Sunday 3rd December - A blast from the past...

Earlier this year Andy & I blagged a shuttle with a couple of paddlers at the get-out on the river Leven. Right out of the blue one of them, Simon G, rang on Saturday night to say that his mate had done his shoulder in and were we looking to paddle this weekend.... 5 minutes later we had arranged to hook up on Sunday morning depending on where the rain fell during the night.

Now, Andrew was dead set on playboating at Wookie Weir and we had thought about the Greta, then back to Wookie on the way home. However, Simon's mate had done his shoulder on the Greta the previous weekend, so we settled for the Duddon since it had rained like mad all night and it promised to be at a high to bankful level...
Sunday morning and off we go, still raining hard and with big tides and hard on-shore winds, all the rivers were out of their banks on the way down. None of which helped with my nerves (and bruises) hanging over from last weekends swimming session...

Good reasons not to swim the Glaslyn Gorge!

Still, I had been down the Duddon with Tim and Aimee a couple of weeks back so felt reasonably happy about a revisit. Soon we had the shuttle sorted and into our boats. Simon ran the top section of Tarn Beck; we didn't fancy it in little boats / big water but jumped on below the grade 5 bit and down to the Duddon proper at a good lick.

Simon on the middle drop, Tarn Beck

Really good levels made it a fast trip, despite strong head winds - we had to ferry both the river and the wind at times! The first rapid was "snuck" river left, just because we could, rather than the river right line, then rapid followed wave followed rapid....

I was a bag of nerves at the top of the gorge, still feeling sore (especially if I tried to lift my left edge!) but a quick look, photos of A and S, then my turn. A cinch at this level, far easier than I'd ever run it, just point and go - big waves and boils, but nothing to upset any of us, just a blast through a boily gorge. Good fun or what :)

Andrew kicking the entrance rapid into shape...

The last drop under a fantastic old packhorse bridge came too soon. Once again far less technical than previously; unfortunately I was surprised to find the others lurking in an eddy just above the drop which upset my concentration; what were they doing there!? Waiting for muggins to find the line through the double drop I guess! No problem though, a quick sweep put me back in control, into the eddy below the rapid and wave the others on down. Sweet. On to the take-out just upstream of Duddon Bridge; the playwave looked fine but we were too cold to bother; there will always be another day.... Great to be back home after sorting kit, in front of the fire, bowls of homemade soup inside us. Content until next time : )