The Averon was running at a nice low-medium level today, so Ron, John, Paul, Martin, Lucas, Brigitte and my good self headed out for a wee scoot from Newbridge to Alness. Plenty of interest, but nothing too pushy.

Two thumbs up for Martin and Brigitte who paddled extremely well for their first time on the river; no swims and only one brief dip under the water. I think they even got the best line on the first gorge section rapid!

Second day of paddling in a row – saaweeeeet!

After a relaxing festive period in a wee cottage at Culkein Drumbeg, near Lochinver, without a kayak in sight, we took advantage of the heavy rain and snow melt and hit the river for the first time in 2012.

Matt, myself, Lucas and Paul headed over to the Findhorn with our fleet of Nomads, the plan to run the Upper and Middle sections in a one’r. Dulsie was pumping andRandolph’s was all-but washed out…good times!

TheUpper Findhorncan be a bit of a slog at times, but not today. Big wave trains (and large stoppers to catch those asleep at the wheel) made the journey fast and we’d reached Ardclach before we knew it.

Well, almost, we had a wee hairy experience with Paul capsizing at U-Bend, rolling up on the third attempt in the massive diagonals, only to capsize and roll up again just next to the Siphon. It definitely pays to know a river and know when not to pull your deck and swim!

The Middle Findhorn was fast, with most of the features washed out and some meaty stoppers, but it was a good laugh…and to make someone’s Christmas, we even found one of the lost boats listed on UKRGB, so we’ll get that back to the owner as quick as we can.

As you may have guessed from the post title, today’s Sunday paddle was a quick trip down the Lower Findhorn.

Rather than the cold (almost frozen) water, bitter wind and low temperatures that characterises the Findhorn at this time of year, it was sunny, the air was reasonably warm and the water was well above freezing; what’s going on?!

It’s December next week…I think someone forgot to tell the Gods!

Anyhow, not much to report, other than I ran Randolph’s in full for the first time in AGES, although I did screw up the run-in and ended up reversing out (not a good look); oh, and lest I forgot, Paul, Mick and Caz had a bit of a comedy pile-up on Corkscrew!

In short, Paul flipped and got stuck on a rock. Mick came over the drop and landed on Paul. Mick then flipped upstream and failed to roll. Then came Caz over the top to join the party, also flipping and getting momentarily pinned, before then joining the other two on their way down the river…

The rest of us could only watch from the bottom of the rapid, at first not knowing whether to chuckle or run to the bank and help. Luckily, it became apparent fairly quickly that all was ok, so we just chuckled and collected the flotsam!

After regaining out composure, Matt and Robert decided to run The Slot. It actually looked a good level for having a go, but by that stage I was feeling a bit knackered and my confidence of not swimming left me fairly quickly…not one you want to swim on really…

Anyhow, really hoping to get down to Lochaber sometime soon to get down the Etive and perhaps the Roy…fingers crossed!