High water on the Dart

After a conversation with Mr Wicks a few months ago I agreed that attending the Gene 17 Adventure Paddler weekend at the Dart Country Park sounded a good idea. For those of you unaware the event is essentially a load of talks, videos and photos from people who’ve paddled a bit more than the average, and during the day the opportunity to go and paddle the rivers in the South West.

The trouble was that I’d forgotten to make a note in the calendar and by the time Andy reminded me about it I’d subsequently agreed to attend my girlfriend’s family Christmas gathering (school boy error I know). Getting out of it wasn’t looking good as apparently ‘I’d promised’ and ‘love kayaking more’ than her, something I denied. She couldn’t find out the truth, so I had to attend the family do.

The solution was to go paddling on the Saturday and then the family do on the Sunday . I still wanted to pack in as much boating as possible so on the Friday night suggested to Andy that we start as early on Saturday as possible and proposed getting up at 6am. I was a little surprised when Andy agreed that this was a marvellous idea. So at 7am we had finished scoffing Andy’s mums bacon sarnies (which she’d felt obliged to get up and cook for us) and were on our way to the Dart.

Now it has been raining the night before, quite a lot, and it was still raining when we arrived at Newbridge. The night before I had chatted to some of the boaters from my local canoe club and they had informed me that they were planning to kick off with the Erme starting at 9 and then head over to the Upper Dart. ‘You lite weights’ I’d said ‘not early enough for us, we’ll have run the Upper Dart before you’ve had breakfast and will see you at the Erme afterwards. The Upper will be too high before you finish that’.

So Saturday morning there we were sitting in the car at Newbridge. The level didn’t look too bad, maybe lapping over the edge of the slab and all looked like a goer. Trouble was that there was only two of us and as we all know from the BCU handbook (or Mr O’dell) less than three must never be. We also knew the Dart can rise super fast and had no idea how long it would be before it was bloody good boaters only (something me and Andy are not).

Luckily another car pulled up, they also thought it was ok, but wanted to wait for a mate before making a call. We had faffed too long so headed up to the top. On the way we agreed the plan. If the guys we’d met in the car park decided it was a goer, it must be so we’d get on, if not we wouldn’t. Now for any Aston Uni freshers out there, you won’t find this method of decision making in any boating manual because it is not a good one.

When we got to the car park, we found three boaters about to get on who looked like they knew what they were talking about, well they had Palm Sidewinder dry suits on anyway. They informed us that it would be a good level, but we must get on asap (within the next 20 mins) or it would be super high and would reach ‘Scotney level’ by lunch.

The guys we had met in the car park turned up after making the decision to run it. We got the gear on and after suggesting to them that it would be much better for us all if we paddled as a five rather than two and three we got on. (Not that me and Andy were scarred. Safety 1st and all that).

Off we went. I’d not paddled the Upper Dart at this level before, before it had always been a bit on the low side. This time it was a superb level, and the continuous grade 4 that it is renowned for. It was certainly keeping me on my toes and I was feeling a little rusty. One of the chaps we paddled with reckoned it was a good medium level although I suspect it was a little higher than that.

The chaps we were paddling with had paddled it numerous times before which allowed us all to crack on swiftly, with just Andy and myself it would have taken a lot longer as we would have needed to inspect far more.

All was going well until a couple of hundred meters before Euthanasia, the biggest rapid on the river. One of the guys took a swim, he got out well before the rapid but his boat continued down a channel to the left of Euthanasia, where it was rescued.

The others couldn’t be arsed to walk back up and paddle the falls but Andy and myself decided to. We briefly discussed what the line looked like with our man (I really can’t remember any of their names as you’ve probably guessed).

As we got on the water myself and Andy realised we probably should have looked at the falls, I wasn’t really sure which part of the falls to go over! Andy though he knew so off he went. All seemed to go well although I couldn’t see him until I near got to the edge, so off I went. A lot more water than I’d seen down there before and still lots of fun.

