Wednesday 5th March - the Octavia has landed

And there's me, knocking those eedjits on "Watchdog" type consumer shows who, having spent wads of cash on something they've never seen in the flesh, complain about being rippped-off, bidding (yep, fleaBay) the best part of 6 grand based on a couple of photos and a phone call...

That said, and having spent a couple of hours wth the ex-owner and driven it home from Frodsham, I am now the happy owner of a top of the range, very shiny, reasonable mileage turbo diesel estate complete with SatNav, bluetooth phone kit and several additonal bells and whistles, now sitting outside the house, all for almost £3k better than book price! And I just off loaded the Astra for more than advertised.... So now I have the car I wanted for the drive to Landeck in May; let's hope we have plenty of water to make the drive worthwhile!

Sunday 2nd March - Where did the surf go??

With the strong westerlies that we'd had for the past few days and, given the lack of rain, I thought the surf at St Bees would have been ripe for a splash... Walked the beach in the pm, well before high water, but not really worth going back for. Still, no cobwebs left afterwards!!

Wednesday 27th February - John; What have you been up to....?!!?

John just called; not surprising, as he's just back from a week climbing in Spain and the BCC river skills weekend in N Wales and had plenty to talk about. What I didn't expect to hear was that he's broken his leg!

Falling of something hairy in Spain? No.

Running some gnar over the weekend? No.

Jumping into the Dee below Serpent's Tail during a rescue practice session? Hmmm.....

Just goes to show how easily things can go pear-shaped. And why John? Can't think of anyone more deserving of some good luck. At least he should be sorted by the time the Austria trip comes around. Bugger!! (That's the broken leg, not the fact he'll be right for Austria...)

Talking of being right - this just isn't...

As Jim Royale would have said - Pugwash my arse!

Sunday 24th February - Sorted!

Even better (from previous post); Mark called on Saturday evening (while Sue and I were on our way to watch the film "No Country for Old Men" - phew!!) to see if there was any paddling going off. Good call, since Paul and I had pretty much agreed to meet at mid-shuttle for the Lune, a river that Mark had wanted to get back on for a while. So.... just after 10 and we were sorting the shuttle, boats into Paul's van, Mark into the car and off to the Rawthey confluence. We had a moment as we crossed the bridge - three fire appliances, two Mountain Rescue teams, a SARDA unit, folk in drysuits and BAs everywhere and a kayak in the field next to the river.... After a quick chat we were back on track - this was a practice for Cumbria Fire Service / Kendal and Langdale Ambleside MRTs, so nothing for us to worry about!

Back to Firbank and away, just in front of a biggish team who were getting ready as we had arrived. The river was at a reasonable level, little scraping and a good time was had - dry runs all round, an upside-down moment at Stangerthwaite Weir and even the sun came out to play.

p.s. - If anyone can explain what that movie was all about, please leave a comment on this blog - I'll buy you a beer if you make any sense whatever!

Paul at Johnnies Rock

Mark bouncing down one of the smaller rapids

Friday 22nd February - Decisions, decisions...

Have been chatting with Paul, trying to decide where to head on Sunday; the Met Office rain radar is showing rain through Saturday but mostly in the East / South East Lakes and the Borders.

Central Lakes - Troutbeck at last? - Lune, Tees or take a chance and head North...? Too many miles and we really should be considering the old carbon footprint (yeah, right!) Watch this space......

Sunday 17th February - Andy goes to Teeside

Paul invited Andy to dash across to Teeside for the day; sounds like they had fun in the concrete ditch....

Saturday 16th February - Hot and cold above Coniston

A late-ish start and Sue showed me the right track up towards the Coppermines hostel above Coniston! The day was stunning, the resident high pressure meant that there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the sun shone but it was plenty cold (-3C at 750m according to MWIS later in the day). We left the car below Coppermines and followed the track past the Youth Hostel and United Utilities construction site before crossing Levers Water Beck and up, past waterfalls and rockslides, to the reservoir for our first stop and a few photos of the frozen margins of the tarn.

Ice around the shoreline of Levers Water

The path followed the east side of Levers Water and then climbed steadily under Erin Crag and Blake How to Swirl Hause where the view across Wrynose Bottom opened out. From here, a steeper ascent with some good scrambling took us up Prison Band and the top of Swirl How. Duvets came out of our bags; Sue produced sarnies and we had a lazy lunch while admiring the view.

From Prison Band, across The Prison and Brim Fell Rake toward Coniston Old Man

The Scafells from Swirl How

Across Seathwaite Tarn; Harter Fell in the distance

It was good to stride out along the ridge, the plan being to drop back toward Levers Water, then follow the west shore before dropping into Boulder Valley and returning to the car. All went well; initially the way off the ridge was quite loose and broken, but soon led onto a very well made, unusually discrete path which led - almost - to the reservoir. Almost, because I "saw" what proved to be an imaginary path keeping higher above the shore and which, I believed, would save a little re-ascent... almost all of which was in my head! The path wasn't; instead we had 10 minutes of edging practise, easy enough for me, but for Sue, with a keen Scotty tugging at his lead, not so clever - oops! The rest of the walk - once I had been shown the right path - was fine and soon we were heading back to the Church House Inn at Torver for a well deserved brew or two.

Finally - had a play with Google Earth; not bad what you can pull out of it; just to dispel any thought that we'd been on a long walk - it scales off at 5.8 miles!

