We think it’s about time the paddling world heard from two middle age blokes who paddle in the UK in freezing conditions! None of this Californian, Africa, or Nile type nonsense. No 60 foot mega water falls or 60 million cumec rivers, just two normal blokes, running a UK classic. Be honest that’s what we readers want to read about, things that are within the grasp of us normal people, albeit with a bit of practice, fuel and sizable lunch box (big balls at least).
That’s us, two normal paddlers Darren ‘Kitmonster’ Sutton and Martin ‘Hobbit’ Harrall (short with hairy toes), were two normal paddlers fed up of hearing about mega trips that are out of our grasp, fed up of sponsored paddlers, free flights and posh 4x4’s.
Making things worse was closer to home it was happening! Simon ‘Bevis’, Ross ‘Butthead’ and Michael the Horse (don’t ask) were banging on about their forthcoming trip to Scotland, over and over, the Etive this, right angle falls that blah di blah!.
It was after another cold winter’s night packing up after the pool session, we decided we needed a plan, one that did not involve flights, 4x4’s, porters and most importantly those difficult conversations at home about paddling again!
Thing is we only had one day and that was Sunday, we knew the lads would still be away giving us the opportunity of a couple of honour badges, but we needed a river that was at the right level, technical, pretty steep and very cool.
A plan emerged, the mighty River Lyn – Watersmeet to the Sea, This river is one of two channels which drops steeply from Exmoor into the Bristol Channel at Lynmouth. This is a grade 4 normally, 5 in higher levels. Grade 6 in really high levels! (Experts that are mad only).
In two miles it drops over 100 metres, passing between and over some pretty impressive boulders and natural drops. Not a river for the faint-hearted. This river has many opportunities for serious problems through pinning, stoppers and frequent tree obstacles.
That was all we needed, oh and we knew it would wind the lads up big time. Sunday came we met at 8am greeted by a barmy -7 degrees!!! What were we doing? We knew the river would be low and the only back up was the Barle, a great river but not one that would win us any honour badges. We needed it to be running.
Two hours later we pulled into the parking area on river left in Lymouth to check the level. It’s fair to say it was a slight scrape either side of the island and according to all the guide books that meant that it would be grade 4ish in the gorge. Whilst this river does not have a very high flow its technical difficulty and gradient make up for it and make it a formidable river, not one to be underestimated. The levels are crucial in determining what you shoot and what you portage. This river is 'flashy' and getting the level right is not easy.
As this stretch is only 2 miles long and we had one car we drove up to the get in and locked up the boats next to a tree. We then drove back to the car park and got kitted up. You could smell the nerves; Martin had run this before but not for a while and I had only read about it.
After kitting up we walked the two miles to the get in, this was a great opportunity to inspect. This was a bizarre situation the normally steely nerved Martin was nervous and I was fine? It concerned me slightly; I thought there must have been something wrong with me? It was my job to be the nervous one? No problem though as soon as we entered the Gorge my nerves cut in, it looked crazy, the lines were left, right, left again boof etc, what lines? I returned to my old self asking ‘Why am I here’, ‘can we do the Barle’, ‘my back hurts’, ‘I forgot a ticket on the car’ etc etc. Even after allowing for ‘shrinkavision™’ I wanted my mum!
We put on at Watersmeet and paddled down to the first real rapid a drop of about 4 feet, this rapid is a nice drop but where a strong cross-current pushes most of the water, boats, people etc into a rock face on the right. No issues here.
We carried on as the river carries on fairly innocently under a large arched bridge and turns to the left where you run a small drop no worries, 300 yards further is a house on the left with around a 3 foot drop which we ran on the right this is followed by a fast, narrow stretch. This was great fun.
We carried on to a small gravely 'beach' on the left which is a great point to inspect the very technical section from here to the next bridge. There is a 4 foot vertical drop about 100 yds upstream of the bridge and fantastically another group had set up rescue and we were able to watch the probes test the rapid and find a line, of course we allowed them to cover us (thanks) whilst we ran it, we were both through with no issues.