Finally the fun ended and we arrived at Newbridge. The level was well over the ledge but no where near going through the third arch (otherwise known as Scotney level).
I immediately got on the phone to call the lads from Oxford, but Vodafone still haven’t heard of Dartmoor so I had no luck. We couldn’t really be bothered to paddle the loop along with every man and his dog, so Andy blagged a lift with a couple of guys who we vaguely knew and who also knew the Oxford guys.

When Andy arrived at the top he wasn’t surprised to see that the river had risen significantly but was a little surprised to see the Oxford guys on the river. They had just returned from bottling the Erme which was at a monstrous level.

Anyway Mr R and Mr W who Andy had given Andy a lift, were a little surprised too. Mr W and Mr R are pretty good boaters and were later presenting some of their adventures at the Gene 17 event. Despite this, they were wondering if they had missed the level and if the Dart was now too high. They therefore wondered why the hell the Oxford guys were on the river.

Anyway after a brief discussion with Mr R the Oxford lads got off the river. There’s no shame in this, being talked off a river is embarrassing as you’ve made a poor judgement getting on, but it’s so much better than a ‘cluster fuck’.

One of the Oxford group was mouthing off about only getting off because the others weren’t up to it. For the record, he’s a twat.

Anyway back to the boating. A decision was made to paddle the West Dart, as this was one of the few rivers in the area that was a goer in these high levels. Myself and Andy were a little delayed getting on as we still had to get our boats so we had to catch the others up.
We started in some tributary to the West Dart. There was lots of water and lots of barbed wire fences spanning the river which as well as bloody dangerous was a complete pain in the arse as it meant lots of portages.

We soon joined the West Dart and the others. The river was basically increasingly big and bouncing grade three. There were a couple of swims, Vicky got her boat nicely pinned followed, myself and Andy performed an efficient rescue.

The river seemed to get bigger and bigger (or so I’m going to claim). Ben went for a roll, I got myself in a position to T rescue him in case. He rolled up, a few seconds later I was upside down, I’m not sure why. I went for an attempt at a roll and then another... I simply couldn’t get the paddle to the surface and enough leverage to roll back up. Shit I thought, I’m going to have to bail. I wasn’t very excited about this, there weren’t a lot of rocks, but the waves were big.
I pulled the deck, the next minute I was being sucked to the bottom of the river, paddles ripped out my hands only to re-emerge straight away.

I managed to clamber onto an approaching rock as the wave rode over it, and then swim to the bank (the wrong side as it turned out). As I climbed out the bank I noticed Dave was also climbing out the bank.

Bollocks I though, he’s just swum, that’s just halved the chance of me seeing my boat again.
Strangely Dave, just thought I was on the bank as part of some elaborate rescue operation to save him. He was rather disappointed to find out, that I’d swum too.

We then legged it off in the hope of recovering our boats and paddles... Recovering my paddles seemed unlikely, and I was already thinking ‘hmm... cranked Werners next time?’
Having a swimming buddy is much more fun, someone to race down the bank with and share the embracement with.

So to summarise what happened next as you’re probably getting bored?

Amazingly both mine and Hodges boats were rescued before the Upper Dart. (A few meters after the get in to the Upper to be precise). Thanks to those involved.

My paddles ended up being thrown in someone’s garden pond and were later recovered. The order for those cranked Werners has therefore yet to be submitted.

After several minutes of deliberation Hodge and myself decided that swimming across river, (even with some throw line support) was not a smart idea and took a long walk back to the other side of the river, recovering Louise’s boat as well. (She’d swum in the back group round about where I had).

Finally we were all back in the car park to join numerous other boaters being reunited with their tuperware. Some were not so lucky, as the numerous posts on UKRiversguidebook.co.uk the following Monday prove.

