Finally exploring the locality

I’ve lived in Lancaster for over a year and hadn’t paddled any of the local classics before this last week. With the unprecedented amount of rain that’s fallen in Cumbria, Lancashire has seen its fair share. I’ve had an evening run of the Roeburn, a blast down the Hindburn and some fun on the Lunes Halton rapids.

Myself on the Hindburn, photo by Chris Lyon

Looking at the map after our rather rushed dusk decent of the Roeburn I noticed the potential for some more fun higher up the valley and went for a wander the next day…

One of two falls on Goodber Beck, which with a bit more water and a bit of courage may see a decent

Oktoberfest 2009

I’ve just returned from a long weekend in Munich with some friends from work for the opening weekend of Oktoberfest, which by chance also happened to be my birthday.

 
 
We watched the opening parade, where the different brewers bring in their beers before the festival is officially opened at midday and everyone makes a dash for the beer tents. Unfortunately we weren’t quick enough and had a few drinks on the periphery of the festival. The next morning we were queuing up by 9am and sat drinking by 9.30!

Beer only comes by the litre and the barmaids regularly carry fourteen to a table at once, but with there only being six of us…

Pembroke

I spent the bank holiday weekend in Pembrokeshire, South Wales and although I took my boat all the way there and didn’t use it, I still had a great weekend. With various activities from a trip out in a friends fishing boat, climbing on the sea cliffs, a night out in St Davids, walks in the country side and for some, a swim in the harbour.

Rhiannon climbing the sea cliffs at Porthclais.

Beth abseiling in to climb back out.

Turkish Delight

Once we were off the multiday and suitably refilled with kebabs, culture and confectionary we set about paddling some of the other rivers in the region.

 

Turkish Delight

Sticking to our relaxed schedule we paddled the Tortum, Oltu and the Barhal over 3 days. The Tortum saw its share of carnage with a broken paddle and dislocated shoulder within the group, leaving just two of us to complete the river.

Tom on the upper Barhal

The upper Barhal, at first looking a little bit too steep, was an amazing run and I am so glad I was talked into running it. Its fast and continuous, but thankfully due to its shallow nature the holes weren’t too munchy and we all had a dry run.

 

All in all a great trip which was made all the much easier by Birol at his ‘Greenpiece’ campsite in Yusufeli, if your planning on heading out there deffinately get in touch with him. My only other word of advice.. in turkish ‘kayak’ means ‘to ski’……

July 2009: A possible last descent?

An internal flight into Erzerum and a taxi to Yusufeli saw us finally arrive at Birol’s campsite on the Barhal river.

Boats being loaded onto the plane in Istanbul

The whole Coruh valley is to be lost to vast lakes and numerous hydro electric dams as Turkey strives for more ‘green’ electricity. Work has already started on two of these dams and it wont be long before the first one is complete, putting both the rapids and the countryside several feet under water. I don’t know for sure, but I would be surprised if come next year it was still possible to paddle the top of the traditional multi-day section.

Beth on the lower Barhal

After a quick warm up on the lower Barhal and a blast down the Yusufeli gorge we were keen to set off on the multi-day section of the Coruh. By July it is already late in the season and the water levels are dropping fast.

We put in just above Ispir, the site of the most advanced dam and paddled through the ‘Joan Collins Set’ amongst the rubble and falling boulders from the workmen above.

The Coruh through Ispir

Meanwhile on the road above

We took our time, paddling the river over 3 days, with two nights camped at the side of the river on the way back down to Yusufeli. After a days rest and a walk to see the local monastery we carried on down the Coruh to ‘King Kong’, which is a really nice big volume rapid about 25km down stream of Yusufeli.

King Kong

A great few days on the river, I really enjoyed being back on bigger water and the adventurous feeling of multi-day paddling. Although everyday I got off the river I had a big grin on my face you cant help but feel sad that soon all of this will be lost forever.

