Dart Trip December 2007

FRIDAY 7th December
Cliff, Jeremy and Stuart left Grendon at 4.30 on Friday to make the three hour trip down to Ashburton, Devon. Stopping at Taunton for fish and chips and going straight to the pub in Ashburton before retiring to our cottages near by.

SATURDAY
Cliff, Jezz and Stuart set off with the some of Thames Valley Freestylers to run the Walkham a smaller river in the Dartmoor national park which runs into the Tavy. Due to the large numbers the group was split into three and our group ran last. With loads of rain over recent days, the river was quite high and there was some big bouncy water. the group who lead off before us had two swimmers within the first two minutes of getting on the water.

Our trip started out OK, no real drama to begin with until one of the group lost his paddles. Fortunately for him, Garry was carrying a pair of splits which he then paddled with all day. We carried on running the river the water was big and bouncy but with some help from Garry in choosing the correct lines we where able to paddle the features safely and avoid any stoppers. Jezz and I and a couple others, running it in play boats, were having a great time avoiding the big stuff. About half way down our trip hit a little drama. Due to a lack of concentration on Jeremy's behalf he became pinned up against a tree losing his paddles and eventually capsizing and swimming. On his 500m travels down the river he gathered a few bumps and scrapes and a bang to his head off Garry's boat while being rescued. His paddles were gathered and his boat retrieved but he was in shock. While this was happening, Geoff was following Jezz down and decided once past Jezz he would have a rollathon consisting of three rolls until finally getting into an eddy. When retrieving Jeremy’s paddles Craig and Stuart ended up on the wrong side of the river and decided to ferry glide across to the other side Craig was first to try however found difficulty and ended up rolling he successfully navigated the first set of rapids however was unable to survive the second set and again we had another swimmer. Once rescued we all re-grouped further down-stream where we had a short break. All of us got back on the water and by now we were close to the Tavy.

Before reaching the Tavy we went through some more big and bouncy water (where Cliff rolled in a big wave) before being approached and told by another paddler that the bridge ahead was too low to paddle (actually I mean the water was too high making the bridge a limbo hazard). However on inspection it was found to be OK but we had already carried our boats down and didn't want to carry them back up so decided to skip it.

From the bridge we entered the Tavy. The Tavy was wide and bouncy but nothing threatening however while eddying a whole host of boats went past without paddlers. Our group carried on with Pete and Wylie blasting ahead rescuing all the boats they came across. After a few episodes of losing group members we reached the Tavy weir with a 3 metre tow back. Jezz and I in our play boats decided we would choose life rather than the stopper. While others in creek boats and Pete and Wylie safely negotiated the weir. From there the river was simple and we had no drama until Jeremy confused the instructions from Garry to eddy on the left ran “river left” straight into a stopper. However, he didn’t get stuck and rolled up - but during the roll one of his knees popped his deck and he was swimming. Once we had recovered Jeremy, there was not long before we were at the get out and off the river.

On Saturday night we decided to head over to the Dart Country Park Centre where there was a whole host of paddlers from all over the UK to listen and watch a couple of paddling presentations.

SUNDAY
On Sunday we went for a no-nonsense approach and got up and 6:30 to have breakfast to be on the water at 8am. A small select group who were nutty and awake decided to run River Dart "loop" at 8 o'clock and we joined them! The level was good; a few features were washed out but with water big and bouncy the bigger features were good to run. The group blasted along without eddying out much and stopping at one tributary (the River Webburn) to walk up and paddle down. This was a great run, a blast down continuous rapids, that only flows at high water levels. However at the bottom I went into a stopper without seeing it and almost back flipped in my Ronin but I was OK and we paddled on. There was no drama going though the washing machine or the spin dryer or lovers leap. As in all trips there had to be some drama and in this one it was on the Triple Falls where Bruce ended up swimming. Thanks to a speedy rescue, his recovery was swift and he was in the boat and we blasted down the rest of before stopping at the Holne Bridge egress.

After this run we returned to the cottage before leaving for home at 10:00.

We heard that a group had an "epic" run of the Upper Dart later on Sunday which included lots of swims and walking out for safety...

A great weekend and big thanks go to Geoff for organising it, Garry for leading the groups we were in and all the Thames Valley Freestylers who made us feel so welcome!

More here including details (towards the bottom) of the “epic” later on Sunday: http://www.tvfreestylers.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=267&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30