Finally a few words on the evening event. The event was compared by the amusing Dave Carroll from Gene 17, most famous for flogging Andy a set of dodgy ‘Rough stuff’ paddles at a Canoe Show a few years back. ('Werners all the way', I say)

Talks included:

• A couple of strange lads who had a weird trip to Iceland, walking for days to get to rivers they didn’t want to paddle as there was only two of them. Despite this they had a good time, and now have lots to do on their return trip!
• The ‘Axis of Terror’ and their adventures in California and BC.
• Debb Pinger (I think she won some world freestyle championships or something a few times) and her trip to an East African country that I can’t remember the name off.

There was also a raffle with what seemed like hundreds of prizes, despite this neither Andy or I won anything. The main prize was a Sweet Rocker helmet which is cool.

Neither Andy or myself went paddling on the Sun, this wasn’t a massive prob as the levels were all still silly high and I thought that a set of bollocks would be useful for future kayaking trips.

Sunbury Weir

Rich and I were up early and after some minor confusion with a fallen tree and the old bill we found the relevant car park.

There were already three others guy getting ready when we arrived and they were on before us. We therefore saw a couple of guys go into the hole before us we took some of the pressure off.


The weir pool was very high and this somewhat flattened the hole making it less grrr then it might have been. That said, water was piling in a quite a rate and the hole was pretty retentive, especially in the middle. You could feel a lot of force behind the water and it weren’t a place for the nervous. It did wash out upside down, eventually, although I saw one guy roll three times before he got washed off. A lower weir pool would, presumably, become make it even more retentive.



There was perfect eddy service due to the surfers right gate being closed. This made getting on the hole really easy, much easier than say Shepperton. The paddle to get-out was a bit of a stitch but I'll leave that as a surprise.

I thought it was really good at this level, as the number of gates (we had six of seven) and the pool level changed you'd get a different feature. Defiantly somewhere to go back.


I'm not in any of the photo's but let me assure you that I was awesome;). Dave.

Click here for the video.

Portugal Surf Trip

Following an idea inspired (i.e. ripped-off) from some boys from Durham Uni we'd organised flights, hire cars and accommodation in the Algarve for some winter surfing action.

Following a gay-early start, Matt, Rick and I arrived at Stanstead, boats in tow, at the ridiculous time of 5am. After meeting Chris we had some fun with airport trolleys and cask's which suddenly seemed a lot longer in a crowded airport.

Despite having enough time to make the plane, Chris, Matt and Rick managed to drag their feet enough that I was left standing on the tarmac by myself, with everyone else already on the plane. I was considering ways of stalling the plane, included but not limited to chaining myself to the landing gear, thankfully, potential terrorist related problems were avoided when the three of them saunter up, not a care in the world it would seem.

A dull two and a half hour flight later we arrived into Faro to find the weather sunny and warm, in November! After some difficulty with a maxed-out credit card and a missing strap we managed to get two hire cars are were ripping it towards the coast. Only one wrong turn later and we arrived at Casa Linda to find a pretty decent two bedroom house, complete with swimming pool! Due to some slight confusion we ended had two singles and a double bed. Despite everyone fighting to have Ricky touch them in the night, Matt was the sharpest and was setting up the aromatic candles quicker than you could say George Michael.

Our host was nowhere to be seen so we took a drive to the local beach which considering we'd been in rainy London only a few hours previous was really quite special.

unfortunately, the same can't be said for what could only optimistically be called 'surf'.

fortunately there's about a dozen beaches within an hour or so of where we were staying so we headed down the coast to find more amazing beaches but pretty piddly surf. Not to be put of, we got on anyway and made the most of what was probably only two or three foot worth of action (I've always wanted to say that).

We paddled until the sun dissapared over the horizon and drove dangerously fast back to the house. We had a few beers, wondered where our host, the famous Linda of Casa Linda was and generally kicked-back.

