The Scottish trip, Sunday October 25th

The intention was to set off around 8am so we would be in Scotland in time to have a look at the River Tay in daylight, as the clocks had gone back the previous evening. John arrived on time but whilst tightening my boat down on the roof of his car the roof rack came loose. A junior hacksaw and some Allen keys sorted the problem but we were now an hour behind schedule having arranged to meet Tim , Geoff and Kee at Tebay services. Fortunately Tim’s car was late off too and so a few text messages and the meeting was back on. That was until I looked up through the sunroof of John’s car and the paddles didn,t appear to be there ! Fortunately we hadn’t lost them, they had just moved across the top of the boats which forced an unscheduled pit stop at Charnock Richard services. A couple of boot laces did the trick in securing the paddles down between the boats. There was now no need to call in to Tebay so a few more texts and calls meant we could push on into Scotland to Abingdon services on the M74 where we satisfied ourselves with a coffee, a call of nature, more fuel and a couple of Tim’s ham cobs. We pushed on to our first nights accommodation ” The Grandtully” at Grandtully on the River Tay and a training ground for many of our top slalom paddlers including Campbell Walsh ( Olympic silver Athens 2004, World cup champion 2004, World championship bronze 2006 & 2007, European champion 2008 ) so we were expecting some good paddling ! The accommodation was ideal, we had 3 rooms between the 5 of us and a choice of three shower rooms, a good well equipped kitchen, a large dining room and a large comfortable TV room. It also had a good sized drying room and is literally a 40 metre walk across the road to the put in, what more could we want ? A fish & chip supper from Aberfeldy with a few cans of beer was all we needed for our first evening. The following morning we had the traditional Full English, kindly prepared by Geoff, crossed the road and enjoyed a good couple of hours paddling. We showered and set off to look at the access, egress and rapids on the River Tummel, which was to be our intended paddle on Wednesday. We left the Tummel and then found it took us 2 hours to get up to Fort William from here to our accommodation for the next four days, the Lochy-holiday-park. Gary and Elliot had travelled up Monday morning and arrived ahead of us so the now Magnificent 7 shared two identical 6 berth log cabins and enjoyed a very nice Cottage pie dinner with vegetables, followed by apple pie and custard, thanks Gary, and Rachael I suspect ! A visit into a good old fashioned pub in Fort William was the venue for discussing the next days paddle. It should be noted that for the time of year the weather was both extremely dry and very mild ( I didn’t have to wear my woolly bear suit once, a dry suit and rash vest was all that was needed ). The river almost chose itself, so early in the morning, before the rest of us were up, Tim very kindly did a reconnaissance mission to see if it was running and find the put on & take out. This was a fantastic paddle due to the beauty of the surroundings, clarity of the water, autumn colours and the fact none of us had paddled here before. With safety in mind we paddled cautiously and set up safety at anything that we thought may be a challenge. This was the modus operandi for the whole holiday and it worked very well for us with people unselfishly taking it in turn to provide cover for the rest of the “team”. We didn’t see anyone else on the river and had it to ourselves until 3 other paddlers arrived at the get out not long after us, all the way from Sutton. Unfortunately we were informed that by these guys that the building work that was being carried out was part of a new Hydro scheme and the main rapid may be lost by next year so we count ourselves lucky to have run it ! We were informed by Geoff that Tuesday night is steak night at Wetherspoons and £10. 49 got you a 14 oz Angus steak and a pint of ale, so that was Tuesday evening sorted. Wednesday’s paddle was the River Garry as it was on a release, Gary and Elliot had paddled it previously under the supervision of Ross Montandon. This turned out to be another great paddle with 6 of us jumping back on for another run and trying different lines to the routes we took on the first run, excellent. John and I did dinner that night ( John actually ) Broccoli & Stilton soup followed Chicken with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and Jacket potatoes in mushroom sauce with chocolate eclairs for desert. A few of us then went up to the Ben Nevis inn situated at the start of the walk up to Ben Nevis.
Rain was forecast overnight and the following morning and Tim was convinced the Etive would be running Thursday morning, I’m not sure the rest of us were in agreement as we headed off to the Etive but as we drove down the Glen alongside the river Etive we could see the river was running, great stuff we had another day of paddling, unfortunately we looked at Triple Falls and Tim announced it was far too high to run, as it happens Kee wasn’t in the mood to paddle due to a throbbing head, due largely to mixing beer, wine and cider the previous evening ! So the Magnificent seven became the Famous Five and we enjoyed a cracking paddle down the Upper Etive, The Scottish whitewater guide grades this as a Grade 2, it is not !! For those that paddled the Llifny in North Wales it is very similar but has the advantage of being without trees. There were 3 sections of grade three water that warranted protection one of which we didn’t run as it was only about 80 metres above Buachaille Etive Falls a definite portage at Grade 5+. So another great paddle and Gary very kindly cooked us a chicken curry for dinner, we did eat well on tour.
Friday and it was all over and time to go home, Gary and Elliot left early at 5.15 am !! John & I along with Tim, Geoff and Kee got off at 8 O’clock. Credit must be given to Tim here as Kee with his hangover and the river being so high meant Triple Falls was going to be missed this year. However Tim unselfishly took the time to have another look at triple falls on the way home and to find the level was ideal and so Kee got to fulfil his dream, a great conclusion to a fantastic week, even if they didn’t get back ’till 10pm. Great trip and thanks to every one involved, I’d be more than happy to go back next year !