Liverpool University Canoe Club

Words: Andy Brammel Pictures Various 

Another awesome trip to the Alps took place in June, a big thanks to everyone that helped put it together; Ade and Will. The drivers; Dom, Chris and Ade, and the river gods for giving us Big Rivers, Lots of Water and Plenty of Beer, provided by the swimmers (cheers Will).
 

We left the pool on 8th June picking a few guys up near London on the way, 24 hours later tents were up in the valley and we were on the Lower Durance having a seal launch on the way, the rab wave claimed a few victims and 2 on the roll count for me.

Sunday we hit the Middle Guisane, everybody ran the top section, nice run with everybody dropping into the S bend rapid at the same time and some how no carnage, some guys ran the Lower Guisane too.

Monday we started with the Briancon Gorge, an awesome river, followed by the Claree. Some guys ran the top section, it looked good but a little out of my league. We all ran the bottom in the rain and it claimed a few swims.

Tuesday we all ran the Onde, a steep, fast and furiouse boulder garden river! It was like a game of pinball wizard! Later a few of us played pinball again down the Gironde, while some of the group ran the Durance Gorge. It looked pretty good after doing the Via Ferrata above it that night, one for next year!

Wednesday we hit the Ubaye, everybody ran the upper 2 sections, pretty uneventful. I joined the hardcore group and ran the Ubaye Racecourse, got to be the best river I did all week and another 2 on my roll count, PLF seemed to work well!

Thursday, a good day for swimmers, the Upper Giel claiming 5 I think followed by Chateaux Q claiming the first big fish, Will and Chris. A few of us the shot the Middle Giel from Letterbox down, hole dodging and another 1 on my roll count. A good night for beer, 14 crates I think

Friday, I hit the pub with Kev, Andy Ince and team Oz, chilled with a few beers for the afternoon while some guys rafted Chateaux Q and Guardian Angel in VERY high water!

Saturday we ran the Guisane again I shot both section but pulled out halfway down the lower after getting a beating while rolling, awesome river though and a deamon to beat next year!! Left the valley at about 2 getting in back in the pool for 9:30 Sunday morning a member of team no swim along with Lloyd, Lindsey, Aussie Dave, Cath, Ade, Dinny, Menzies, Matt C, James T, Andy I, Martin, Ben, Celia, and Wigan Andy. Respect to all and a big up to the swimmers and donkeys, you guys know who you are.

Great paddling trip, good group of people and lots of beer, awesome, will be back next year.

Cheers Andy

As you know, Scotland DVD is Finished!, with review and preview here. Its very marvellous. It includes what Riverdance should really mean, i.e. a strange Wiganite dancing at the side of a river. DVD costs: 1 blank DVD (or 50p) + one beer. Email Dave to place your order. Print your own choice of CD cover.

So next up is Alps DVD. Email / ftp / snail DVD any footage or photos to Aussie Dave once team Peaches / Oz is back from the extended trip.

Words: Aussie Dave Pictures Andy R 

We hit Scotland over Easter, The beer probably flowed quicker than most of the water but a good time was had by all.

It was a bit dry but on the whole we made the best of it. First day was a scrape down the etive, big falls over rocks landing in a little bit of water, just deep enough to stop your feet getting hurt. The last drop was shoulder poppingly fun, ruling me out from boating for the rest of the weekend. (but hopefully not for the alps)

Friday, I did a whole lot of walking and sleeping while everyone else made their way down the Arkaig, followed by the Spean Gorge, it appears there was enough water to cause some fresher based carnage. (Wish I was there to watch).

Saturday was a walking day, bit a of a lack of water, meant we split into 3 groups walkers, hardcore walkers, and mountain bikers. The mountain bikers discovered that most the paddlers in Fort William over Easter wanted to hire mountain bikes for the day and turned into walkers number 3.

Sunday was a day of the Findhorn and of course… silly hats

 And Randolph’s leap (insert Rachel’s story here).

The problem with borrowing photos is that I only get what I am given - I don’t yet have any pics of the evening’s costumes, which were tops. The freshers made a particular effort, with a whole lot of Knights (some saying Ni, some not) were on display Cath was dressed in Black and losing limbs by the minute.

Then we wrapped it all up with the Etive again on the way home. Thanks to the drivers (Will, Cath, Rachel, Dom, Kev) and an extra special thanks to Will for organising the trip and signing us up for another year, before this one is done.

Photos are courtesy of Andy Rahoo!

