A creeking virgin comes to stay

Good friend Danny Wayte, a playboating addict but relative creeking virgin, took a trip from the flatlands to come and stay with me for a couple of days so he could get stuck into some good old fashioned Yorkshire Rivers. We had met at last years Wet West Paddlefest, which ignited a desire within him to get on more rivers.

We got up super early on Wednesday morning, and headed up dale where we warmed up on Cray Gill. He had done the lower gorge with me before, but levels were a bit better and we did the whole thing this time.

The beck gets going straight away, with the following 5 or 6 metre drop into a small pool.

Next up is the main drop, which Danny dispatched with ease. After this the beck eases off for a couple of minutes before entering the lower gorge. ‘Mini-Dalness’ opens this up, and ‘Backbreaker’ is the final drop of note before a fun shoot and the get out.

 After running Cray Gill Danny expressed an interest in running the Swale, perhaps because of its reputation as a classic white water river and testpiece. Although there hadn’t been massive amounts of rain, all my previous Swale hunches had worked out so we took the gamble and headed further North. The sun shone and it was great fun at a just below a medium level.

All too soon the final and intimidating drops of Upper and Lower Kisdon were reached. For the Upper, we just tucked up and went deep. A couple of paddlers from Teesside were waiting at the second, and biggest, of the two Kisdon Forces. Lines were discussed and the moment of reckoning came. Danny managed to get a loop of the second lip as he got his speed and line slighlty wrong, but the smile on his face told a story of triumph and joy. We got lost on the walk back out, but the adrenaline carried us all the way back to the car.

A late start on Thursday took us for a play run down the Wharfe, where Danny spent a while trying to improve my cartwheel. Hopefully, he returned home buzzing from the experience as the realisation that river boating is far superior to any amount Helixes and concrete ditches.

Tom

A quick trip North

Jonny and I have just got back from a quick weekend in Scotland, which was fun.

The plan was to camp in Glen Etive on Friday night, then have some fun low water boating first thing, before meeting a friend and going elsewhere. Suffice to say, it chucked it down all night and by the morning the Etive was fairly big, certainly too much for just the two of us to do alone.

So, at 8.45 we ferried across the Etive and walked up to the Allt a’ Chaoruinn, which was fantastic – far more water than last time we did it! ‘Speed’ was completely covered, although we both took the normal line. ‘Ecstasy’ was great fun, although we ended up portaging ‘Pinball’ just below – the main line looked a bit minging, and there wasn’t quite enough water to get the sneaky line down the left.

Next, we drove to the head of the Glen to meet Shaun and his friend, Ben, who phoned to say the Orchy looked promising. It did not dissapoint, although as none of us really knew the river (Shaun pretended he did) we spent a lot of time looking at lines, always expecting one of the grade 5 beasties. All in all though, it was a good day. Jonny and I then headed off to Roybridge to see his uncle, Brian, to get fed and watered. He lives in a fantastic house with views to die for, so we spent most of the evening habouring plans to make money so we can move north and enjoy the Scottish boating scene…

We had a bit of a slow morning today, which was actually quite nice. After saying our goodbyes, we headed off to the Allt Mhuic. We got a bit lost so looked at some other random burns, including the Allt Chia-aig which was high and looked exceptionally painfull, before driving too far up Loch Arkaig. When we finally found it we went for a quick nosey – it looks awesome, right up our street. However, by this time it was getting far too late to get on the water, so we went to Fort William for some food and caffeine, before the long slog home.

We’re now looking forward to the Wet West Paddlefest – we have lots of rivers we want to do. Fingers crossed, the River Gods will look down on us favourably in six weeks time!

Anyway, it’s been a long (but far too quick) weekend and it’s now time for bed.

Tom