Day 1 - As the ferry came into dock at Troon on Friday morning, the captain gave the announcment that "unfortunately" there was heavy rain at our destination - things were already looking good.
Within a few minutes of driving on the motorway we came across this welcoming sign;
We carried on to our first stop which was the Falloch. We looked at the falls and I decided to leave it until the last day. But we did paddle the short grade 4 section after the falls.
We packed up and headed for the Etive. This was a great trip with medium-low water level which was perfect for getting into the way of things. Eddie sprained an ankle on "Letterbox" and Niall temporarily dislocated his shoulder at the "Crack of Doom" - before the next drop popped it in for him again.
Day 2 - After a quick visit to the hospital to sort out the previous days injuries - we were given the all clear to carry on. We took it easy, and decided to try the Roy. Levels here were low, so we headed to the Spean and paddled down from just below Monessie Gorge. This was a fun relaxed paddled with a few nice waves to surf on the way down - although we only managed 3 on the party wave at a time.
Day 3 - Lots of heavy rain overnight looked good - but on returning to the Etive we found the levels were too high for us as we simply didn't have enough paddlers to setup up safety, or the all important cameras. We headed to the Loy which was a nice grade 3 run with a few grade 4 sections. We found a very nice playhole and started experimenting with what the bigger boats could do.
We also decided to practise a z-drag half way down for a break - hoping we would not actually need one.
After the nice paddle we decided we wanted to go park and huck. It was decided to head to Nevis to run Polldubh Falls. A nice collection of tourists gathered on the bridge to watch Niall and myself paddle past the lip of certain death to take the nice grade 5 drop into the pool below. According to the guidebook we had now entered "The Big Boys League"
Day 4 - Final day, we decided to revisit the Etive so Eddie and Niall could face their swims and prove it was a fluke. Everything was going to plan until we came to the "Letterbox". I ran it first, cocked up my line and capsized. I quickly hit my head and realised it was Eddies rock from day 1. I abandoned ship just in time to avoid the syphon my boat was heading for. No real harm down - apart from a grazed elbow and minor cag repair. The others ran it fine, with Eddie being pleased to defeat the drop that sprained his ankle. No other issues with the rest of the run, we packed up quickly to head to Falloch before the ferry.
Today, the 35ft of Falloch was not as intimidationg as it was on Friday - Polldubh saw to that. Grabbing our boats we headed to the top - ensuring of course cameras and camcorder were in place to capture it.
As soon as my boat hit the water at the top, everything fell silent, calm, and peacefull. I paddled gently over the lip and the free fall felt quite pleasant. I got my tuck perfect, enterting the water at the bottom almost vertical.
Once we had run the falls we got packed up to head for the ferry. Thinking the driving was almost done as we pulled into Troon we were then informed the ferry was cancelled due to the weather. We managed (just) to make the ferry leaving Cairnryan, but resulted in a late night return. Still a great trip
