West Highlands of Scotland – Trip Report

West Highlands of Scotland

15th-17th April 2017

Paddlers: Dale Clarke, Nikki Aldridge, Colin Harrison, Olly Jones, Matt Kendell
Non-paddlers: Martin Aldridge, Joanne and Radley

Day 1 – River Etive

The bank holiday weather in Scotland was reported to be cold but sunny for the bank holiday weekend. Everyone set out from the midlands on the Friday 14th April and arrived safely but tired after getting stuck in traffic by Loch Lomond, due to a lorry attempting to take a quick trip into the loch and in the process ending up pivoting on the bank and its tail end hanging over the road!

Joanne and Colin arrived at the Loch Linney caravan mid-afternoon and took in the sites of the area with Radley. Loch Linney is in the foot hills of Ben Nevis, which could not be seen due to low hanging clouds. At least the temperature in the caravan was tropical, due to Colin putting all heaters on at the same time! Everyone else camped, Bear Grills style on a campsite in Bun Roy.

Dale put the rally call out for a 07.30 meeting on the Saturday. We all met up at the campsite and the decision was made to traverse the River Etive. A convoy of cars arrived at the river at the same time as a large contingent of University who-rar Henries and Henrieters. “good fun” A recy of the River saw Martin sink into the mud, water going over the top of his welly and leaving him sodden and cold for the rest of the day. Martin disabled with pain in his back decided to stay bank side and be our David Bailey (he was aiming to be the farthest travelled with no paddling). Joanne with more sense than all of them packed Radley into the car and went sightseeing (by now the sleet descended and the wind chill saw the temperature drop to stupid degrees).

First drop was a tester run taking the bottom drop of the triple falls, all making this 3 meter drop in style. The river was running at medium flow and it was only just runnable. Making their way to the top of falls an attempt was made to run the triple falls by all paddlers. Dale went first to show the line, and as usual perfection guaranteed. Matt and Olly followed, Matt decided to take it upside down and backwards, but stayed in his boat. Colin swam in style, with strangers in summer kit jumping in to rescue his kayak!

Making their way down the river to the next feature, letter box. This is another 3-meter waterfall. All ran successfully, boats and pride intact.

Ski jump falls (double drop with kicker) all went to plan.

Rock Garden (very basic) but Colin didn’t have bacon butty today, so drained of energy (that’s his excuse) he swam. This happened twice, but his weakened state mean he can’t remember where or when the second swim happened!

At the Crack of Doom (very Indiana Jones) a live boat safety was set up. As the boats come down a narrow channel a sharp right hand turn leads to a sudden 8 foot drop into a pool. Mess this up and you go head first into the pool. No safety was required and all paddlers safely made this technical section of the river.

At the Crack of Dawn, a cheat’s plan to navigate this was set up. Dale and Matt didn’t take this option and ran the feature in style, helping Colin, Olly and Nikki to take the sliding rock, dropping 10ft into a gorge.

Rock slide went to plan. Right angled falls proved challenging. Colin portaged (body said no!) Dale went first over the 20ft water falls. Disappearing into the white foam, deck popped whilst underwater, Dale refusing to swim, came to surface with boat full of water and made it to the side. Ducklings followed, Nikki made it with a small swim at bottom, Ollie copied Nikki! Matt went over the falls, rolled at the bottom, got stuck on rock face, then had to swim to escape.

Twist and shout was the last feature all run successfully. Everyone was cold (no pogies Nikki looked positively blue) Martin’s inner wellies were still soggy. A drink at the local pub saw everyone recover. Everyone returned to their respective accommodation.

A big thanks to Dale for getting everyone down safely on this amazing river trip, it will take some beating.

– Joanne

Day 2 – Upper roy & Spean gorge

We started the day with a lovely round of bacon and egg rolls kindly provided by Joanne. As we made our way to the Upper Roy it was evident the water levels were low but just paddlable, we’d come this far so we were getting on the water. Dale assigned Nicki as the leader and as we proceeded to scrape down the river suggested this would be more of a test of boat management.

As the river narrowed slightly the ride became a little smoother with the occasional nice little rapid, Nikki navigating us down without even having to get out of our boats. We get to the first section of what would be grade 4 where we get out to take a look at the line. A kind of dog leg section with the majority of the river flowing around some large rocks and a nasty submerged rock in the middle of the flow, we decided to take the outside line… all done no drama. Another half hour paddle with the river much as before offering the odd rapid here and there until we were in sight of the get out point.

Between us and the get out point we come to a section where we can see the river descends a few meters. Dale instructs us to stay put and goes to look at the line. On his return he explains it’s just a meter and half drop and an immediate right turn before following the river down. After looking confused as to why we would be turning upstream Matt also gets out to take a look. When we could see Matt still looked as confused as before, Me and Nikki decide we’re probably better off not looking at all. Dale goes first followed by myself. Nikki goes next managing to nose dive the bottom of the river and capsizing, after doing the next section of rapids upside down she rolls up unscathed. Matt follows with a nice little boof off the drop.

