Paolo and Vanessa were waiting for us at the take-out for the Kent when we arrived at 10; they had about 3 hours to spare, including the drive back to Wigan! Straight into our kit, shuttle sorted and we were off on the Kent at the biggest level Andrew and I have seen it, with Vanessa filming from the banks with plenty of water steaming under the bridge. The "L" shaped ledge drop was interesting - the three of us staying very hard left, using the overflow channel to avoid the towback and nasties under the ledge.
After Paolo and family left, we tootled over into the Duddon for a look at the upper, but were distracted by water streaming off the fellside to the north of the river. It was a haul, but we carried in to the upper well below Troutal Farm and floated down to the confluence with Grassguards Gill. An hour or so later we had cleard a load of trees and other blockages, opening up about 250 metres of steep, narrow, rocky horrors that just had to be paddled... and so we did. It lived up to it's promise an we arrived at the bottom somewhat bruised and bloodied, but hey - nothing ventured, etc.
I'm not going to mention putting the car off the road on Ulpha fell (wet road, honest!), or how Andrew ended up covered in mud trying to get it back onto the tarmac..
Happy New Year everybody!!!
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