Sue has been on trip to SE Asia, mostly delivering software training. These pics are of rafting and kayaking she did whilst in Thailand. Upper section grade III/IV, lower section flat enough to take pics of baby elephants. Some people get sent to awwwful places for work

Words: Ade Pictures: Mike

Despite attempted “11th hour” sabotage the West Tanfield trip went ahead pretty much as normal. 10 of us paddled on Saturday. Water levels were lowish but not desperate. The only swims on the Ure on Sat were during “high jinx”.

The lovingly restored * Coleman performed admirably and would probably have survived the seal launch without swamping had I screwed the lid tightly on the main buoyancy barrel !

Plenty of wine and beer were consumed on Saturday night and I’m still bearing the scars (nettle and brambles, not mental) of mine and Mike’s post pub scrumping trip resulting in 7 delicious apples each - all the tastier for being ill-gotten ;-) Of course if this group is being monitored we may now not see you for a few years.

Sunday we paddled the Wharfe and that was much more productive resulting in 3 proper swims, but no injuries - Sara even kept he shoulders in her sockets, but alas, not her breakfast in her stomach

* Pete and Will see me after class.

This time, more pictures of usual river carnage and dramatic shots of force falls. Cheers to Tim for these pics

Thanks Will for organising the lakes trip at the weekend, I really enjoyed it. The river levels were really good and we had good paddling on the Eden, the Greta (Saturday) and the Kent (Sunday). A few encounters with local farmers and abusive fishermen made sundays paddle interesting……. Well done to all the new paddlers who came who were all fantastic! Quite a few swims but everyone was smiling at the end. Did you all enjoy it? Thanks too to all the drivers, good effort!
Also thanks to all the boys in the club who turned magically into girls in their bad taste clothing on saturday night! that was a sight not to be missed! and i think that some of you were enjoying it a little too much- you were all surprisingly convincing though! I’ll put the photos on the website later………. trip report by Rachel

Was good. Pictures from Ben

Video from Blame Dave underwater productions soon.

The Paddling was as follows:

Thursday Upper and Middle Orchy

Fri (Main group) Arkaig and lower Spean from lodge to spean bridge. Other Group, Orchy upper and middle, Spean Gorge and Arkaig

Sat Roy Gorge, Lower Roy, Spean Gorge

Sun Findhorn Upper Middle and Gorge

Mon Orchy Upper and middle

• Will 0
• Dinny 0
• Ade 0
• Clur 2 Orchy
• Mike 0
• Aussie dave 1 (technical) Roy gorge
• Cath 0
• Si 1 Upper Findhorn
• Rachel 1 Spean Gorge
• Chris Craw 3 Upper Orchy, Arkaig, Roy Gorge
• Anna 1 Upper Orchy
• Alison H 3 Spean Gorge, Findhorn, orchy??
• Chris N didn’t paddle
• Laura N Didn’t Paddle
• Kev 3 middle orchy x2 Spean Gorge
• Matt C 1 Arkaig
• Jimbob 1 BOttom of roy nr spean confluence
• Lloyd 1 Middle orchy
• Ali D 2 Spean Gorge
• Ruth (Vet) 0
• Rob 1 (technical) Arkaig
• Sara 0
• Fran 3 Spean Gorge, upper orchy
• Jamie 1 Finhorn (Randolf’s leap)
• Andy Ince 3 Finhorn (Randolf’s leap), Spean gorge
• Matt W 0
• Tamsin 2 upper orchy, Spean Gorge
• Kaylia 2 upper findhorn, upper orchy
• Beth 1 Spean Gorge
• Penny 3 Spean Gorge x2 Middle findhorn
• Dom 1 Upper Orchy
• Rosie 2 Roy Gorge, Spean Gorge
• Ruth B 3 Spean gorge x2 findhorn
• Hal 3 Upper Orchy, Spean Gorge, Upper Findhorn
• Phil B 1 Arkaig
• Bob 1 Spean Gorge
• Dave Otterwell 0

We have Hal, Ruth B, Alison H, Penny, Andy Ince, Kev and Chris Craw who all tied on 3 swims each, however if we look at the amount of paddling each of these missing links between men and fish did we have one clear winner for number of swims against amount of paddling, which is KEV Who only paddled Finhorn (Randolf’s leap) stretches of river. Trip report from WillHooray

It rained. hooray. Phil and Penny and Helen and Rachel went to Wales. We did the Llugwy and the Conwy

The conway had a big tree right by the main drop, so we had to do long portage. But the rest of it was very nice and good level.

Here are some pictures of Phil at Cobdens. There are no photos of the 2 seconds that Phil spent upside-down in the middle of cobdens - next time video, eh.

None of us had dry hair - helen and rachel tested rolling on the llugwy just before cobdens, and Penny took a slight technical swim on getting in after portage on the conway.