BCC Scotland Trip
27th March – 3rd April 2004
Some photos from this trip are here.
The line up for this year’s jaunt was as follows: Alamo ‘Tortoise’ Spaargaren, Nick ‘Jungle Boy’ Clendon, Richard ‘Gollom’ Pinchin, Mat ‘Lord Snowdon’ Jones and Jim ‘the swim’ Ratcliffe. With a ratio of experienced paddlers to muppets of 1:4, there was potential for real carnage.
There had been heavy rain on Saturday night, and a quick check at Roybridge revealed that the river was up. We put on the Upper section, and within minutes Alamo and I were exchanging nervous glances as the river was definitely on the high side, with boils and stoppers all over the place. At ‘Rooster’s Tail’ there was a choice of five lines where previously there had been only one- so much for a warm up river! We slowly worked our way down the gorge section, portaging ‘Head Banger’, and clocking up a number of combat rolls in the heavy flow. Even after the epic carry up to the car, Nick was still on (kayak) heat, and managed to persuade us do a quick shuttle and run the River Pattack. It’s a fantastic little river, and the narrow gorge section near the get out was an excellent end to the day
Monday saw us at the River Fechlin. I was grateful that the river was at a medium level, as I had witnessed my first BCC epic here in 2002, when 3 of the group walked out, Clive needing stitches. We all managed to keep it tidy until we reached ‘Multiple Choice’, the hardest rapid on the river. Inspection showed that you really didn’t want to follow the main flow through the guts of the rapid, and after watching Alamo, Nick and Mat navigate an alternative route, I managed to back loop in the top stopper and run the whole thing upside down. I exited my boat and swam into a recirculating eddy, where Nick threw me a line (ticking off another key skill in the Accelerated Beginner’s Course in the process). The shame of it! Unaware of my troubles, Baldrick also looped at the top, but he and his capsized boat chose a different line, taking some big hits in the process. It was at this point that I realised how essential it is to have Baldrick on a river trip, as he always manages to get a worse trashing than everyone else. The rest of the river was run without incident. Baldrick went to Fort William to fix his boat, and the rest of us paddled the Arkaig. No one had run the river before, and Nick urged us to run it Harvey-style (i.e. see you at the bottom!). We all dutifully ploughed over the first grade 4 horizon line, regrouping (un-intentionally) in a micro eddy half way down the rapid under the Rhododendrons.
Tuesday arrived, and with no more rain the Middle Etive was calling us. We arrived at the get in to find the river low, and swarming with students. By the time Alamo and I had returned from the shuttle, Nick had already run Triple Falls, Mat commenting that ‘we need to keep Jungle Boy on a leash’. He was visibly foaming at the mouth, and Alamo didn’t need asking twice when Nick offered to be probe boat for the day. Baldrick got the worst possible line on the ‘Letterbox’, as he unsuccessfully attempted to post his boat down the slot that gives this rapid its name. Despite much twitching of sphincters we all managed to run the famous 6 metre Right Angle Falls, Baldrick swimming at the bottom as his boat splatted against the walls of the pool (minor tantrum ensued). The prize for the closest shave goes to Nick, who after scrambling up the walls to run the waterfall again, managed to capsize in the tiny eddy above the drop. The adrenalin was still coursing through the veins when we got off the river, and we decided to paddle the Spean Gorge in the warm afternoon sun.
I was hoping that the lashings of ginger beer that night would mean that Wednesday was a rest day, but I was rudely awaken at 8:30 a.m. for the two-hour drive to the River Findhorn. The river was low, and every man-and-his-kayak was at the get-in. The booze must have affected every ones’ judgement because after inspecting ‘Triple Drop’, we all ran it on river right, despite the guidebook ruling this out due to the risk of a nasty pin (which Mat got very close to). Worse was to come when I flipped over halfway down ‘The Corkscrew’, and after what seemed like an eternity scouring the river bed with my helmet, I swam again. This pushed me up the points leader-board, Mat dutifully coining the phrase ‘Jim the Swim’.
It still hadn’t rained by April Fools Day. Mat and Baldrick went diving, and Alamo, Nick and myself decided to go for a walk. We chose the Aonach Eagach Ridge in Glen Coe, which the guidebook says ‘provides exciting, sometimes daunting, scrambling in exposed conditions’. A quick check on the weather at Nevis Sport revealed that we could expect 50 mph NE winds and rain, perfect conditions really. Despite odd patches of snow and slippery climbing we survived. It was a good job we didn’t need rescuing as Nick was wearing a pair of tennis shoes and Bermuda shorts, and the only piece of safety equipment we had was a throw line. We had the boats on the roof of the car ‘just in case’, and to my horror, when I returned from the car shuttle Nick had rung a rafting company to check on the River Garry. The dam was still releasing (ice cold water) when we arrived at 5pm, and reluctantly I donned the neoprene, telling myself that I could eddy-hug all the way down the river. It turned out to be a nice little run, with a few friendly play holes.
With only showers forecast for Friday, we headed back to the Etive. It was raining heavily by the time we got to Glen Coe, and we arrived to find the get-in deserted, and the river at a medium/high flow. I regretted congratulating myself at breakfast that we hadn’t drowned anyone. Several of us got long down time in the bottom drop of ‘Triple Falls’, then Mat got a proper working in the hole at ‘Letterbox’. After extracting him and his kit, he decided he’d had enough, and the rest of us continued. When we arrived at Right Angle Falls, water was pouring over the rocks that you normally inspect from, and a second line had developed, entirely avoiding the dog leg eddy. We decided that perhaps it was time to call it a day, and retreated to the Clachaig Inn.
The final scores, not including portages, are as follows: Alamo 4, Nick 4, Jim 11, Baldrick 11, Mat 11. Baldrick gets 4 and Matt 6 ‘un-necessary portage’ points. Mat also gets additional ‘Rodney’ points for topping his engine up with oil then failing to replace the filler cap……..A good time was had by all.
Jim
