Living the dream

A highland existence interspersed with regular travels and running a charity in Nepal

Summer Kayak Tour 27-29 Aug 2011

The 2011 Summer paddle tour brought together Simon Frost, Kevin Dudley and Gordon Barker for an enjoyable three days of paddling on 5 different river sections.

For a first morning warm up we paddled the Middle Spean grade 2(3).

Above Simon tries the main drop and Gordon below enjoys a more successful outcome.

Afternoon of day one was a descent of Spean Gorge at a nice flow. Grade 3 (4-/5)

Kevin showing his prowess in the Topolino, increasingly rare these days!

On day two we went to the Tummel 3/4 and then in the afternoon ran the Garry gorge through
Killiecrankie and Soldier's Leap, a grade 2/3(5P).

The Tummel is a small release from the Clunie dam, down to Linn of Tummel.

The Tummel sports a number of interesting chutes and drops.

This fast chute towards a picket fence of sharp rocks caught Simon out a wee bit.

He did well, and extricated himself to the river bank.

Final event of the Tummel run is Linn of Tummel a tricky double drop. Here one of the commercial rafts takes a run down.

The Garry was high when we got there with floodwater from the Tilt and made for a challenging run with two portages for the team. Dog Leg falls was probably a 5. Chris ran and got pretty well thumped before rolling up downstream.
The final day was spent on the River Awe where a fun time was had polishing skills and surfing before meeting a cousin of Nessie near the takeout!!



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