Christmas & New year boating fun 2012/2013
Yeahhh, with HPL out of the way, im home for Christmas...:) im sure i promised myself that i would work this week for at least 3 days but nah, it was too nice being at home, visiting family and doing stuff like baking with mum and other stuff for Christmas prep. Even a spot of climbing at Craggy with Rob, an hour Christmas shopping in Guildford, some awesome Thai food and beer in Crawley, back down the motorway to Reading to get on a train to London Zoo and a walk to a whisky shop and down the Thames where there was a full on xmas market thing going on :) awesome.
After 3 days of basically nothing but eating too much, well i did go for a run on christmas day and one other day, but still, lots of food, i trudged the 6 1/2 hours to Glasgow. Not as long as i thought it would be but still a fairly long way to go! The first day, i woke up feeling a bit rubbish and so Dave and me outfitted boats, well, he outfitted my boat is more like it - new footrest and I put padding in my helmet. Second day was much better, Dave, Euan and I, rose out of our pits at 7am (aka stupid o clock) to go see if the Calder was going, it wasnt, and so we ended up on the Gryfe which was great acutally, bit of a one hit wonder but nice all the same :) we went up and scouted the Kelvin too, but once we discovered that it wasnt worth getting on, we opted for home, food, pub. Awesome.
The next day?
The plan was a big 3 river day for us, drive out to the Lyon, do the Braan gorge and then something, probably the falls of Dochart on the way back. I was a bit nervous but up for it. Then the Lyon, on the smallest rapid probably of the whole day, i dropped an edge next to an unfortunately undercut rock. I shouted as loud as i could before i turned but i knew Dave couldnt hear me. Underwater was pretty black, hands up to find a rock ceiling, wheres the surface....i popped out seconds later but i took the involuntary breath under there and i came up coughing, and had Dave worried, but he got me in my state of spluttering and mild shock into a small cave, when he disappeared to go retrieve my boat. My paddles came out a bit longer after i did apparently. I climbed out of the cave, gathered myself, a bit shaken up, then Dave knew how to get me back on track with what must have been a 10ft seal launch off of a ledge back into the gorge. Fucking boaters. We did the rest, with much less carnage thankfully, got a roll in anger and then came to the end with a smile on my face. Lungs were pretty sore so when we moved on, too late for the Braan, Dave hit the Dochart twice (with an adoring audience, not that he was showing off) and i elected against it and manned the camera although it does look good and ill be back, hopefully later in the week.
New years eve, we got the call that the Calder was finally going, Monday 31st December 2012. Last run of the year. And it was a cracker :)
After dropping Matt off and retiring for showers and food, we ended up over at Sarah and Louises flat party which was an interesting evening.
Needless to say, New years day was a writeoff, hangover happiness didnt happen as much as Matt chatteed about it!
The 2nd Jan was pretty awesome, Matt Dave and I went off to what we called 'fluffy bunny gorge'...more commonly known as the Nith, followed by a random pick out of the guidebook which turned out to be a day-maker, Crawick water, a really tight little gorge that was well worth the effort! some really tight corners, pretty blind all the way down, nice chutes and moves to make - a lot of fun :) Bit of a pain parking the car on a random stream by the road, but first new run of the year for us all and we even had a bit of local crackpot action at the end....hilarious, Matt or me coundlt understand a word but didnt want to say! Eeep!
On the 4th, friday, I wanted to get up north and this was the last chance to do it, so i booked us in to climb at the Ice Factor! We called in at the Etive on the way past and it really was at medium i swear!
Dave hadnt ice-climbed before, but the guys at the centre (mostly thanks to Isi) made me feel so welcome back at the centre, it was truly amazing! Caught up with those who i knew and befriended those that i didnt and ended up climbing with Kev and one of the instructors (name escaping me again!) which was awesome, and Dave seemed to get into it which was nice...and of course, that meant he could be a show off!
A great day, followed by beers and a wee dram in the pub with Isi and after, we went and camped up at the Kings house, pitching up at 1am! hehe! Although, it was great not having to get up early to get on the Etive, we rolled out of bed at 11 just as the others arrived! I was proper nervous, the Etive has been a river ive been building up to since I started paddling - and for one reason or another, didnt get on it until now and i desperately wanted to do it well if i was going to :) Me, Dave, John and Little Steve (?) three physicists and an engineer to tackle the Etive...hehehe couldnt help but smile! The river dropped overnight so it was low but still, high enough to go well and I was happy ...
So. That was the Etive. Tick.
Back to Glasgow and the pub for epic tapas (nom) and beers and all we did the next day was ice skating and climbing...ice skating though, i got my worst injury of the whole trip by stacking it on the floor...! This was also the only thing that we did the Dave didn't kick my ass at! Although, before we got on the ice, we rocked up to find some guy stacked it so bad there was ambulances and stuff and everyone assumed that there was a fight or something...only in Glasgow! I drove home at 7am or something equally stupid the next morning so ill sign off here... until next time!
