HCC joined Burton canoe club on there annual River Dove tour on the Saturday of the 2 day event.
This river is only open to canoeing one weekend a year. After the rushed car shuttle that is provided by BCC, seven of us all in kayaks set of for the first weir and lunch stop which is 5 miles downstream. The water was very high and running quick so we soon reached it, this weir is a wide very steep concrete slope on to a swallow base but half way along the face there is a narrow slide just wide enough for an open boat, but its really hard to see from the top.
Six of us shot it with no problems and we watched a bit of carnage and plenty of swimmers (mainly open canoes) while we ate lunch. After watching Dale, Sam and Stuart strutting there stuff in the stopper and me and Richard doing a bit of throwline practice for the odd swimmer, we set off to weir two.
The second weir was pretty straighforward but with a big standing wave. We soon reached the final weir and John showed us his swimming skills when it went a bit wrong at the bottom, this was Johns first river trip with us and did really well with just the one swim.
On the way home it seemed rude not for us all to have a beer to finish the day off.