A report by Matt Gilbert. The set of photos are also here.
It all started when Jim declared he wasn’t going to come and play with us because we were ‘death on a Stick’, so Ernst, Nick, Rich and I jumped in Ernst’s car and headed off down to meet Spooner and Sam at the RDCP.
Last weekend everyone had been talking about how they had never seen the Dart that high, but as we drove down and the rain did not stop and everyone started looking a little nervous. Then we got there and the river was even higher. A brief discussion and we were off to paddle a certain western tributary of the Dart that access conditions apparently prohibit. The shuttles were already set up and in very soon 10 of us found ourselves drifting over the flooded fields on what looked like a gentle grade 2.
It soon got steeper and there followed a brilliant collection of huge waves, a few holes, hardly any rocks and generally some brilliant paddling. It never got any higher than grade 4, but was never slow enough to make it boring.
Nick (?) on the West Dart
More steep fun on the West Dart
Everyone made it happily to the bottom, now nicely warmed up, and since we could not waste all this water, so 6 of us went off to paddle another river that needs plenty of water, the upper Tavy.
This starts with a long walk across moor land but after a mile or so of this we decided we had had enough and headed down to the river itself to get on. The start was a lovely open rocky ditch, with a few small eddies, lots and lots of water and lots and lots of sharp rocks. And then the trees began.
The trees begin to show
Spooner and Rich soon came to the conclusion that describing it as a ‘tree infested ditch’ was accurate. Lots of breaking out in micro eddies and squeezing in and around trees followed until we then found the big drop that Rich was sure was around somewhere (for found, read ‘paddled blindly over’). As Sam, Spooner and Nick disappeared over the second part of it, I broke out beneath the first part, soon to be joined by Rich, and Ernst hanging onto a tree. The tree soon decided it had had enough and flipped and pinned Ernst. Fortunately I was half out of my boat at the time so managed to jump out and drag Ernst out from under the tree so he could breathe again, apparently the tree had been stopping him getting his deck off which explained the long wait upside down.
The majority of the river being over now, Nick got out the camera to film us down the next drop. As we waited for Ernst we heard the ominous cry of ‘Swimmer’. Ernst’s shoulder had popped out again. Nick got him to the side, the other 3 went off chase boating, and I got out on the other side of the river to try and re-unite Ernst with his paddles I was holding. Somehow in the ensuing confusion, the 3 chase boaters ended up at the bottom of the river with all boats, I managed to fail to find Nick and Ernst, and they managed to walk up to the road on the other side of the river to where we were expecting them. As a side note, I do not recommend solo boating down tree infested ditches in flood with 2 pairs of paddles.
The drop before it all went wrong
After an hour or so we were eventually all re-united and headed off to Plymouth for a visit to A&E, before finally getting a morphine ridden Ernst back to Bristol at 11pm. I think in the end Jim’s initial comment was much more prophetic than he realised.
Thanks to Spooner for the photos, Reg and co. for the company on the West Dart and the chase boaters for leaving me dragging my boat through all of the sharp bushes in Dartmoor alone whilst desperately trying to find someone!