A Google-eye view from 680m above the shore of Coniston Water

6th / 10th February - Ups and Downs in Snowdonia

Wednesday - A big breakfast and early departure from Frodsham saw me arrive at Luke's family cottage in Gellilidan by late afternoon. Sophie was out on her WWR Technician course, so Luke and I were away, one car between us, looking to paddle something with a short shuttle. The Afon Prysor was unfeasibly low so it was the A5 layby and a run on the middle Conwy. The level was just making 5 on the gauge and running at a fair lick, though probably not worth venturing on at anything much lower than this.

For a first run (Luke's) however, it was ample and, with the sun breaking out, made for an incident free run with an inspection of the G3 rapid at Bryn Bras. Rather than float the last section, we jumped off above the roadworks and walked back to the car, collected boat and headed to Betws to see what else was on. The lower Llugwy, from above Bench Falls to Miners Bridge is a sweet section and only a five minute walk, plus, at a just float-able level, ideal for Luke to eddy hop down. No epics and so it was with smiles all around that we drove over to Bala to meet Sophie and a few of the lads from the WWR course for a couple of shandies.

Thursday - Ouch! The shandies had led to several bottles of wine with dinner and a long evening in the cottage. Having turned over several times in the dark, my phone woke me way too soon; Sophie had broken down on the way to Bala and needed a tow. Of course it was hissing down and Nige was on his way to Llangollen to meet us; this was never going to be fun!

Except that it had been raining all night and the Llugwy was at a good medium / high level. From Plas y Brenin to Betws, walking Pont Cyfyng, Swallow Falls and the Mincer, a brilliant run getting better - and harder - along the way. A "moment" in the pool below Miner's Bridge saw me paddling out on splits but set up for a lefty. I ended up back in the water very quickly and a delayed exit at B-y-C ensued. Lesson learned - set splits up properly!

Friday - John, Joel, Claire and Natalie from Birmingham CC had only just arrived at Mile End Mill as Luke and I pulled into the carpark. Somebody let slip that Paddleworks were knocking 20% off all their stock, so, as they didn't have a helmet in my size or spraydeck to fit my boat, and an ankle seal had dropped out of my drysuit, I treated myself to a new Sidewinder. Oops!

We ran the Lower Dee to Trevor with plenty of coaching and an interesting conversation with a "I'm a Bailiff, get off my river, NOW!" old git on the way down... Of course, no-one was getting off the river and, when he asked if he should call the poice, gave up the game when I said "Yes please - and be sure to tell them you just threatened me...." A gentle days paddling with more than a few laughs.

Claire nails her roll while Joel stands by

Back to the cottage having stocked up with cold remedies, and wait on Paul and Andrew arriving. Some wait - it was 12:30 by the time we'd talked them in and another couple of hours of chatting and drinking before we crawled into our pits. Who ever said this was going to be a quiet weekend?

Saturday - Best intentions aside and it was after 10 before we were away and back to PyB and the Llugwy.

One reason we were late getting away; not a pretty boy!

The level was marginal, but we mostly floated, taking plenty of time working on technique and timing, chatting with Ben and Pete from PyB at Cobden's and generally enjoying the sunshine. All made good lines through the Slot and Forestry Falls where we also took time out working with throwlines, setting up taglines, etc. An evening visit to the "local" in Gellilidan left me wondering if it was inbreeding or the fall-out from the power station that left the natives the way they were...

Paul guides his Java through the Slot above Cobden's - Araf Araf

UFO at Cobden's Falls, Llugwy

Sunday - JJ's or the Tryweryn? A difficult call given two dry days and a hard frost, but as we passed by the decision was made for us - the big T was releasing.

BCC had made the same choice as Steve, Pete, Bec, Dave H, and quite a few more wandered in just after us! Another good day in bright sunshine, a couple of runs of the upper section beefore paddling right through to Bala and off the water by 3:30. A long drive home with Paul dropping Luke in Manchester and Andy and me meeting Sue for dinner in Broughton wrapped up a good weekend.

Andy cartwheels in the slot below Chapel Falls

Me in the boil under Bala Mill Falls

Sunday 3rd February - Off to Keswick for a change

Thought we'd take a look-see though didn't expect to find a lot of water to be honest. Paul arrived at Threlkeld for 10 and, with the level on the Greta just on the mark, we shot across to Little Braithwaite and set up a shuttle for Newlands Beck. On arriving at the top though it looked too low to be much fun, so we completely changed our thinking and went for the Greta anyway, putting the smile back on Andrew's face.

The river was cold; much of what was in it having, quite recently, been sitting on the fells in the form of snow. Sadly I guess much of the run-off had happened overnight, so there was a fair bit of rock bashing occuring as we made our way down to Keswick.

I guess it's a case of familiarity, but I've paddled the Leven far more than the Greta and always enjoy the Leven. What is it that stops me enjoying the Greta then? Anyway, we did at least get to paddle, which is a bonus, blagged a lift back to my car and found the van keys laying in the road at the top - a successful trip after all!

Sunday 27th January - A gentle float down the Derwent

Lazy day with Sue and Paul off for a gentle paddle down the Derwent from Great Broughton Bridge to Wookie Weir. River at a medium level, Sue's first time on a river and she stayed dry throughout...walked around the first weir (but only because her legs had gone numb, plus we got out and looked at it!), looked concerned on the approach, but then smiled all the way through Church bend (the bouncy bit on the river) and, dare I say it, enjoyed the last slide and bouncey weir at the bottom of the river.

Did a little coaching with Paul who, paddling his Java, looked far more stable than in his little boat of last week!! We both had a play at Wookie weir before heading off and getting warm... though Sue and I stopped for a coffee before taking the Scotties for a stroll along St Bees beach : )