Scotland 25^th January 2007  
Report from Ben Hawthorne

So it didn’t start very well anyway..... The weekends long planned and anticipated jaunt north of the border had meant to begin from Nottingham at 6.30pm on Thursday night. 10 to 9, we hit the road. Various members dropping out, Jan losing her bank card, and the worlds most problematic roof rack system (Thanks for the dodgy advice Halfords), had conspired to delay our departure slightly and put our arrival at Jan’s super-folks back till 6am. This is the point where we all give a big big thank you to Jan, for driving virtually non-stop to Cannick for 9 hours! Thanks Jan! Again. 

It was worth it though. The lack of sleep
(2 hours when we arrived) was made up for by the view from the house. If you’ve never been, Glen Cannick is amazing. A typically wild and remote Scottish Glen, with a river winding its way down through the heather and birch woods. Looking out the window in the morning we could see snow capping on the not too distant mountains and a steady drizzle falling. Perfect boating weather. Especially when we got outside and found that thanks to the warmest January on record we would have nice mild temperatures all weekend. 

I must also take this opportunity to mention the most fantastic hospitality I think I’ve ever received. Jan’s father Ian, and his wife, Diane, made us feel incredibly welcome all weekend. And Diane’s cooking, well that’s worth the trip alone. We even got home-made tablet to bring home. The fact that Ian and Diane got up early to make us breakfast everyday we were there, made leaving the house to go paddling a bit more bearable too. 

Friday morning then, suitably fortified, we set off for the Findhorn, a Scottish classic. There are several paddleable sections to this quite large river which runs north to the sea through central Strathspey, near the Shakespearian village of Cawdor. We chose to run the main gorge bit, from the well known rapid of Randolph’s leap down. This is detailed on UK Rivers guide and in the Scottish Whitewater book. 

The scenery around the river was breathtaking with smooth carved out gorge walls and a real sense of feeling like you were in the middle of nowhere.We had a look and decided it was on, with a nice medium water level thanks to a bit of melted snow and the drizzle. After getting kitted up, we made our way down the cliffs to the put in whilst Jan armed herself with the camera. Randolphs leap (the book says 5), was run without any problems, with plentiful safety. The lines were quite easy the only problem being if you missed them you were heading into a nasty, boilly, undercut slot on two boulders, one after the other. Which none of us did. 

David began the river leading us down some fantastic grade 4 drops and rapids, with Sam in the middle, and Ben back marking. Notable highlights included a particularly chunky rapid in the middle of the gorge, which had us all grinning from ear to ear, and Sams “near” bow-stall in a micro bat. This came in the bottom of a trickier-than-it-looks pour over that had us all rolling, after which we all got a bit more switched on. (Might have been the freezing water, I couldn’t say.) Lower down, the river eases off a bit, with some great surf waves and play-holes, although some of them are quite shallow, just ask Sam’s elbow. The only fly in the ointment was missing the take out (if you know where it is, please let us know) but thankfully the road follows the river down on the right so climbing out, followed by lugging our boats 500 yards back up found us ringing Jan for our shuttle. Thanks again Jan.

After a great Friday night, with good food and company, we set off Saturday morning for the Farigaig. This is a short river that drains the glen of the same name on the south side of Loch Ness, directly opposite Glen Moriston, which we stopped to have a look at en-route. Again details can be found in the book and on the web, which both give it grade 5 throughout. It is. Where the Findhorn is fun, the one word for the Farigaig is scary, at least the lower 2km.You put in on the flat, and 2 k of this brings you to some nice read & run grade 4 pool drops. Lovely. Until you (very suddenly) reach the horizon line which marks the entry to the falls of Farigaig. The picture on UK Rivers says “any takers?” Not from us there wasn’t. With more water, it might become more friendly but at the lowish levels we had, none of us could spot a line which didn’t end in a vertical pin. Getting on after this brought more fun grade 4, and some beautiful secluded glades and pools in the woods. Soon though, we came to another inspection. A tricky 7ft slot n’ drop led to a large cliffed in flat section, conveniently above a 4m slide. After some deliberation I elected to run this with safety from the bank. David tells us that my face whilst I span into the slot backwards was priceless, but we must take his word for it. After a short pause to collect my breath, and allow David to get to the bottom, I made for the top of the slide. It was over before I knew it, hitting my line exactly. David and Sam missed the whole thing, apart from me landing at the bottom. Nice safety there guys, very re-assuring. 

We carried on downstream to Tree-top falls, nice 8ft boof into a pool, before encountering the scary bit. This does get a mention in the book and needs it, if you find yourself here in high water, my advice would be to walk out. Full-on grade 5 rock dodging at speed. Steep, technical and challenging this was a treat but hard work, both mentally and physically, and we all had hairy moments, me getting pushed onto a tree branch and Sam getting pinned being particularly interesting. After this, a short debate about whether to paddle on was made and having decided to keep going we were delighted to see the road bridge signalling the end of the run. With whoops of joy, we paddled beneath it and out onto Loch Ness (keeping our eyes peeled for the monster obviously), to find Jan at the take out explaining how she’d been about to phone mountain rescue. We had said about 2 hours, it took nearly 5.We were jubilant though, a brilliant run, and a great day on the river. 

We had dinner that night with Ian, Diane, Jan’s sister Laura and her boyfriend Ross, before retiring to bed too full of great food, and wine not to pass right out. Sunday morning was meant to be our last day on the river, but after such an exhausting and rewarding day before we decided it was better to make a start for home early, perhaps to make up for arriving so late. Another 8 hour drive, and another big thank you to Jan. All in all, a fantastic weekend was had by all and we will be returning again as soon as we reasonably can. Keep your eyes open for dates, because they will be on the website. 

Thanks go out to everyone involved, particularly Ian and Diane, for their fantastic hospitality, humour, and tolerance of paddlers. (Sam’s still beige by the way). But no more thanks to Jan though, because she’s asked me not to. 

Pictures are on the way and will be posted as soon as.