River Dart (Lower and Lower-Lower)
Present
Roger Harris (coach), Ian Culver (coach), Pete Armitage [canoe], Stuart Hemstock [kayak], Tania Spicer-Short [kayak], Paul Jeanneret [kayak], Paul Bandy [kayak], Geoff Rippington [kayak], Sam Rippington [kayak], Craig Scampton [kayak], John Bennell [kayak]
Trips are always the same. Friday night in rush hour traffic we drive away from London towards the hills. Traffic is awful, and it always rains. And there’s normally an accident causing traffic jams.
Or you get up really early on Saturday morning if you prefer to drive for a few hours before getting on the water for a days paddling.
It wasn’t like that this time - The traffic on Friday night was light (I don’t know why?), the road was dry and clear (what!?) the sky was full of stars and it wasn’t even blowing a gale (!?!?!)
The accommodation was Dart Adventure, a large park with adventurous activities, (zip wires, slides, etc.) which in winter is closed except for supporting paddlers. It’s right at the end of the famous Dart Loop – the official get-out is now into the parks own land – a big improvement on the previous arrangement with cars fighting for position by a bridge on a highway.
We had bunk-rooms in the manor house, from which we had to walk yards and yards to get to the bar, which serves good food at pretty good prices as well as the included breakfast in the mornings.
Saturday was a cool morning with a little ground frost. After breakfast the coaches sped off in a car to check the river level at Newbridge to assess where to paddle for the day. Since the level was at the top of the slab, (so about 4’ 6 on the gauge) it was decided to paddle the Lower Dart – the section immediately below “the Loop”. To do this we had to take the boats to the get in (about 300 meters from the accommodation) and arrange enough vehicles at the other end to bring us all back, the usual car-shuffle doesn’t take long when you start off at the accommodation.
We set off from the bridge in the park, 10 plastic kayaks – of various shapes and sizes and one 14 foot open canoe.
We had an excellent days paddle, it was the most water I can remember paddling on with WCC, nothing truly nasty as many of the rapids were fairly washed out in my opinion but lots of eddies and waves.
Just over half of the group fell over at some point, some people look back on a day of boats going down the river upside down, but it really wasn’t like that – mostly people only went over once and it was always due to silly mistakes and bumping into each other rather than us being unable to handle things.
Then we came to Buckfast weir. The noise got louder, the horizon got closer, and we got out to walk around and have a look. It’s a very large piece of sloping concrete. Depending on your point of view it’s either a great looking water slide or trouble. All the kayakers decided to go for it – sliding down there in a Tupperware box looked fun. The battleship captain decided it wouldn’t work in a 14′ boat so the canoe was carried round. One by one we approached the edge, dragged the boats over and slid down. Great Water Slide! - but not as smooth as the one at the swimming pool it must be said. John-B and Tania decided it wasn’t exciting enough like that so went down almost side ways and then did some stunts in the waves at the bottom. There is a suggestion this wasn’t entirely deliberate, but we’ll gloss over that for now.
One of the most exciting moments was when Tania decided to swim a section of the river rather than staying in her boat and just rolling. Several people learned a lot about the power of the water as the group manoeuvred to keep her safe and to the shore and back into her boat again, shaken but not stirred.
Then it was an easy paddle to the get-out (at the lay-by a little after the Little Chef for those who know the area).
We finished so early we all went shopping at the nearest town. Only one gear shop but lots of book shops and antiques could be found.
We had to decide on cheap good food and beer yards from bed or driving a while to get better food and pub-like surroundings for a little more money (and someone would have to drive…) The group divided. No one has to do anything they don’t want to on our trips.
Another frosty morning, after the coaches again surveyed the river, it was decided to shun The Loop on this trip and pick up the Dart where we had left off the day before. The cars were taken down to the lay-by and unloaded, cars shuffled and we were off.
The water was moving powerfully again today but many of the features we had encountered on this section of the river on previous trips were well under water. We took the day more gently than on the Saturday, spending more time playing with the waves and eddies rather than dashing off down the river. The falling over rate dropped today. But an excellent days paddle was, I think, had by all.
We got out by the old mill and departed. Good weather again for the trip home! Hopefully the river will have dropped just enough for the next Dart trip for us to try out the washing machine / spin dryer ! (the names of two of the features on “The Loop” section of the River Dart.
Finally – a HUGE thank you to Roger and Ian, the coaches, for being there and watching over their flock so diligently and an even bigger THANK YOU to Steve and Marion who keep these trips going by coming out with us time after time to find the river almost dry … and then missed the best water yet!
Come on in – the waters fine!
Any marathon paddlers finding this jogs their memories of how to have fun in a boat – why not cross over to the other side of the force till its training time again? Or Even Longer…
StuartH
17/18 January 2004