Istanbul

Five of us flew out to Istanbul last week for a whistle stop tour on our way out to the Coruh river in Eastern Turkey. We spent two days visiting the main attractions and experiencing the ‘East meets West’ culture.

European Istanbul in the distance as the ferry takes us accross to the Asian half.

The city is full of mosques and impressive buildings too numerous to mention, on day one we visited Topkapı Palace, The Blue Mosque and the Basilica Cistern.

The Blue Mosque.

Walking through the Spice Bazar.

All in all a good couple of days, sights were seen, kebabs were eaten Raki was drunk and we were about to go boating…

Fun in the sun

What a scorching weekend, who needs far flung travel when you can go camping in the Lake District in glorious sunshine. Six of us headed up to Thirlmere on Saturday morning for some scrambling, a bbq and some beers.

We set off up Fisherplace Gill, a fairly steep rocky ditch that flows into Thirlmere resevoir, which was great for clambering up over all the trees and saw a few people getting a bit wet.

After lunch we had a little abseil down one of the falls, making sure we were all absolutely soaking!

The evening followed with a carnivorous bbq and a few beers.

Sunday saw a trip to Derwent Water and a paddle/swim around Derwent Isle before returning to the pub for a well earned dinner.

Iceland

Maddy and I have just returned from 10 days in Iceland, experiencing mixed weather we saw two sides to this beautiful island. Starting in Reykjavik in the South West we had sunshine and clear days:

We hired a car and drove the ‘Golden Circle’, which encompasses Pingvellir (former parliament site and meeting point of two tectonic plates), Gullfoss (a two tiered waterfall) and the valley of Haukadalur (a geothermal area containing Geysir and Strokkur).

We then continued to drive 2400Km around Iceland’s coastal road, continually stopping to savour the country’s natural beauty, not forgetting to appreciate the warm water of the Blue Lagoon, heated by the outflow of one of Iceland’s many geothermal power stations.

Continuing along the South coast we saw inumerable waterfalls of varying volumes falling off the cliffs and out to sea interspersed by glaciers and lava fields.

As we continued around the East to the North we saw more and more snow and at times could see nothing of the road other than the snow poles poking out on either side!

Once in the West the weather again cleared up to reveal more of the stunning scenery we had left in the East for our return journey to Reykjavik.

Click here to see more of my Iceland photos

Fort William – Finally a wet week in Scotland

I spent last week up in Fort William, visiting friends, boating, walking and watching films in the outdoors capital of the UK.

It made a nice change from my usual Scottish pilgrimage; there was some water in the rivers! This meant that I got to paddle some of the classics that have often evaded me like the Nevis, Upper Spean and the Coe as well as some other fun runs like the Kiachnish and Arkaig.

(Photo by Rob Brackley)

Not forgetting the inevitable Banzer Burn, a rocky ditch in the middle of nowhere that Banzer thinks would be a good idea, this time was the upper Abhainn Righ, above Inchree Falls. A possible first decent for the three of us.

(Photo by Rob Brackley)

(Photo by Banzer)

We had fun on the Falls of Lora, although not forming properly and my play boating skills leaving a lot to be desired I did catch the odd wave in my Burn.

(Photo by Tori)

Besides the boating we went on a beautiful walk up some of the hills behind Loch Arkaig, at times knee deep in snow in the sunshine and spent an evening at the best of Banff at the Fort William Mountain Film Festival seeing what people around the world are getting upto in their chosen sports.

All in all a great week

Sprinting to the Kent

I got out in my boat again yesterday and spent a few hours decending the Sprint river down to Force Falls on the river Kent. I was hopefull for a little more water, but we didnt scrape, so I shouldnt grumble (1.5 on the Sprint gauge).

The Sprint was most enjoayble and the Kent although flat through Kendal picked up again at the end of the trip to provide a bit of sport before returning home for a well deserved cup of tea.

(Photos by David Fairweather)