Lisa and I paddled a canoe down the river Spey (Scotland) in September 2024, in a group of seven people.

Who and Why

Lisa’s nephew Ollie is an outdoor activity instructor, and works at Maes-y-Lade outdoor centre on the edge of the Brecon Beacons near Glasbury. Ollie has previously run commercial trips taking clients down the river Spey, and/or the Great Glen. He asked his dad Tim to come along this year on the river Spey, and Tim then asked Lisa (his sister) to come too, then I (Conor) joined in. We brought along Genny Sargent from Bristol Canoe Club too. There was also another paddler Lee, who’d paddled with Ollie before, and another instructor from Maes-y-Lade, Elliot. That should make seven altogether.

Plan

We set off from Maes-y-Lade in the very early hours of Monday 23rd September 2024. The plan is to drive up to Loch Insh. We then paddle a short section on Monday afternoon, then all day Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, wild camping along the river as we go. Friday finishes with a half-day paddle, to a golf club at Spey Bay, where we retrieve the minibus and the head on the long drive home again.

The weather for the previous week had been marvellous. As we headed up on the Monday morning, the forecast was not so friendly; heavy rain for most of the week.

Monday

We had loaded the minibus and trailer with our kit the night before, ready for the 4am wake-up call. It’s a very early start, and a very long drive up to the river at Loch Insh. The traffic delay gods were not kind, plus very heavy rain as we drove up through Wales and the north West. We eventually arrived at Loch Insh at around 3:45pm. We rapidly unloaded the boats and minibus, so that Elliot could then drive the bus to the end point at the golf club at Spey Bay. He had a taxi booked to return him to the start point; theoretically the taxi would get him back just in time for the last daylight, when he would paddle in twilight to meet us at our first camp.

We packed all our kit (in water-tight barrels) into the boats; everything must be tied in, in case of ‘incidents’ (capsizes). Ollie gave us a pep talk, and we headed down the gently meandering river from the loch. The river level is quite low, which should make for an easy trip, though there will be some shallow sections. The boats are heavily loaded, which does make them harder to manoeuvre, and the inertia makes it slow to start moving.

We have both Elliot and Ollie paddling in solo canoes. There’s five of the rest of us, so Lisa paddled solo; I paddled tandem with Genny, and Tim paddled tandem with Lee. No incidents, and after around 40 minutes we stopped on a stony beach on the river bank where Ollie had identified a pleasant campsite.

The weather was kind, for now, so we set up camp and then cooked our food. We were all quite tired after the early start. We waited for Elliot to arrive. There had been some confusion with the taxi, so he was delayed. Elliot paddled this first section in the mostly dark, with just a head-torch to help. But it did mean that he saw a few otters. We welcomed Elliot to the camp, but soon most of us headed to the warmth of our sleeping bags.

Tuesday

Tuesday started off dry, so we packed up camp efficiently and headed on our way. Today there would be some real rapids (though only grade 1 or 2). It rained quite a lot in the morning, and was quite cold. We made good progress, so before 11am we had reached Aviemore. Ollie offered us the chance to head into Aviemore to get a coffee to warm up; we all jumped at the offer!

More rain in the afternoon, but we made good progress and reached the island where we were going to camp, just past Boat of Garten, around 3:30. We were all cold, and it was raining intermittently, so we pitched our tents as well as we could, and ate our food. The cold and drizzle meant that nobody wanted to stay up very late.

Wednesday

The morning was dry, contrary to the various weather forecasts, so we managed to pack up reasonably well. The river has risen perhaps 20cm overnight, because of the rain, but it is still a ‘medium’ water level. More progress today. We passed multiple salmon fishermen (and just a few fisherwomen), mostly on the river banks, or some in waders in the river. The Spey is one of the best salmon fisheries in Scotland, apparently. There are certainly many lodges and huts scattered along the banks. We passed Grantown on Spey around lunchtime.