On to Spean Gorge… As we start to unload the boats Nicki states she will not be taking part in this trip, explaining that the last time she was here this was the “must make eddie” and get out point. Probably looking a little anxious I was reassured that at this level the river should be fairly tame.

A half hour paddle and we reach the gorge. A washed up small car on the side of the river gave me an appreciation of what things could have been like. As we continued down there were a number of nice rapids until we get to what we believe to be called “the witches cauldron”. We got out to take a look where the river narrowed to nothing more than a few meters across, the flow dropping into a large boilly section with an undercut flowing across the corner. We were all happy to take the portage option. Continuing down the river there were plenty of nice friendly rapids on offer, a particular favorite being a section swerving around a bend in the gorge with a large cushion wave carrying you around.

Although the river levels were a bit low all in all it was another great day of paddling.

– Olly

Day 3 – Allt a’Chourainn (The Slides)

First things first… getting to the get-on!
This involved a 20-30 minute walk-in, along the banks of the river (read uphill). So with kayaks on shoulders we set off… and immediately got lost, well Ok, we weren’t lost but we didn’t know where to go but after quickly sneaking through a “Danger Keep Out” gate we came to the banks of the river.

Dale went ahead and said it looked alright so we followed him along the narrow path, with a fence to our left and a 6 foot drop to the river below on our right. Soon the path got too narrow to carry the kayaks so we dragged them behind us… and then the path got even narrower and our kayaks slipped off the path. Eventually we made it through a gap in a fence to the proper footpath. A very well-trodden and very muddy and slippery path.
As we walked up the river, Dale pointed out a deep, narrow crack in the rock with water roaring through it, “that’s Chasm” he says, “Ha!” I said! I suddenly began to wonder what I’d let myself in for :-/ We then stopped to look at “Pinball”, a slide with a big rock in the middle and most of the water being pushed towards an undercut… err, hmm :-/ Looking upstream, “Ecstasy” looked far more friendly until we came alongside and saw that it was actually steeper than it looked :-/

The River

“Speed”
We reached the get-on, a whole two feet above the first rapid “Speed”, a steep, narrow chute into a big pool. First we waded across the river for a better look (and on the way back one or two of us may have nearly ended up swimming it! Oops).
Dale told us what to do – put in a stern rudder on the right, it’ll be the eddy at the bottom that’ll catch you out. Dale went first and wow, was is steep and fast! Matt went next and then it was my turn.
With some trepidation I paddled over the edge and adopted the stern rudder position… it was fast! Really fast! I had just enough time to panic before I hit the pool at the bottom and went over. I then chose to watch Olly’s run whilst sat on a rock in the water and emptying my boat (make of that what you will).

“Ecstasy”
Around the corner we came to the next rapid, a series of short rock slides with mini pools, eddies and stoppers in between. Dale gave us the option of running it or having a look. We all chose to have a look and decided we didn’t much like the look of the first drop into the rapid.

Dale went first and made it look super easy, twirling his paddle on the way down and throwing it in the air and (almost not) catching it… he’s such a show off!

Olly went next and the nose of his boat banged something on the entry slide, Matt and I decided it might be a good idea to lean back a little there. After an unstable moment in the stopper at the bottom of the second slide he made it down safely.

Matt went next and after seeing him nearly go over twice I began to get very worried that I was going to end up doing half of this rapid on my face! ☹ However, I had walked all the way up here and left Martin to take down the tent on his own so I was doing it!

I got on, feeling very nervous as I suddenly realised I was alone at the top and there was nobody to point me in the right direction. My line over the entry drop was good and before I knew it I was sliding down rocks, forwards, sideways and nearly backwards, and being twirled around in eddies and then I was at the bottom… it was brilliant fun! I’m so glad I didn’t chicken out!

“Pinball”
We then got off to inspect “Pinball”. I said straight away that I wasn’t doing it and after a close inspection, Dale decided we’d all portage this one.

“Chasm”
Another steep and narrow chute like “Speed” but this time in a deep and narrow crack in the rock. After my “Speed” experience, I decided I wasn’t ready for this one but everybody else was up for it so I stood over the chasm (an appropriately named rapid actually) to give the go signal.

Dale went first, followed by Matt. When I gave Olly the go signal he shook his head at me, but he went for it, although there were definitely some profanities as he got the line slightly wrong just above the drop, but safely recovered in time he made it down easily.

After that, it’s a gentle, rocky paddle back to the cars.

This river is great fun and with a little more time lots of fun could be had playing on and re-running the rapids.

– Nikki x ☺

A massive thanks to everyone who made this such an enjoyable and memorable few days.

A video of the best bits can be found below;