Scotland Trip Day 5 - River Garry, and a murderous LUCC...

By Gaby Timmins

No trip to Scotland would be complete without a blast down the friendly Garry (what a lad).

The day started out well with an almost speedy get-on, minimal LUCC faff! Groups were hashed out and Fiona’s group led the charge down the sneaky bankside hard right rapid numero uno.

Jordan was murdered as he sat vulnerable in the get-on eddy and his victim passed along. Faye shot down the first rapid then decided she was too hot and went for a swim to cool down. In the meantime Phil was murdered after being advised the eddy containing a murderer was the best one to aim for; with a very vegetarian friendly tin of sardines.

Faye at the get on -very colour coordinated!

The magnificent Dom. hehehe

A short while later a bright green glow appeared on the horizon and to our delight Dom joined our merry band; being down for a few days with Mrs Dom (aka Amy).

We continued down and round a bend following Jordan’s very casual paddling style, just happily cruising along until we encountered the cheeky and chunky middle rapid. This sly beastie is a bouncy right route to avoid a chompy hole. After chucking a few people down, John myself and Phil entered the fray. Phil thought he would swap sports and join sub-aqua with a bracing dip. We crash landed into the mini gorge eddy and lined up for the speedy shoot down the next horizon line.

This little whippersnapper was a right, straight and PLF job, with all of us leaping through like Scottish salmon.

And finally we rounded the approach to the final and very public rapid on the Upper. People have habit of watching the bedlam from the bridge. A decent lead in where you need only avoid the rocks and aim straight and hard through the holes (oo-er). Other persons were to be found jumping off the bridge and enjoying the refreshing Highland waters below.

A ludicrously happy Jack

Everyone successfully down we re-grouped for lunch and with people mooching back up for further runs. Mog and the Hoss ended their previously happy relationship with the monstrous yellow chap gaining a decent dent. Josh had a jumpy lunch living in fear of Phil and the fresher’s helmet. Instead he was murdered after a much orchestrated visit to the quiet of the minibus. (evil laugh)

Everyone gathered for the cruise down the Lower with Faye having swapped fresher paddles for Jack’s unforgiving VE’s. She scampered down and finished the day on her own terms a little way down. #thisgirlcan

The rest of LUCC squad motored down and fell off the only rapid mid-way down. A twisty scrabble down the right, and left a bit, and right at so and so, etc. A calming flat section allowed for conversation and enjoying the environment before the beauties at the end.

The Yorkshire river God

Adi was to be seen like a God of the River upon his rock pointing the exact line off a horizon line ahead. Of course people aimed for it and missed but most came out the right way up! I believe there were additional inspections of the river bed by some persons. We grouped in the subsequent eddy able to see some of a bouncy route down and a sweeping right wave turn. Andy (who remained dry all week-lad points fella!) guided people down centre until Adi scampered down to point a different route. Most had no major problems; again a couple of swims…

Until your dear author decided to cruise down Adi’s route and have an oh bollocks/too far off line/defo no speed here/oh hell moment and over we went. After some inviting head bashing against rocks it was (wo)man overboard and the great cry of SWIMMMMERRRRRRR.

The get-out a short swim downstream allowed collection of kit and it was smiles all round as we changed and packed up vehicles. Except for the dog who we befriended and Phil upset by teasing it with a stick. Mean Phil!

Thanks to all that led, pointed out, guided, safety-ed and collected various pieces of kit and various sub-aqua members.

Your fellow swimmy GT

Scotland Day 4 - MotherF***ing Etive day

By Meg Over

So the day had finally arrived it was MOTHER FUCKING ETIVE DAY!! 

We all rose extra early, keen to face the challenge and trekked into the Scottish wilderness – arriving as per in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a road and river, feeling like we had stepped into Skyfall. We all checked out triple step, working out the best lines to make our epic descent.

triple step

 Following the usual shuttle faff and some forgotten kit (Tim ;)), we finally got on and began the Etive, with a few swims, couple of rolls and a few cut fingers from bashing rocks. After triple step we bimbled on down with the usual portaging, paddling Ski Jump, Crack of Doom, Letterbox and Crack of Dawn - all with varying success, interesting lines and a few sneaky swims which kept everyone busy rescuing and portaging.

Triple 3

Crack of doom

Then of course came the final drop: Right Angle ( a 6m waterfall - less scary than it sounds, promise ) Here again we spent a while facing up to the challenge and then keeping a brave face as we trusted Jordan to send us off down the drop. Or in josh’s case misplaced trust as he was seal launched upside down and somehow managed a magnificent mid waterfall roll and still didn’t swim!! 

Fair to say we were all a far smilier group at the bottom and for once we didn’t even have any boats hiding under the waterfall. At the end it was safe to say we were all a lot more relaxed bimbling down the last part of the river. Knackered, hungry and a bit chilly, we battled on to the get-out (and our sandwiches woo) We had conquered the Etive - on my part a lot more upright than expected. After a long day filled with adrenaline, entertaining lines and a good bit of throwlining I think it's fair to say the Etive had lived up to being a motherfucking good day!