Following day the weather was still great, the beaches still amazing but the surf still pretty poor. We spent quite a bit of time driving down the coast trying to find bigger surf. In the end we settled for a beach right on the south-west point of Portugal. Matt and I enjoyed taking a bit of pasting in the breaking waves before getting off and walking back up the beach where Chris, sensibly had chose a spot which didn't even getting face's full of wave every ten seconds. We made the most of only slightly bigger surf but still had a great time.

That evening we went into town, had a few beers and headbutted some restaurant windows (Matt)!

By the third day we were seeing a definite link between calm, sunny weather and no surf. We opted for the nearest beach, had a few easy sessions, sat on the beach, drank some beers and checked out the hairy Portuguese girls.

Following our last evening of setting fire to Jeffrey Archer books and still pondering why Linda had still not shown herself, we got an early-ish night before dashing back to Faro. It obviously goes without saying we made the trip to the airport much more stressful than was necessary but on the plus point we discovered the benefit of paying nine euros for no excess insurance.

The witty list of damage Ricky and I did to our hire car:-
- Snapped off aerial
- Bent bumper from reversing into a lamppost
- Dented and gouged roof from using punctured inflatable roof racks

The no excess standard has been set!

So, all in all, an amazing trip, the weather was great, the beaches great and the beer cheap, just a shame about the surf. We're already looking into another similar trip in February or March, can't wait.

Dave.

Pyrenees Easter 2006

over easter this year 8 of us went out to the spanish pyrenees, the other members of the team included the Fairweather brothers of kayakstan fame, Giles (randy fandango to all you that read UKRGB), Lee, Mick, Phil and Rach (the one that swam on the glaslin gorge). the plan was to go looking for gnarly rivers, but arived in Jaca to find dry river beds. on the friday we paddled the Gallego, a bouncy 2/3 with one 4 and an excellent slip ramp and one great hole (oh how i was regretting bringing a creek boat).

that night we drove south to find the Ara which is supposed to be a great stretch of river. the next morning we paddled the lower ara, a stretch of river Reading uni and the guide book described as good solid grade 4. what we found was a great grade 3/4 river but nothing overly difficult. after running this river we went to scout of the upper section, a km long solid grade 5 with nasty syphens and even naster holes. just as we had decided we would do it, 2 local policemen turned up with guns demanding to see our permits for the river (and we thought river baliffs where bad) apparently you need a permit to run rivers in that provence of spain and without it you are breaking the law (properly breaking it, not just trespassing).

the next day after being unable to find how to buy permits we had a 3 hour drive across the mountins to find the Noguera Palleresa, stopping of at sort for a quick look at where the 2001 (i think) freestyle champs took place. the dam had not been released so we were all very unimpressed with the wave. fanally getting on the river at 5.30 (baring in mind that ur only aloud to paddle until 6) we blasted down the river, well we tried but had to keep inspecting stuff as we couldnt see over horizon lines around rocks and stuff. eventually as it started getting dark we decided to climb out of the gorge and come back to finsh it off the next day, which we did.

final thoughts

the rivers where good but not as gnarly as we had hoped. the upper Ara was too high to run when we were there but it would be great to run. loads of long slides and great drops. well worth me going back next year just for that.

the Noguera Palleresa was excellent, good continueous 4, think glaslin gorge at fairly high levels,with a few grade 5s thrown in for good measure.

the only real problem was that all the rivers are so far away from each other which makes running more than one river a day hard, especially when you dont know the rivers. one tip would be to get permits before you go.

ill try and get some pics up at some 'oint when i get some sent to me.

J

The Upper Yangzi (Tiger Leaping) Gorge

Before anyone gets to excited, no, I most definatly didn't paddle this stretch of water.

The Yangzi, the third longest river in the world begins on Tibet/China border and initally flows through Yunnan province, South West China. After the Great Bend the river runs through Tiger Leaping Gorge, the deepest gorge in the world. From the river to the top of the gorge is 3,900M, put another way, over two miles straight up!

I did a three day trek through the upper trail and then into the actual gorge itself. I'm not really one for treking and all this outdoors shit but I made an exception for this.

