What I do for a bacon buttie!

Well, back from a lovely, warm, sunny holiday where in nearly three weeks we got about 10 drops of rain - if that many!, straight into paddling back in Scotland where it's been chucking it down most of the time we've been away!

The open canoe start

Somehow Hubby dear and I managed to be talked into helping with the safety on the Tay Descent. It's 2 years since we had taken part in the descent and I always remember it seemed a long trip.
I opted for being a sweeper (last paddler making sure there were no stragglers) behind the single kayaks, whilst Hubby dear was sweeping behind the sea kayaks. It's been a while since I had been in a kayak on the river and the Tay was looking quite big!
Standing in the middle of a field up at Dunkeld on a freezing morning (I'm still on Florida thermostat!), I'm wondering why I offered to do this, possibly for the bacon roll we were provided with!
We got on the water and ushered paddlers to the other side for the start. That alone was quite interesting, some were coming along to use it for a coaching session, some "out to win!" and some for a good old jolly.

Happy to be back on the river!

As a sweeper, I didn't really see those out to win, the gun went off and so did they! I followed a coached session down til they decided to stop for tea, sweets, lunch, coffee! I carried on making sure they realised they would get picked up by the following group of sea kayaks.
A bit further on and Iain passed us in his seakayak. A few words of encouragement (such as paddle faster!) were shouted (he did do very well in the end).

Iain out near the lead

You can always tell on the Tay Descent when a "bumpy" section is close by, lots of fluorescent safety around. The top of the Linn was no exception. By this time Hubby dear had caught up and over taken us. There were a few chutes on the Linn running with a chicken chute at the far end. The Tay is my "local" river and I opted for the first or main chute. It was big, but that's the one I'm used to running. Just below the drop, 2 safety paddlers made their move. Did my running commentary coming through the bumps, sometimes swooshed round backwards, sideyways and even forward! (it's very swirley here) make them think I was a rescue candidate? I wasn't giving them a chance!
Slightly further down, the beach was littered with all sorts of kayaks, canoes and paddlers, recovering from their refreshing swims.
It was a great days paddling. A lot faster than 2 years ago, but then there was masses more water this time.
After that it was off to the show in Perth with our free tshirts. A tshirt and bacon buttie - well worth it!

Tay Descent

Up at Dunkeld

After last years Tay Descent, which we never managed to paddle - work got in the way, Ken and I decided we'd give this years a bash. We've done the stretch from Loch Tay down to Thistlebrig a few years back and remembering how some of the sections were a bit long, flat and slow we decided to try it in our sea kayaks. I've never paddled a sea boat on the river before and was definately not taking my Avocet down through Campsie. One Friday evening, a few weeks before the big day, we took a Carolina and a Mystic (a very old, but still very good boat) up for a trial go. There had been a lot of rain previously and the river was running fairly full. I'm used to paddling this section in a small river boat where you can turn and spin quite easily, but a sea boat in the fast flow was a bit strange. After going over the weir successfully, I'd decided I was quite happy to do the descent with the Carolinas.
The evening before the descent, we popped up to Perth to register, collect our goody bag, including a Tunnocks caramel wafer, yummy, and listened to Ray Goodwins canoeing talk.

The put in

Me still upright

Ken stayed upright anyway

Next morning I was up bright, early and full of the cold, but hey ho, I'd be fine with a bit of fresh air. We were starting off up at Dunkeld with masses of other paddlers. We set off fine having a wee chat with anyone who we were passing or was passing us. We or should I say I was doing fine until Campsie. We were guided to the 4th chute, which is where I decided a wee cool down swim would do my nasal passages the world of good!. I went over and literaly fell out of my boat. I was worried in case I was the only / first person to swim. When I turned round just about everyone behind me was doing the same. It did make me feel a bit better. Back in the boat, we bobbed down the next bumpy bit. We then were at the weir. There was an aluminium canoe getting lined up in front of us to go over. All you could hear was a big grating noise as they took the wrong line. Next thing they were upside down and out of the boat. Ken managed to rescue one guy and get him to the side. The safety bloke got the other one a good bit further down. The boat was busy going round Hellhole corner. The only bits that were visible were the tips of the bow and stern. The poor safety girl at the bottom of Hellhole was only in a tiny river boat and couldn't cope with this beast. Ken chased it down, before eventually jumping in, dragging it to the side away down by Stanley Mills. This did slow our time down even more than my wee swim, but we weren't doing it for the time. We then bobbed down Thistlebrig, the river was quite high so there wasn't much to it that day. After that it was flat the rest of the way, but the wind had really picked up, straight into our faces of course. I was glad when we got to the finish line. I reckon I would have done better if I was fighting fit and not also carrying three weeks of excess holiday tum! I also don't know if we really benefitted from using the sea boats as opposed to river boats. I probably wouldn't have had my swim and the sea boats were actually quite heavy in the end. We all live and learn. I still enjoyed the day, the paddle and the natter with other paddlers and especially the soup and sandwiches at the end.

The welcome finish

Back in dry clothes, cosy and warm