Love Mog xxxx

Scotland Trip - Day 3 The Findhorn

By Mollie Rowley

So onto day 3 and the glorious river Findhorn. After a very long drive to get there, with much singing from myself, I think it was safe to say that everyone was glad to be out of the minibus and get as far away from me and my incessant karaoke, as possible. Be that with or without a kayak. I chose the kayak-less option mid grade 4 rapid but we’ll get on to that bit…

Downstream of Dulsie bridge

We got on at Dulsie bridge spending a short time finding appropriate girl-friendly wee spots and scouting the rapid above. This was quite a fast flowing grade 4 with a couple of drops, a large (and unfortunately inviting) rock and a couple of curly waves with an annoying habit of pushing a large proportion of the days swimmers in at the last minute.

I was clad in full kayaking attire along with a temporary addition of a stylish Dick of the Day T shirt. I had earned this for the offences of: trying to confuse Harry at the top of a rapid; nearly burning Meg’s arm off with the bunk house’s hob (a terrifying mixture of enthusiastically big flames, unpredictable knob-turning and rather small matches); and leaving 2 kg of mince meant for that night’s chilli comfortably chilling in our freezer in Liverpool.

The rapid at the get on

Before getting on I watched Charles have a fight with an extremely dodgy eddy line at the top of the rapid, helpfully showing us it was swim friendly. This was shortly followed by a double roll from Josh who proved that it was also runnable backwards. With some trepidation and a lot of resignation to the fact that I would likely be sans boat at the end, we got on and with Callum leading I made it down a good ¾ of the rapid before the inevitable underwater adventure from myself. Not to worry, as I soon found that I had lots of swimmy friends in the form of Sarah, Meg, Maeve and John. Gaby, who had expertly predicted 6 swims to Jordan was especially smug watching this carnage unfold from the bridge above.

Gaby and Hannah watching the carnage unfold...

Once reunited with our boats we set off again, Mog-a-training the first few bimbles before splitting off into groups. Descending into Levens Gorge we got out and watched some of the more experienced paddlers take on a tricky drop which contained (in Jack’s eloquent description) “a disgusting slotty mess”. All who gave it a go expertly avoided said slotty mess, although some were more inside of their boats than others at the bottom. I gave exactly no help to one of the swimmers when I dyspraxically half threw-half dropped my throwline in the close vicinity of no one. After these valiant efforts to help out we all got back on and continued down.

Phil becoming extremely intimate with the rapid...

The rest of the river was really fun. I performed what I later explained was “a really cool whooshy move that felt awesome” as I caught a tongue around a hole that would later do its best to get to know Sarah better. After that it was pretty much plain sailing. Well, apart from a number of rolls from Josh and an entertaining roll train from Fiona and myself on the same eddy line. We got out for sandwiches and a catch up before skipping (it was cold) joyfully back down to the river to do the last bimble to Logie bridge, where Josh decidedit was time to show us once again just how good he is at rolling. All in all a fun day and lots of wetness experienced by most. Hurrah!

Scotland Trip Day 2 - Spean Gorge

By Faye Leamy

Woo the first full day of Scotland! We were all fresh faced and not at all hungover from the night before with its surprise visits from Belinda… 

fairy steps

Scrapey scrapey was definitely the start for this one, hip thrusting our way to the freedom of deep water, although that was few and far between!After a few bimbles and scrapes we came to the very low fairy steps. To ensure maximum faff everyone got out to look at the feature and watch for swimmers galore. The line was definitely left, and whilst everyone knew that I chose to go to the right, ensuring a capsize and a lovely encounter between a rock and my chin… after being steri-stripped and electric taped back together and plied with Kendal mint cake we continued!

A rare  couple shot of Maeve and Ben

There were lots of smaller rapids around blind corners and a strong eddy that caught out someone… constriction wasn’t running unfortunately and a quick paddle was needed to avoid getting caught in the flow running towards it. But who doesn’t love a good portage? Or two? Especially when the river just stops in front of a wall of rock?

All in all a great days paddling with the loch “just around the corner” for a good deal of it.

Followed by a quick mandatory once a trip visit to fort Williams tiny A&E 

Phil and Sam, you cuties!

Our valiant author

Scotland Trip Day 1 - The Journey North.

It's 5am on a Sunday and a rather sleepy collection of LUCC's most wanted have gathered to start the long journey North. Well, except Meg, who wasn't sleepy but smashed and rocked up straight off the back of a night out in heroic fashion, ready to splendidly pass out as soon as wheels were in motion. Hats off, Meg.

And with way less faff than I anticipated we set off, myself and Jack bravely taking the front seats to aid Gaby in driving by talking/singing incessantly so that she wouldn't get sleepy. With tunes a-plenty and some top notch facts from myself (did you know Lucozade is just GLUCOSE-ade without the G? Mind blown, eh?) we made fantastic time in crossing the border. 

There's not much else to be said about what essentially was just a very long car journey except for that John's public speaking abilities are second to none, especially when the theme of choice is articles from certain male oriented magazines. 

We then stopped for our first paddle of the trip - "some of a section of the Orchy". Scotland had very rudely decided to have a spell of dry weather and so unfortunately rivers were at a level many would describe as 'dirt-low'. After scouting about for a while we found a paddle-able bit with a nice technical drop to begin and general scraping to the get off. We tested the drop to its maximum potential, with Harry deciding to try and nearly pin himself, and me deciding the best line down was backwards, a tradition I would continue throughout the week. Best line in my opinion went to Faye, who styled it and then promptly threw away her paddles as though she wasn't a lovely girl but a dirty rapper dropping the mic.

And that was it for day 1 really. After a second trip down to the get off, we all - well- got off, dried and headed to the bunkhouse, where the faff was just about to begin...