River Devon. 9th January 2005.

The party consisted of 4 OC1 open boats and a kayak play boat, brought along as a probe for anything nasty.

This weekend most things were in pretty serious flood so we decided to have a look at something local and not usually possible due to normally a lack of water.

Initially I had thought of the Devon from the dam down to just above Rumbling Bridge gorge (a DEFINATE no-no). However, the river was so high we doubted that we could all make the final micro eddy before the gorge. One of the locals told us that he had never seen the Devon so high in 50 years, and it was to go even higher the night after we did it. We just got a perfect window of opportunity between a reasonably safe paddle and suicide!

We put in where planned but shortened the day, stopping at the Scout Camp just on the edge of the village Crook of Devon. We were unable to inspect the river through the village and knew there was a big weir behind the garage which was likely to be very nasty in the high water.

What we did proved to be a very interesting trip through pleasant scenery and with some tricky paddling to avoid low trees, the odd wire and included a nice weir which we all shot river R.

At the put in just below the dam the little hill burns were tanking down and the kayak made good use of one whilst the shuttle was being run. There was no time to warm up, not even an eddy to sit in to get the feel of things, though we did find some eddies further downstream, which was just as well because we had to inspect several rapids where the river split or went round a bend.

The river, at the water levels encountered, was either straight forward and fast, or needed inspection for flood hazards. The weir (before the first road bridge) had a tree in it centre, but the way through was a chute on the R.

We stopped to play on several of the more friendly waves, and had the odd swimmer to collect, along with an errant paddle.

For our group it proved to be a good choice. We found enough to challenge, did a river not normally paddled (if ever in open canoe??) and enjoyed the local countryside. At some stage it will be worth looking at the section through the village and down to the gorge, and the section from below Coldron Linn to Vicars Bridge looks doable. Like a lot of these river though, enough water always equates to lack of eddies and tree hazards.

Thanks Tony
Sorry for the delay

River Avon Linlithgow , 4 openboats ranging from a prelude to a supernova and 2 kayaks ran the Avon on the 16th .
We put in where the bridge A801 goes over the river, It looked quite shallow considering how wet it had been recently but seeing we were here we went for it.We dropped of the other vehicle down at the hotel close to our intended get out .
The river was continuous grade 1, 2, with a few grade 3 runs further down the gorge. I think if the water level was a bit higher it would be pretty exciting in a openboat a few tight corners to negotiate .We all had a good day I even managed to turn Tony`s Supernova upside down and go for a swim, thanks for the throwlines guys well maybe next time after you`ve all stopped laughing.
The only hazzard was the weir well down the river ,not far from the get out ,it was the boulders after the initial drop that gave us concern after having a look only Ralph was confident about running it, and made a tidy job of it.

By the way I have just been notified by THE SCOTTISH TOURIST board that I am to be awarded the gold gibbon award, for my ingenius selection of prime brew up locations.

see you on the river GREYTOWEL