One warm day in February

I met the club at the boatshed at 8.30 am and stood around marvelling at the sheer amount of chaos they were creating. However, about half an hour later we headed off for the Tay at Grandtully. We put in at the SCA access point in a field on the north side of the river.

Primark tiger suits on show.

We paddled down to just above Fisherman's Hole (which still has a tree in the right hand side) then gathered in an eddy to let some white water racers whizz past. On the way down Patrick had all the beginners doing lots of breaking in and out so everyone was getting lots of skills pratice. We sneaked down the middle of Fisherman's hole between the two big holes which prompted some expletives from Sanna as she passed close by one! Everyone managed through and we eddied out at the grassy bank below and stretched our legs while watching the rest of the racers go by.

Getting back in after all the racers have gone by.

We paddled on down to the top of the slalom course at Grandtully. After a quick look and lots and lots of faff deciding on lines everyone set off down the rapid. One group did a left route, another did a right route and I decided both routes were boring and went for the left-to-right route by myself!

Safety cover. Sort of.

Sanna heading for a hole surf.

A bit of carnage clear up later and we all piled in cars and headed to the Tummel! At the put in at Clunie Dam I finally worked out how to zip my drysuit by myself. We hopped on and bashed down. There were a number of interesting pins on the way!

Small rapid near the start.

The bottom of Sawmill Falls.

Andre slips through Constriction.

Inspecting S Bend rapid.

Boofing the Linn.

 When we reached the Linn we were greeted by this interesting sight:

The tree does not interfere with a successful run of the two drops (I didn't end up anywhere near it) - it sits only in the very shallow water on the right, however it is a bit intimidating and the less confident in the group walked round the rapid.
A gentle paddle across Loch Faskally and we were at the end of a fantastic day out!

Icy times on the North Esk

January 14th 2012
Arriving at the put in, the world is covered in frost:
"Why are we doing this?"
"Because it's kayaking. It's fun."
...
"Why are we doing this?"

The slide at the put in: give your boat a shove and then run to catch up!

The final bit of downhill at the put in.

Is that foam? No Davey, that's ice.

A very sunny day!

More ice!

Ice breaking sounds like thunder.

"My left hand is inferior and does not deserve a pogie"

Surfing below Shotgun

Rocks of Solitude

"Paul's going to run this and risk getting his head wet?"

Styling Rocks of Solitude

Since the water on my boat froze during this portage I'm glad
I didn't bother running this rapid!

Ice frozen into foam pies. It took about 30 seconds for Paul
to start throwing them around like frisbees.

Paul, Rebecca and I took the initiative and decided that running
Fishladder Falls was quicker than walking and would get us
back to the cars faster!

So happy to be at the takeout and about to be warm and dry!

Sunny Stanley

Here are some photos from a nice day in January on a high level Tay at Stanley. I have a new camera which is very exciting!

There should be a path there!

They were unimpressed by our arrival

I haven't seen those islands disappeared very often.

Paul gives the big hole serious consideration before retreating.

Campsie Linn main shoot looking not so appealling today.

A fun but steep surf wave - not the best for Burns.

Wee Eric, the wave at the get out wasn't ideal as the river was too high

SUP!

Trying (and failing) to surf the back wave

About one third of the takeout steps done!

