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
