Sorry, Slightly dull post today. I took my camera, but forgot my Peli case to put the camera in, and I didn't have a good dry bag to put my camera phone in!
I was about to head off for a River Dart Topwave/Loop play session, when I got a phone call from Ewart. Mitch was Letting Roger and Him out to play for the day (cheers Mitch!) Did I fancy joining them on the Teign. Thats pretty hard I thought to myself, but what the hell, You got to be init to win it!
When we got to the take out we tried to check the river gauge, as described in the guide book. We stood on the bridge, but we couldn't see any boulders to mark whether it was high enough, so there was more than enough water. So we got kitted up and drove up in search of the put in. On the way up I tried to find out what the the guide book had to say about the river. Roger casually told me "Oh it's just bouldery Grade 4".
We thought about putting in to just do the Lower North Teign, but decided to bash on up a bit further. But we wimped out on the high put in, and found a suitable parking spot, and dragged our boats down into the valley in search of water.
I was about to head off for a River Dart Topwave/Loop play session, when I got a phone call from Ewart. Mitch was Letting Roger and Him out to play for the day (cheers Mitch!) Did I fancy joining them on the Teign. Thats pretty hard I thought to myself, but what the hell, You got to be init to win it!
When we got to the take out we tried to check the river gauge, as described in the guide book. We stood on the bridge, but we couldn't see any boulders to mark whether it was high enough, so there was more than enough water. So we got kitted up and drove up in search of the put in. On the way up I tried to find out what the the guide book had to say about the river. Roger casually told me "Oh it's just bouldery Grade 4".
We thought about putting in to just do the Lower North Teign, but decided to bash on up a bit further. But we wimped out on the high put in, and found a suitable parking spot, and dragged our boats down into the valley in search of water.
What greeted us at the bottom was lots of water and lots of trees! We managed to get on and paddle a bit, but very soon we were off again, dodging trees. Back on again, and almost immediatly off again! After more bashing through the under growth, wading through bogs and marshes we managed to get back on again. But once more it was short lived. So we kind of gave up, dragged our boats back up hill, hacking our way through more jungle like under growth, over walls, through more bogs, untill we finally found a real foot path! Eventually we made it back down to the put in of the Lower North Tegin.
What greeted us this time was lots more water, lots of big boulders, and less trees in the river and on the banks. So we set to it. After a few grade 4ish bouldery rapdis we found ourselves looking at some really steep drops, some big boulders and some tight lines. Some of it went, some of it still had trees in it and some of it was run somewhat blind, with Ewart saying, "It's good, I can see an eddy!". When we finally got to the weir at Gidleigh House, Roger was amazed to see how much water was going over the lip of the weir. In Pictures on the UK Rivers Guide Roger had seen the weir with barely a quater of the amount of water we had at the moment!
Eventually we found ourselves in the grounds of Gidleigh House Hotel. The gradient eased right back and we casually bobed our way back down to the take out.
It was only when we were off loading our boats back at work again, that roger let on that the Guide book doesn't describe it as Grade 4 bouldery rapids, but grade 4/5 and continous 5 in big water. The Git!. I was slightly relived though, at least it made me feel good about being scared whitless for half of the run!
The river lived up to the hype I think, steep hard whitewater, but somewhat ruined by too many trees in the water, and too many evil jungle bashing portages. But if your in search of a real adventure then it could be the one for you!
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