The Ericht, Dec 3rd 2011

My first official STAUCC trip since graduating! Davey and I arrived at the boatshed and looked at the chaos with glee since we didn't have to do anything about it anymore. The plan was to head to the Blackwater, a tributary of the Ericht, which is a tributary of the Isla, which is a tributary of the mighty Tay. The Ericht runs through Blairgowrie, so it is not too far from St Andrews (compared to a lot of Scottish white water rivers). As we set off the weather was fantastic - the sun was shining! However it was a bit damp when we reached the Bblackwater and the river was a little on the high side. Some umming and ahing later we decided to bravely retreat and do the Ericht. Three of the group decided this was not to their taste and got on the Blackwater anyway!
Some cunning shuttling later we arrived at the Ericht put in and started down the steep side of the gorge. This time I managed to not slide most of the way down on my behind (and it's a loooooong way down), though Davey was not so lucky. The water was somewhat chilly when we got there but that didn't deter one of the group from testing it out on the first eddy line. The river was at a nice medium level and we paddled on down with only a couple of mishaps involving swimmage/rolling. One grade 3 rapid is particularly memorable as the sun was shining very brightly directly into our faces as we paddled down, so all that was visible was a mass of white! I knew from previous runs that there wasn't anything scary there but the others were a bit more worried. Soon we were at the pipe across the river where I had gotten out on previous runs, both times due to not wanting any swimmers going over the scary weir. Said weir has now collapsed and is runnable with due care. We scrambled up the bank at the takeout bridge and slogged up to the car park.
The three drivers (including me) quickly changed and got going up to the other vehicles. When we reached the Blackwater takeout we had a quick shifty but couldn't see any sign of the others. This was slightly unsettling as we hadn't exactly gone quickly down the Ericht. Deciding just to give them some more time we drove up the glen through some snow showers and got the car from the top of the river. Patrick drove down to sit at the takeout and wait for them. Upon reaching Blairgowrie those changing at the bottom discovered a text from the Blackwater group saying they were just going to paddle all the way to Blairgowrie. The Blackwater runs into the Ericht, it couldn't be that hard, right?
Now there is a little known fact you should be aware of: The deepest sheer sided gorge in Scotland is called Craighall gorge. It is on the River Ericht below Bridge of Cally (the takeout for the Blackwater). The whitewater in it is relatively simple with the important exception of one rather scary unrunnable drop that is exceptionally difficult to portage. However, all was well, they survived! We did have to go driving around looking for Patrick though, who had assumed the worst and was white as a sheet when we found him.

River briefing!

The first swirly eddy line

Dead pike?

The takeout bridge

An interesting takeout through an old lade

Some nice person has added ladders

The Braan: top, upper and middle in one day

"Lets go paddling!"
"Ok, where?"
"Umm...."

In the end we decided that Jamie was the bearer of all knowledge and went with his suggestion of the "Upper Braan". Now, the guidebook is not very specific about where this is. There is also a top section and a middle section. And phone reception in Strathbraan is awful. Needless to say we spent a good while driving randomly around the place until we by some happy coincidence ran into Jamie and Craig running the shuttle. Cue chaos as we stopped in the middle of a main road and started up a conversation. Soon enough we arrived at Amulree and found the others. Super-quick changing and some faffing ensued, then we were off down the river.
The top section of the Braan is a beautiful river, surrounded by a wide open glen, descending at steady grade 2/3 for about 2km. There are small eddies, but we just paddled on down all the way into the upper section then the middle section with barely any stops! The upper has very few rapids and is mostly just grade 2 wave trains. Jamie, being the only one to have paddled the section before, kept telling us not to worry, he would recognise when the middle section started and we would be able to take it nice and slow, it was just round this next corner... actually, no, just round this corner...
Eventually of course we did reach the middle section and the exciting gorge. We eddy hopped down most of it, intimidating horizon lines turning out to be not that scary at all! After the rapids were over we caught up with the other half of the group who'd been in front and climbed up the bank at the take out. On the shuttle to retrieve the other cars we met Glasgow uni hiking across a random field with their boats. They looked a little lost, so we offered them a lift for their driver to pick up their bus at the top!
A fantastic day and a fantastic river.

The top section, after the long continuous g2/3 part

A leg stretch at the bottom of the top

I'm sure it's just round this corner... searching for the gorge!

The first horizon line in the gorge is a big slide into a small flushy hole

Eddy hopping down in the gorge

A funky little swirly wave

Some rafters that we met on the way down

Floating down the grade 1 to the take out