3 rider: December 2008

The Lower Walkham

Being at work on Saturday, I missed all the great river levels. But I managed to get out for a paddle on Sunday. Keen to try something different Ewart, Louise and I headed over to the far side of the moor to paddle the Lower Walkham, which also includes some of the Tavy as well. After driving round for quite some time trying to find the get out, because we'd all forgotten to bring a proper map, we finally got ourselves sorted left a car at the get out and got to the get on. The river was paddleable, but I wouldn't have wanted to try it with any less water.
It's a really fun little river, much smaller than the Dart, with numerous little rapids and drops which twist and turn through a wooded valley, and very little chance to catch your breath. Before you finally come to a solid little class 3 drop. Louise and I decided to give it a miss, tandem in the Canadian, but ran the rest of the little twisty rapid below. A few more rapids lead you down to the confluence with the Tavy. A couple of Bouncy class 2 rapids then lead you down to a great class 3 rapid, weaving between some large boulders and through a hole. Then some more bouncy class 2 brings you to a weir, Ewart ran it off a rock ledge on river right, but once again Louise and I decided that it just wasn't quite a Canadian Canoe line. Some last few rapids then lead you to a tiny little gauging weir, which produces a great surf wave. Cue lots of surfing and generally mucking about! And that's it. Its a great trip, if you fancy a class 3 river trip with a far more technical and river running feel than the loop, then the Lower Walkham could be for you.

The class 3 slot drop on the Walkham

Ewart surfing on the Tavy

Long arm shot, Louise cross deck ruddering while surfing

Louise and I surfing

Poser!

The Exe in flood.

This week we had some torrential rain. My rain gauge in my garden recorded 36mm in 12 hours. With Massive amount of rain falling all over Devon all the rivers shot up. The river Exe reached some huge levels. Maybe not as high as its ever been, but certainly about as high as its been this year. I managed to grab a few pictures of Mill on the Exe on my way to work, and some of Trews Weir after I got to work.

The wave on head weir

The middle of Trews Weir

Insane crashing wave, mid river, Mill on the Exe

Puddletown woods

Tom KP and myself managed to sneak over to Puddletown woods in Dorset last week for some Mountain biking fun. Despite being very wet there are alot of trails at Puddletown that drain well, meaning that we were able to enjoy a good varied mix of riding without ending up head to toe in clag! We rode most of our favourite trails, only having to avoid 'creepy hollow' which still manages to be wet weeks after any rain!

Tom drops into a classic sandy Puddletown trail

Me, airing the table on the 'BMX' trail

Tom, on the 'BMX' trail table

The only downside to the day out was just as we were riding down the last trail back to the van. About 400m from the van Toms bike let out a clunk as he rode through a bomb hole. The main pivot bolt on his rear suspension had sheared off at both ends. Bummer.

The remains of Toms main Pivot bolt.

Malawian adventure

It had gotten round to that time again, and so I set off to Malawi to visit my Family. Heading out in November was a change for me, I'd only ever been early in the year, at the end of the rainy season. So it was a shock to see everything so dead and dry. But there had been approximately three months without significant rainfall. The temperature hit over 34C in the shade on several occasions! As well as seeing family, I checked out some waterfalls, went to a game reserve to try and spot wildlife and swam lots in the lake. Here's a few pictures of what I saw.