The trek is fairly tough but looking down into the river was quite somthing. Some of the paths are very narrow and the drops into the river are massive.

This stretch has never been kayaked in it's entirety and it never will be kayaked. Although, rather scarily, I saw it in very very low water and with the exception of two rapids which are the most definate portage you've ever seen, the rest of it looked like it would run at a big grade five. It has been 'run' by Chinese team in a capsule raft (you know, the kind of thing people go over Niagra falls in). They made it to the end but suffered ten fatalites, that somewhat takes the shine off a 'first descent'.

Anyway, enough of the blabbering, pictures are what you're hear for.

Looking through the gorge from the bottom.

The rapid just below Tiger Leaping Stone. Note the guy for scale, bear in mind he's a good ten meters above the water and this is super-low water! I stood pretty close to this rapid and it's frankly terrifying. I'm not sure you could call it a stopper as such, it'd just tear you apart. That said, what you can't see in the picture is that hard river right the river hits a big rock, forms a massive cussin wave, which, if you were the worlds top boater and you had a serious death wish might run. The only problem is that you'd probably get slammed into the rock with enough force to kill you and even if that didn't happen you'd pass with feet of the 'stopper'. Anything going in there isn't coming out alive.

The rest arn't mine but are pictures taken of the two big rapids in normal water. Again, note the people for scale. Spoof for the first run?

Actually, Ricky, how'd you grade that? Probably a big grade four right?

Scroll further down to see the rest of the rivers and compare the scale, scary.

The Mae Taeng, Chang Mai, Thailand

DzaivSo, as we continued North from Malaysia we ended up spending some time Chang Mai, the major city of North Thailand. It turned out there was a river which was rafted so I rocked up and found a company that also did kayaking. Hurrah.

I paid my 2000 baht, woke up at 8am with a minging Beer Chang hangover and had to sleep the two hours out to the river. We stopped on the way to inspect one of the rapids which apparently had a shady stopper in the middle of it. It didn't look too bad to me but my guide wanted me to see the line.

After a bit of flapping about at the get-in I found myself with a rubbish BA and a rubbish helmet but a decent paddle and a decent boat. Quite what boat it was I can't remeber already but it was quite reasonble.

The initial few K were basically flat water with a couple of small rapids to float through. The river was coming to the end of the season so everything was pretty low. By the time we arrived at the first grade four rapid it was obvious that the low water meant there were rocks just about everywhere. The line down the rapid was pretty interesting. Over a small chute, round a big rock right in the middle of the flow, over another small chute and then a diagonal manuauver between some rocks and into (and through) a stopper. The rapid was probably worth the grade four my guide described it as.



It's been quite some time since I'd done any technical grade four so I was fairly pleased that I still had the skills. So, naturally, I then proceeded to make a right mess of the second major rapid. It was taken it two stages with a micro-eddy to be made half-way down. For reasons unknown the eddy-line caught the boat and before I knew it I was upside down. A swift roll sorted that out but it wasn't ideal. Following that I then managed to miss the line I wanted on the second part of the rapid. I got pushed into a rock and couldn't get round it so decided to just bosh straight down the middle. Despite very nearly getting myself vertically pinned on the final drop my tatic of PLF seemed to pay off.

We carried on down through another three named rapids, all of them probably worth a grade four at this level. Because of the low water we were making super tight moves through teeny chutes where the rocks wanted to have you're paddles off you, it was all good clean fun. Being upside down or taking a swim down any of the rapids really doens't bear thinking about. It certainly wouldn't be pretty.


In the rainy season the river apparently runs to a five plus and my guide said he wouldn't touch it at that level. Although to be fair, he was very American and thought everything was 'sick'. Obviously it was a warm water experience once again, it really is great to not wear any kit, just a deck, BA and helmet, it funny how much more movement you feel you've got. So, in the event you're ever in Thailand then the Mae Taeng is definatly worth doing, just catch it at the right time of year and whatever you do, don't be upside down going through the rapids.

