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

North Esk paddling

Some photos from a mildly silly day out on the North Esk (near Edzell) on 5th Nov 2011. There was lots of unintentional swimming, some swearing to go along with some of the swimming, one paparazzi photographer that turned out to be a lecturer from the St Andrews Uni maths department (where one of our party is a phd student and two of the others have lectures) and a little bit of turning Byron upside down (sorry, no photos, I was laughing too much).

Serious consideration at Rocks of Solitude

Damp lens from unintentional dunking in the river, oops.

Oh dear...

Pretty much exactly what I did replicated by Jonny

A helping hand!

What happened?

Surprisingly there was no swimmage here!

The mysterious blue pipe

Rebecca on the big drop of Fishladder Falls

Looking cool at the take out

Soggy kayakers descend on Ganochy Bridge

The following photos are not mine (but are of me!). They were taken by a very nice Maths lecturer who passed them onto me. They show the grade 4 rapid "Fishladder Falls".

An Aberfeldy Holiday

For a week in September, Davey's family invited us to share a holiday house with them near Aberfeldy. So we packed up the boats and set off!

Yes, you can fit an open boat and a Pyranha Burn on a VW Polo!

The first night we had fun trying out the new canoe trolley and working out how to use it properly: it had not come with instructions given that it was a chopped down B&Q sack trolley!
The next day we did the section from Loch Tay to Grandtully, hitching a shuttle with Davey's parents. The weather was less than ideal, so from the beach I paddled with my split paddles and Davey used my usual kayak paddles to paddle the open boat. It seems to be the way to go against strong wind! As soon as we reached the river though, the wind died away and we were just paddling through the rain. Once past the Chinese bridge rapids, I got into the canoe with Davey and we towed the kayak behind us for the long flat stretch to the start of the Grandtully rapid section. Davey paddled down all the rapids superbly including the daunting middle line on Fisherman's Hole due to a tree in the easy right hand shoot. He wisely decided to end the day without any mishaps above the slalom course at Grandtully itself by sneaking down the lade then trolleying the boat up to the car. I paddled off down the rapid while he took photos, wheee!

Big waves and strong winds at Kenmore

The safety of the River Tay

Towing the kayak for the flat bit

The first rapid of the Grandtully section - Davey is a bit nervous!

Slalom course at Grandtully

The next day we left the boats and went for a walk up the Birks of Aberfeldy. This is a very pretty walk up the Moness (?) burn through mixed woodland to a spectacular view of a big waterfall. There's something to do with Robert Burns there too...

Looking out over Strathtay

The waterfall at the top

A nice seat sheltered from the rain!

Sitting with Robert Burns

The third day was quite different in that it was sunny! We worked out bus schedules and did Grandtully to Dunkeld, using the local bus as a shuttle. There are no rapids above grade 1 on this section so it was a lovely cruise down the Tay spotting all sorts of wildlife including a sparrowhawk right in front of us! At the confluence of the Tay and the Tummel there is a large shingle beach where we pulled in to have lunch to find a conveniently placed picnic bench that someone had chained to a tree. Finally we reached Dunkeld, pulling in just before the bridge. I had left the car in the only free parking I could find right at the other side of town (well, it was right next to the bus stop) so I ran off through town while Davey lazed at the side of the river! We packed up and headed back for our last night in the holiday house; it had been a good week!

Looking up at the final fall of Grandtully rapid

Sunny day on the Tay

A cool old bridge - I think it's a rail bridge

Neatly placed picnic bench for lunchtime

Coming in to Dunkeld