. Thanks lads!!
By the time we were back underway we knew we weren't going to make our initial night spot and decided that we would paddle through Bolton Abbey grounds and then look for somewhere to set up our bivvy.

The next hour or so was highly entertaining!! We ended up paddling most of this section in the dark by headtorch! 

What fun! The both of us must have hit 100s of rocks, I definately remember going 
over a small wier backwards!! Eventually once we passed Bolton Abbey we found a beach which

with a secluded dip where we would be able to set up a bivvy site.

After a brew and a bite to eat we settled down to sleep under our tarps. 

The following day saw us paddle the lower section of the river. Our intended destination of Tadcaster was a long paddle away.  We set off at around 6am after a porridge breakfast.  The paddle down to Otley went without incident, the wiers which we shot being the only 'entertainment'.  At times we were navigating by the road signs on the A65!!

 
(shooting the wier at Otley)

At Otley bridge we stopped for a well earned brew and bite to eat.   After which we shot the wier and set off on the most arduous part of our trip. A long 

flatwater section of river punctuated by the angry shouts of fishermen. Unfortunately these chaps were unwilling or unhappy to share the river with us!  Their attitude unfortunately put a dampner on our spirits and we paddled almost in silence until we reached the bridge at Harewood.  

Once there we decided that we weren't going to be able to make it as far as Tadcaster

until late at night so we decided to call it day.  We rang our friend Badger who kindly volunteered to come and collect us.  He picked us up and even ran the shuttle for us before taking us back to Tadcaster and my car.  Once at Tad we were rewarded by bumper Tad Kebabs!!
What a fun adventure.... Next trip the Lune!