Onto to Mynamar/Burma next. The Himalaya's extend into the Northern part of the country, so who knows what next?

The Padas, Sabah, Malaysian Borneo

While on the jolly round Malaysia we decided to head over to Borneo for a while. Apart from jungle trips and that kind of thing I met a Norwegian geezer who runs rafting trips down the Padas River, in the state of Sabah.

After a bit of discussion he agreed to lend me his own boat and provide me with one of his raft guides to take me down the river. The Padas is sold as a grade III with five grade IV rapids which have got various silly names like 'Headhunter' and the (obligatory) 'Washing Machine'.

After a mission and a half to get out to the river involving a mini-bus full of Chinese and a particularly smelly train-ride through the jungle (but I got around the strong smell of piss by sitting on the flatbed trailer they were towing), we got to the get out to pick up the rafts and my kit. In a surprising turn of events I got given a boat and gear that was actually half-decent. They gave me a Perception Ultra Clean which obviously doesn't mean shit to me but it's basically a highish volume playboat. They also had a Bliss-Stik but I was assured I'd get eaten alive paddling it.

Back on the train we went up to the get-in, the track passed by the river so I got a good look. It certainly looked pretty tasty, a high volume grade IV. Two of the rapids had some mean looking holes, one in particular they called 'The Maneater' which looked distinctly nasty, and was apparently capable of holding a swimmer. This was probably one of the biggest holes I'd ever seen and was keen not to get personal with it.

Because we're near the equator it's hot all year round so the river was actually warm! It was a great novelty for sure and I paddled with just a BA, deck and helmet. Its also interesting how less restricted and easier it is to paddle without thermals and cags.

Just before we got on I asked the obvious question, 'So, there aren't crocodiles in here are there'? 'Yes, but don't worry they leave further down stream'. mmmm. After a bit of flapping, Gee-Gee (my Malaysian guide) and I got on to the grade III float down to the first rapids. On the way we stopped to mess around in a small pour-over. My mans goes in, gets back flipped and next thing I see is a hand and a head appear beside the boat. Great, the geezer taking me down this grade IV had just swam on a small grade III. About two seconds later he produces his paddles in two halves. OK, so he's got an excuse but I'm sure he could have hand rolled? After more flapping in getting him out I stand around like a prick while he runs back up the river to get new paddles.

So we boshed down the river, hit the first rapid which was probably a soft touch for a grade IV but some of the waves and holes looked quite a bit bigger than they did from the train. The second rapid and the one with 'The Maneater' on was better. We had to paddle a long S-maneuver through the (400 meter) rapid to avoid three holes which you didn't want to be in. Saying there was chaos all around is probably an exaggeration but there was some pretty intense paddling for a few minutes. We were getting chucked all over the place as we paddled over or through big standing waves, one of them broke right as my man hit it and he got a bit of a trashing before he managed roll up. I also managed to hit two big(ish) holes which came out of nowhere but got through without too much drama.

The third rapid was similar, big waves and some big holes which needed to be avoided, Gee-Gee had to do another roll and I thew in a couple of big high-braces but we got down without either of us getting too badly trashed.

The rest of the rapids were, again, a soft touch for the grade, perhaps a 4- but nothing more. We tried to catch a few waves on the way down but none of them were really shaped well and wouldn't hold properly.

A couple of K of grade III led to the get-out. So, a nice river, I reckon you could take a Blis-Stik down it, you'd get trashed but there's no reason why you couldn't make it. The big holes were big and a swim down one of the rapids would have involved a lot of time under the water. It'd be interesting to do it in really high water, would probably push it up to a IV+ but the big holes would become distinctly dangerous.

So, in the unlikely event you ever go to Sabah then consider doing the Padas.

Apologies for the naff pictures, I had to leave the camera at the get-out.