Happy Christmas and New year!
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| Dirty wench :P (Xxx) |
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| Sea of truffles! |
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| Feastalicious! Only took 2 days!! |
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| A thoughtful gift |
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| Feet up before bed with a glass of red |
After 3 days of basically nothing but eating too much, well i did go for a run on christmas day and one other day, but still, lots of food, i trudged the 6 1/2 hours to Glasgow. Not as long as i thought it would be but still a fairly long way to go! The first day, i woke up feeling a bit rubbish and so Dave and me outfitted boats, well, he outfitted my boat is more like it - new footrest and I put padding in my helmet. Second day was much better, Dave, Euan and I, rose out of our pits at 7am (aka stupid o clock) to go see if the Calder was going, it wasnt, and so we ended up on the Gryfe which was great acutally, bit of a one hit wonder but nice all the same :) we went up and scouted the Kelvin too, but once we discovered that it wasnt worth getting on, we opted for home, food, pub. Awesome.
The next day?
The plan was a big 3 river day for us, drive out to the Lyon, do the Braan gorge and then something, probably the falls of Dochart on the way back. I was a bit nervous but up for it. Then the Lyon, on the smallest rapid probably of the whole day, i dropped an edge next to an unfortunately undercut rock. I shouted as loud as i could before i turned but i knew Dave couldnt hear me. Underwater was pretty black, hands up to find a rock ceiling, wheres the surface....i popped out seconds later but i took the involuntary breath under there and i came up coughing, and had Dave worried, but he got me in my state of spluttering and mild shock into a small cave, when he disappeared to go retrieve my boat. My paddles came out a bit longer after i did apparently. I climbed out of the cave, gathered myself, a bit shaken up, then Dave knew how to get me back on track with what must have been a 10ft seal launch off of a ledge back into the gorge. Fucking boaters. We did the rest, with much less carnage thankfully, got a roll in anger and then came to the end with a smile on my face. Lungs were pretty sore so when we moved on, too late for the Braan, Dave hit the Dochart twice (with an adoring audience, not that he was showing off) and i elected against it and manned the camera although it does look good and ill be back, hopefully later in the week.
New years eve, we got the call that the Calder was finally going, Monday 31st December 2012. Last run of the year. And it was a cracker :)
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| Dave on the main drop of the run |
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| Me on the runoff from the main drop |
After dropping Matt off and retiring for showers and food, we ended up over at Sarah and Louises flat party which was an interesting evening.
Needless to say, New years day was a writeoff, hangover happiness didnt happen as much as Matt chatteed about it!
The 2nd Jan was pretty awesome, Matt Dave and I went off to what we called 'fluffy bunny gorge'...more commonly known as the Nith, followed by a random pick out of the guidebook which turned out to be a day-maker, Crawick water, a really tight little gorge that was well worth the effort! some really tight corners, pretty blind all the way down, nice chutes and moves to make - a lot of fun :) Bit of a pain parking the car on a random stream by the road, but first new run of the year for us all and we even had a bit of local crackpot action at the end....hilarious, Matt or me coundlt understand a word but didnt want to say! Eeep!
On the 4th, friday, I wanted to get up north and this was the last chance to do it, so i booked us in to climb at the Ice Factor! We called in at the Etive on the way past and it really was at medium i swear!
Dave hadnt ice-climbed before, but the guys at the centre (mostly thanks to Isi) made me feel so welcome back at the centre, it was truly amazing! Caught up with those who i knew and befriended those that i didnt and ended up climbing with Kev and one of the instructors (name escaping me again!) which was awesome, and Dave seemed to get into it which was nice...and of course, that meant he could be a show off!
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| Kev on the bridge above the cave |
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| Me - right of the chimney |
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| Dave - right of the chimney |
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| Kev mastering the logs |
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| Dave showing off on the bridge |
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| Beaming to be back! |
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| John on Triple (top) |
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| Little on Triple (bottom) |
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| Cant remember, maybe skijump?! bottom of crack of doom!? |
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| GO THAT WAY! (Right Angle...lol) |
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| Right Angle.... |
Back to Glasgow and the pub for epic tapas (nom) and beers and all we did the next day was ice skating and climbing...ice skating though, i got my worst injury of the whole trip by stacking it on the floor...! This was also the only thing that we did the Dave didn't kick my ass at! Although, before we got on the ice, we rocked up to find some guy stacked it so bad there was ambulances and stuff and everyone assumed that there was a fight or something...only in Glasgow! I drove home at 7am or something equally stupid the next morning so ill sign off here... until next time!
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| Dave clinging on...HAHA |
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| GCC |
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| Steady on... |
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| Merchants Square:) |
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