Thursday, December 07, 2006

ONE WET WEEKEND...



After one very wet week up here last week, we managed a whole weekend's boating. Strangely, on the saturday we found ourselves heading towards the Invervar again. This trib of the Lyon (see below and here) is a magic wee run, with some very very steep sections. Four of us turned up, but Neil quickly decided that the steep gradient, compounded by his lack of sleep, would give him an excuse as camera-bunny. So myself, Paul and Andy jumped on the top, below the weir (why oh why did I run that!).
The top drops were brilliant, with the second ledge proving a tricky boof to make.


Paul on the fourth drop


We continued down, and it soon became apparent that the rain was pushing the water levels up rapidly. One drop was portaged, but the rest went sweetly, despite the distinct lack of eddies.

On the Sunday, efforts to make an early start were hampered when Mark got lost in Glasgow. In heavy rain, we headed to the top section of the Falloch. At the top the levels looked bony, but as the rain hammered down, the river rose and things got interesting. Euan took a very nasty swim down a shallow fall, and the rest of the team jumped out to chase the boat. After finding it under a tree, thoughts were turned to the hardest drop, with two big holes and a fence to negotiate (below).


Paul styles it!


Several of us jumped on and headed down the gnarly lead-in. Out of the three of us, one swam, I got a caning in the biggest hole, and Andy got an even bigger caning and jumped out onto the bank. Confidence-inspiring stuff! Needless to say, both Rich "Jedi" Waterworth and Paul "Balls of" Steel styled it. Most annoying!
More drops came thick and fast, with a distinct lack of time between them. Finally, after a gnarly hard drop which was run by Rich and Paul, we jumped off, and considered where to go next.

After much deliberation, the day was polished off by a run down the awesome Coe gorge, finishing in the dark (as usual).

How I wish every weekend was this wet!

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