Once at the second bridge, Blackpool Bridge you are at the start of the very serious gorge section! The smell of fear returned!
Our tactic was simple, read and run as long as we had line of sight, as soon as the horizon disappeared or were unsure we inspected. Once we entered the Gorge this was almost every rapid we came to, at a low level between each rapid is a pool just large enough to scoop up gear and people etc. These pools are also excellent for inspecting and with a path either side of the river ideal.
The first drop in the gorge is a narrow slot which goes from right to left between rocks, closely followed by a 3 foot shoot. This is me, if you look closely you will see that the rapid drove me into the rock and the stern is already in the flow, what happened next was another new line, me backwards and upside down, first time role and Martins turn to have a go, again he makes it look easy!
This is where the first 'crux' rapid begins with a two metre vertical drop which we ran on the right, then followed by a chute past an under-cut left bank leading straight over a 7 foot vertical drop with a very shallow base, particularly on river right. Not an easy one to do with style, rarely though I made it look easy and Martin made it look …… interesting.
A father and daughter that followed us made it even more interesting after he critiqued my boof in a you didn’t wanna do it like that style he bombed big time rolled in the pool and took a swim (Ok I did laugh out loud sorry, I am human). Martin and I both had both recently completed the white water safety and rescue course and could now see an opportunity to practice!! (Sorry to you both, but we need some safe practice).
Next thing Dad swims to the side and the daughter is trying to chase boat the upturned creeker but to no avail, we shout for her to leave it, interestingly it drops over the next rapid into a very sticky and horrible vertical pin. Nasty! This was unnerving as Martin and I had planned on running this one.
We helped them unpin the boat (nice practice) always nice to have other people’s kit to break, I mean recover safely. Oh we walked this rapid, were not lemmings!!!
The next 100 yards is littered by lots of large drops, huge boulders and rock slides galore. ‘Are we having fun yet?’
Not far from here is the last rapid of the serious gorge section the second 'crux' follows. First the river funnels towards a narrow channel to the left before cascading over a 6 foot vertical drop into a pool this is normally a nasty stopper, I ran this backwards, upright and did not see or feel one (thankfully). I would say this was a new line but you only have to look on any of the webb sites to see this rapid is notorious for a backward line ands normally a hammering in the stopper at the bottom.
This marks the end of the serious section, but the final stretch still has plenty of interest. A bit of rock dodging and pin ball followed on the last stretch to the car park. Bizarrely the most evil rapid and potentially most serious event happened on a rapid just outside of the gorge. A rapid that in the past has led to the emergency services being called to extract people that have been pinned.
Just as you relax this rapid can catch you out (just like some of my ex girl friends!) for me, I missed my line, what happened next was some frantic paddling and a place I rather had not gone. Sat pinned upstream on top of a rather nasty looking log. I was trying to avoid capsizing on the upstream of it. I knew I needed to get to the down stream side to avoid a potentially very serious situation.
So what did we do, I did nothing till Martin had moved next to me, from this point we could plan. Using a paddle for support we were able to move the boat backwards in the current at the same time as moving to the down steam side, once this was achieved I ran the next rapid one handed and somehow managed a one handed paddle role. A massive sigh of relief.
Soon we were at the car park, buzzing, tired and on top of the world!!! Two mile walk in, two miles paddle down, over 100 metres in height taking over three hours, knackered!
As soon as we had mobile signal we called Simon, Ross and Michael. It went like this:
‘Hi’
‘Hi how are you’
‘Fine I am with Martin on our way home’
‘Home, from where?’
‘Exmoor, Lynmouth?
‘You ran the Lyn? You jammy *******!!!!!’
Editors Note: We appreciate we broke some basic rules like, ‘less than three should never be’. In our defence we have paddled together for years, know each others limits (or mine). Have training in rescue skills and first aid all this year. We also had other groups within line of sight etc. We do not recommend you run the Lyn or any river as a two, or without proper training, experience, level etc. Use your head and do your own risk assessment.
No comments:
Post a Comment