Boating

I'm not going to apologise for this but you wont find many climbing posts on here at the moment as I've injured my shoulder and off climbing till next season. HOWEVER... remember all that rain we had??

I have been doing lots of paddling. Friends from Edale Andy Waring, Andy Mac, Dan, Neil Pope, Tom and new boy Robin came up to go open boating and we Paddled the Dochart and the Dee (the one in Deeside in the east) together. The Dochart was worth while and had a meaty grade 3 about half way down which Robin managed to swim on. When we had rescued him he had badly hurt his thumb and we also realised he had a big hole in his boat, which we managed to patch up with various things! (50% gaffer tape). The Dee was also well worth it. We just did the lower section, about 11 km from Potarch to Banchory. The get in has a good grade 2 rapid just below it then a fairly flat section. the last few kms are continuous grade 2, which was fantastic, not that scary, but fun, and I didn't have to worry about putting a hole in a Glenmore Lodge Boat :/ The water levels were good - in fact it continued to rain solidly for another 24 hours or so I think. the roads were flooded on the way back. The metro coped admirably though... it has put in some serious miles with the open boat on now!