After lunchtime, Lisa and Genny swapped boats, so that Genny was paddling the solo canoe; I had to deal with Lisa! Towards the end of the day, we traversed the infamous “washing machine” rapid (only grade 2), but without significant incident. Tim and Lee had to bail out water furiously as their boat almost got swamped by some waves. Ollie and Elliot must have been getting bored with nobody falling out of the boats. Apparently, last year, in higher water, two boats had capsized here.

After a long day’s paddle (39km / 25 miles), we eventually reached our target camping island around 4:30, somewhere near Marypark. This campsite would be lovely on a nice summer’s day.

But it rained that evening, so again, no incentive to stay up chatting. The temperature was dropping too; down to around 3 degrees by the morning!

Thursday

A damp drizzly morning, and cold too. Genny had been ill overnight. We don’t know what might have caused it; we are all using water filters, etc, but it could be anything. Genny managed to eat some porridge for breakfast, and we waited a while to see whether Genny felt OK to carry on; the unhappy alternative would have been to get Genny to a road to find a nearby hotel and wait out the rest of the trip. However, Genny did perk up enough to continue. No soloing for Genny this morning though, so Lisa was back solo.

The sun came out for us on the river. We soon reached the equally infamous Knockando rapids; a series of bends with trees in the water, etc. Ollie sent us through one at a time, and we all did fine.

A lunch stop by a picnic bench at Charlestown / Aberlour; again some managed to get a take-away hot-chocolate! Afterwards I decided to have a go paddling solo. More gently meandering bends; sometimes long flat sections. Unfortunately, a brisk northly wind (a head wind) had developed, making solo paddling challenging and quite hard work. After around an hour I had to accept tiredness and swap back with Lisa.

Another nice campsite, on an island just downstream of the bridges at Boat o’ Brig, but the weather gods were not kind. After being dry all day, the rain kicked in with a few ferocious showers as we were setting up camp. The rain got steadily worse, so again, once we had eaten, nobody stayed up chatting.

Friday

Contrary to the weather forecast, it was dry when we got up. But the tents are wet anyway; we pack everything away haphazardly cos they won’t be being used tonight! A short paddle today (12km). I volunteered to try solo paddling again, this is so that Lisa and Tim can have some brother-and-sister time together! Genny paddled with Lee. More very annoying headwind! We did make progress, with a couple more tree hazards on bends. Lisa and Tim got caught on a tree but managed to get out of the boat without capsizing. Again, not much extra work for Ollie (though he did retrieve a dropped paddle).

We arrived near the get-out before 12 noon. However, the river is braided into many shingle banks here; almost at the estuary. It wasn’t clear how to get from the river to the golf course where the minibus was parked. Ollie and Elliot headed off on foot to find the way. After 15 minutes or so, they returned. We had to move the boats 100 metres downstream, then carry them over some shingle banks, into pools, then over more shingle backs. After perhaps 300m (and nearly an hour!) we arrived at the edge of the golf course proper. I’m not sure what the golfers thought about a raggedy bunch of paddlers and boats appearing through some of the bushes. Nobody commented, and there were very few golfers playing anyway. We then retrieved some sets of trolley wheels from the bus, so that we could wheel the boats along the paths in the golf course back to their clubhouse and car park. The clubhouse bar wasn’t open, but the changing room was very welcome.

We left Spey Bay around 2pm for the long drive home. Then the rain started again too! Just a couple of quick stops on the way, but we still arrived at Maes-y-Lade after 1am.

Very many thanks to Ollie and Elliot for shepherding us all down the river, and for providing the boats. We all had a great time, in spite of the inclement weather. Of course, it’s Scotland, so we always knew that the weather would be ‘variable’!

If you’d be interested in joining a future trip, please contact us, and we will put you in touch with Ollie and the Maes-y-Lade centre. We’re not 100% sure that this trip will be running next year (2025), but you can ask… They also runs trips along the Great Glen.

Conor O’Neill, Oct 2024

Categories: White water