Scotland in spring, with guaranteed water thanks to the planned dam releases. With longer days and warmer temperatures, you really had to be there to appreciate the rivers and the company.
We had a cracking week of entertainment on the water and at times off the water too, much fun calling a key board warrior out, we often see them, making strategic observations (bullshit) from afar, you know the score, rock up, do it, take your ticket when it comes, cos trust me, your ticket is really just a number waiting, and father time will call it. I’m writing this a good few weeks later, my ticket came up in Italy, twice, my number came up with two swims in a week, all good and my team had my back, and that’s what it’s all about. The person this paragraph is aimed at will probably never read this and that’s fine, but if you do, be humble, cos one day, you, will be relying on your buddies to haul you out.
We knocked of the Allt a Chaorainn, Morriston, Grantully and of course the mighty Meig, always running on a compensation flow, a true marmite river, love or hate it, canyoning with boats as Andy puts it.
A ditch low Chaorainn started the week, the release can only let go the water it has and the preceding days had been dry so the small reservoir above the run was low, it gave us a trickle, enough to be a release agent on the slides so we didn’t grind the bottoms out of our boats.
The week builds to the mighty Meig, love it or hate it, I love it. The Meig doesn’t really flow, it’s more like a series of tasks to navigate, in or out of your boat. A few years ago I did a couple of those tough mudder type events, a 13 mile run with a series of obstacles thrown in to add to the entertainment. Although it’s not 13 miles, far from it, knock off 10 and the Meig is close, boating with hurdles, it still takes time to navigate, even if you know it
I’ve often said we are the only people to see these places, but some climbers counter that, they’ve dropped in on ropes to clear routes of debris and vegitation.
