Scotland (Feb 2006) part 2

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The continuing story of our Scottish Adventure. . .

Tuesday - Flying roof racks and the Coe (4)

Tuesday's plan was to head south out of Glencoe to the Orchy to do either the middle or lower section of the river. As we headed up the valley it was clear that (a) higher up the rain had fallen as snow and (b) the river levels were coming up.

Sadly the best laid plans and all that. . .

Just as we pulled in at the Bridge of Orchy, the phone rang (I'm still amazed they got a signal) "The roof racks come off - can you come back." I have to say if you want a cold windy place to loose a roof rack, them Rannoch Moor is the place to do it. The result, one scratched car, one mangled roof rack and one holed boat and one souvenir road bollard(!) and back to the cottage for lunch - it could have been far worse.

On the way back, Paul checked out the lower Coe - plenty of water, so over lunch plan B was hatched. Cliff generously excused himself and offered to drive.

The get in was exactly as the guide describes - dam windy. We opted to start just below Back Man Door (5) - a view confirmed by watching a couple of others run it - one did a perfect line, his mate didn't and got up close with the rock wall.

Even skipping this the Coe had plenty of excitement packed in. Fairly meaty and continuous grade 4 lead down to the Coe gorge. The gorge is 500m long, with vertical walls, no way to get in rescue anyone or even to break out for a breather! Once you're in it your in it and there's only one way out. Sadly the river was moving that quick that the bank crew got to the gorge after we did!

The force of the water just fires you along the gorge like a bullet as you try to steer a good line through boulders, drops and stoppers. In the lead Paul did a cracking ender - it wasn't intended but looked great! Directly behind him Matt was noticeably silent (and was concentrating so hard he misses Paul's acrobatics). By the time we collected up at the end of gorge it was adrenalin pumping and eye's on stalks.

There were still some tricky section to come, two drops were walked - we'd probably have done them with more water. Then relax! Easy water lead us done to Glencoe village, where cliff picked up the boat and we did a 5 minute walk back to the cottage to avoid changing in the cold - en route checking out the supposed grade 5 Glencoe Village Falls - not somewhere I'd want to go with a boat.

Oh, it rained again overnight.

Wednesday - Lower Orchy (3)

Two objectives were set for today - paddle a river and find a new roof rack for Paul's car.

Having saturated the ground, the rain finally seemed to have got into the rivers. So it was back to the Orchy to do the lower section - given the rain we had had the middle would be too big for us and we wanted to give Sarah and Nic the chance to paddle again. Then on the Oban to pick up the rack.

An uneventful trip this time, and we were right the middle Orchy was too big for us (you didn't need the gauge to tell that). At the car park at Catnish the river was tonking along - the gauge had either gone or was underwater.

Sarah and Nic quickly decided not to bother. The rest of us got ready and headed off for what has to be the quickest river I've ever done. It's not like we paddled hard, but the 5 miles to Dalmally took just 50 minutes! Most rapid had washed out and there was the odd overhanging tree to contend with. One section of grade 3 provided some entertainment and some bouncy wave trains, but for the most part it was white water racing.

On the way to Oban we passed the Awe - with the barrage releasing it was tempting to run it, but we had more pressing matters to attend to. So it was on the Cruachan power station visitor centre (it was the only loo for miles!). As a change from paddling we did the tourist thing and went for a tour. Apparently the water drops 400m into the power station - good job Stoppy wasn't with us or he'd have been off up the mountain with his boat for a run down it!

Wednesday night - more rain.

Read on for Thursday and Friday

Read Part 1

Read Part 3

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Les Ford