Another early start was required today in order to achieve our target of the Coe and the Orchy, which meant leaving at 0830. Arriving at the Coe we were disappointed to discover that the level had dropped off too much meaning that it was too low to paddle. We decided to head back to the Nevis in the hope that would still be running. Unfortunately that turned out to be too low as well so we headed off to the Upper Spean at laggan dam. It had been on 5 pipes (out of 6) when we looked at it yesterday and we were hopeful that it would still be running. Upon arrival we were slightly shocked to discover that it was not releasing at all. Plan D was now required and Spean Gorge was the objective.
Four hours after setting off from our accomodation in Roybridge we were 4 miles down the road in Spean Bridge and we were yet to get into our paddling kit! Following a swift change into our kit we set off downstream, with the level reading at 2 on the guage. The run proved entertaining with the rapids proving slightly higher than anyone in the group had run them at before. Vicky took a swim on the first interesting rapid. Headbanger passed without incident, as the water level meaning that the narrow slot was washed out. Water was running over the right line at Constriction. Doug, Ian and Ken ran the tricky right line and all managed to somehow avoid getting caught in the stopper at the bottom of the drop. Lucille, however, was not so lucky. She subbed out upon landing and was towed back into the stopper. She recirculated for a few seconds before swimming and having to be rescued from the stopper. Before seeing this, I was intending to run this line – but Lucille managed to change my mind. I started looking again at my original thought which was the left-hand line, which looked more likely to flush through at the bottom so long as I was not on the right hand side going off the top. I accidentally overcompensated and went too far left – luckily this did not prove problematic and I flushed through without any problems. A few more interesting rapids followed before the end of the run.
Despite all of the faffing this morning before getting on a river, there was still time to run the Arkaig. This was sold as a relatively short, easy river with one interesting rapid on. In reality this description fell way short of was was delivered. Arriving at the get-on, the fact the road was flooded informed us that this was going to be a high water run down. Paddling under the bridge at the start of the run, we were greated with the sight of some trees standing in the middle of the river – surely they should not be there?! Very quickly the river rounded a bend, and as it went out of sight the river stepped up in difficulty. The fact that the river was in the trees meant that there were no eddies to break out into to inspect what was coming up. Simon went round the corner first, followed by myself and then Dave and Ol. The rapid was one of, if not the biggest volume rapids I have paddled in the UK. Dodging holes and big waves, I saw Simon suddenly drop out of sight, so I paddled across to the right to avoid what he just dropped into. I didn’t quite make it as I was caught by the shoulder of the hole and pulled into it. Surprisingly, for the size of the hole, it flushed me through quickly whilst remaining upright although it did liberate me of my left contact lens. Fortunately that was the end of the rapid. Turning round Dave had made it down successfully and Ol was washing out of the hole upside down. Replacing the lens we watched the other group come down – they all seemed to be practicing their synchronised rolling! Wow – what a rapid. The size and surprising friendliness of the rapid, along with the large volume of water going through it, reminder me of some of the rapids on the Nile I was running just over a month ago. From here to the get-out saw some great wave-trains and swirly boils, but none of us were able to stop smiling having just paddled that rapid. I have to say that it is one of the best rapids I have ever done, and even if we went and did the same run tomorrow at the same water level, no run down could ever beat that. The thrill of not knowing what was coming up added a considerable amount more excitement to the enjoyment of such a great river.
Let’s see if anything else we paddle this week can beat that!